… I needed a map to navigate. Seriously – there is a site on our Intranet to enter names of people or rooms so you can navigate to them. The building is 280,000 sq. ft. and I’m just happy when I find my desk every morning. Something like 220,000 sq. ft on the 1st floor and 60,000 on the 2nd floor. At my last company I could stand up and see everyone I worked with except the 2 guys in the machine shop.
… a Mountain Bike in this logo but has consistently pursued policies detrimental to riders.
I guess it’s good for their fundraising efforts since most riders care about the environment.
But if you are passionate about riding dirt, why would you give money to an organization that has reduced the number of trails you can ride? Regardless of the spin the National organization puts out, the reality is that their policies work against you, and some of the local chapters want to see bikes banished from all but the tamest of fire roads.
Please think about it before you donate.
After the relative traffic calm of Laos & Cambodia I absolutely wasn’t prepared for Hanoi. As you can see above there are no lanes or obvious flow in the fairly typical intersection shown. It’s in the center of the Old Quarter which is busy all day and night. An easy fix to the above would be to make it a roundabout so that vehicles were forced into a predictable flow. There’s a small fountain that acts as a bit of a traffic circle off to the left of the picture but the main traffic flow doesn’t go around that. However a new roundabout would only work if there was enforcement and I don’t see much police presence.
It would have been great to see some police attention to keep scooters off the sidewalk behind us but that didn’t happen as you see below. This was pretty common behavior in the afternoon commute we witnessed. For those turning right at the worst intersections, the easiest time saver was to jump on the sidewalk for the right turn then get back on the street. So we were watching our back the rest of the walk home.
For walkers it’s pretty intimidating. The shear density of the traffic and the almost complete lack of accommodation for pedestrians makes it truly dangerous for walking. The best thing you can say is that vehicles don’t seem to get much above 30 kph so an accident probably won’t be fatal.
I used Google ‘My Tracks’ on 2 different taxi trips (one 7 km and the other 6 km). The first trip averaged 14 kph (yes kilometers/hour not miles/hour!) and the other 12 kph. Just about anyone could maintain that speed on a bike so I don’t think it would be too hard to get people back on bikes if you could somehow reduce the terror of mixing it up with heavier vehicles. However, all the vehicles are much more tightly packed than I’m used to in the US so it’s intimidating to ride a bike. I would think the quickest way to convert people to riding bikes would be to ban all other vehicles from the most traffic-impacted roads. Of course, I don’t imagine cyclists have much lobbying clout since they are likely poorer than the car and scooter users.
Pedestrian safety is enough of a concern that hotels provide advice when you check in on how to cross the street
Ideally you find a bit of a gap in traffic and slowly cross while keeping an eye on the vehicles coming at you. It’s OK to stop midway across but NEVER back up since that’s unexpected. Mostly the scooters and cars will drive around you but that assumes they are paying attention and not engaged in their smartphone which is quite common. It mostly worked for me but it is not a relaxing city for walkers and quite stressful. In 3 days I saw 3 accidents right in front of me. They looked to be mostly cuts and bruises and thankfully not worse. Pretty bad considering I rarely witness accidents in the US. My wife was much more intimidated than me. She probably would have taken a taxi or 2 just to CROSS some of the worst intersections if I hadn’t been acting as a human shield. I don’t know how the infirm or elderly could navigate here.
Just started the new job. Found this in the cafeteria. There goes the race training program…
… to locate toy shops right at the school. But that’s what we saw in Hanoi as school was getting out today. About 5 shops were swamped by kids and their parents getting toys. I don’t speak any Vietnamese but ‘Mommy I want…’ was clearly what was being said.
I’m sure there have been many doctoral degrees granted on the study of transportation in developing countries but I have to add my observations and speculations without a shred of data but only observation. For those of you trained in planning, my apologies up front.
In the US, one of the movements gaining traction these last few years is ‘Complete Streets’. Basically the idea that streets have to be designed for ALL users, not just the automobile. Chicago gained some notoriety in the last year by mandating a change in approach such that street design would be done with consideration of the following priorities in descending order of importance: Pedestrians, transit, bicycles, and, at the bottom, cars. This simple statement has the potential to truly change how we get around cities and should make it safer for the must vulnerable users.
This is interesting to me as I travel around Cambodia and Laos these last few weeks as everywhere I travel I see the results of the rapid ascendance of scooters and cars. 20+ years ago when I traveled last in SE Asia scooters were mostly evident in the larger cities and wealthier countries but they are now commonplace just about everywhere. Cars are coming on strong but are still for the affluent it seems as they seem to make up only 5-10% of traffic (at least in Laos and Cambodia). As vehicle use changes in a generation or less, clearly the infrastructure hasn’t kept up. In many places scooters, cars and trucks are parked on sidewalks (if there are any) or completely blocking walking paths forcing pedestrians into traffic.
