My first time in Vietnam – exciting! After a long flight to Saigon, our next location was Da Nang, a city that I had only heard about in Magnum PI and had no clue what to expect. It was hot and humid outside the airport and we had to wait some time before two guys arrived with our “motorbike” – which actually was a small Yamaha scooter with a motor too small to carry the two of us and our luggage (even though P had reduced the luggage to the absolute minimum required: “we travel light !!!” – which is kind of the opposite of travelling the German way: “be prepared for any possible weather condition”).
Finally we headed for the Son Tra resort on Son Tra peninsula north of Da Nang. Two roundabouts later my adrenalin level had reached my lifetime high but we were still alive! It takes some time to understand that there is only one traffic rule in Vietnam: “There is no rule”. This may sound chaotic but in the end it works quite well because everyone drives pretty careful, considerate and does not insist on their right. The only thing you need to do is to indicate as early as possible in which direction you intend to drive, stay on your track and never ever make sudden moves because it would be hard for the other motorbike-drivers to react appropriately. To be honest, once you’re used to this single rule, it makes life in the traffic much easier than driving in Munich for instance where everybody thinks he or she is always right regardless of those oh so many rules in Germany – which is particularly true for the “urban bike warriors” (like a friend is calling the bike drivers).
Having no street map, we ended up on a dead end mountain road on Son Tra peninsula. Unfortunately, we only found out at the end of the road after having forced our poor scooter up the very steep road. So we enjoyed the view across Da Nang and then drove all the way back down the mountain. We finally found our resort and spend a couple of very relaxing days on the beach and in the city, trying all kinds of Vietnamese street food, fresh fruit, cane sugar juice, fresh coconuts, …….