Bigger, faster, more expensive makes the rules
As a pedestrian here you can’t help but feel that your job is to ‘Get Out of the Way!’ In most hierarchical societies I have visited, wealth ordains certain privileges and nowhere is it more apparent than on the street. In California there is still some modicum of respect for the pedestrian but here it feels like a battle. Most car drivers in California still give pedestrians right of way at crosswalks whereas in SE Asia, pedestrians seem to be expected to know their place. And that place is in the dirt and puddles weaving between cars, motos, construction, feral dogs and trash on the edge of the road.
So in a generation or less many developing countries have gone from relative walking and cycling paradise to the first world model of having to integrate disparate modes onto roads not designed to mix 60kg people and 2000kg machines.
Is this just the natural evolution of technology? That we implement ‘advancements’ before we know how to integrate them? Scooters are faster than bike or foot travel so it allows a villager to have a job in another location that pays better. How does one deny her that opportunity? Maybe that scooter allows a Mother to get her child in for more regular medical attention. If you have the resources why wouldn’t YOU buy one if it meant a better life for your family?
The traffic flow here is not quite lawless, but is mostly chaotic. Pedestrians know that nobody will stop for them, unless there is the rare traffic signal (and even then please be careful), so to cross a street you step into traffic and start, stop and weave until you get to the other side. Vehicles will mostly steer around you and it seems bad form to run across the street. If you’re in a vehicle (bikes included) and want to turn left across traffic you don’t stop at an intersection and wait for an opening, you continue on and cross to the side of opposing traffic and ride/drive on the far left until you get to your street then turn left (still opposing traffic) and eventually cross over to the other side of the street and merge with traffic. Chaotic for new arrivals like me, but totally expected by the locals so it (mostly) works. As a pedestrian it does mean that crossing the street is a bit harder (look 4 ways as they teach kids now) but I’m still uninjured.
Naturally, this all makes me wonder how the transportation infrastructure evolves. In an ideal (and likely more expensive world), the infrastructure would develop in anticipation of the needs of all the users. But the reality is that it’s easy to buy a car or scooter and start using it before society is ready for it but considerably harder to modify or create the infrastructure to allow all users to use the roads in relative comfort and safety.
So maybe the model that so frustrates cyclists and pedestrians in the US is just part of the natural evolution of transportation infrastructure. Regardless, it’s frustrating to watch the process occur everywhere as if we never learned anything.
Thankfully we’re trying to do a better job in the US than in the past. Do any of you know what is being done in the developing world to not repeat our mistakes? I would like to hear.
I’m lucky that my wife is pretty easy going while traveling. From early on in our relationship we enjoyed traveling fairly rough and searched out cultural experiences rather than luxury vacation spots. We have each other’s back while on the road and we both have a pretty good ‘manana’ attitude when things go wrong.
Before a trip we both research different aspects of our destination then develop a general route plan but for longer trips almost never book hotels ahead except the first night after flying in. Staying flexible allows us to adjust our plans on the fly. Thus we never stay longer than we want somewhere and can stay longer in the places we like.
Not booking hotels in advance hasn’t generally been an issue except in very busy times when we have had to accept our second or third choice. Given the number of fake reviews on travel websites and the ability of photographers to ‘put lipstick on the pig’ we’re not too surprised when we check into a hotel and find that the best part of our hotel was the pictures. In the particularly bad cases we get our money back and walk down the street to another hotel (one of the benefits of never carrying more than one light pack).
Winona usually rolls with these disappointments and if we’re really dissatisfied we move the next day or (very rarely) in the middle of the night. I still remember brushing up against a cockroach in bed in Mexico at 11 at night and agreeing to find another room NOW. We packed our backpacks and were out the door in 5 minutes without a word to the staff. I had no argument with this move and remember leading the charge out of the hotel.
Where we have the only significant disconnect is with respect to the bathroom. I just don’t see the dirt she sees. I can deal with the shower, toilet, sink combo where EVERYTHING gets wet when you shower (move the TP outside before you start the shower!) I can deal with the cold shower. I can deal with the squat toilet (must be tough on older people with bad knees). I can deal with the tiny towel that is always damp. Back in our Indonesian travel days we learned all about the ‘Mandi’ and I accepted that she just might drain and refill it when we moved in.
She hates all the above and probably a bunch of other things she has told me about that still haven’t registered in the tiny part of my male brain that is reserved for ‘wife’s concerns’.
So I have a strategy. Let her pick the room. That’s it. She researches online. If that doesn’t happen and we show up at a new place she walks in and checks it out alone with ZERO interference from me. Then I ask her if the bathroom was OK. Then I say ‘Want to check out another place?’ When she says she is happy I always ask ‘Are you sure?’ Then I ask again trying to discern if she really is OK with the room or just ready to drop her pack for the night.
This strategy mostly works but even if it the bathroom passes the initial review there is usually some grumbling.
I look at the combo toilet/shower as above and think, ‘What a brilliant time saver’. She says ‘EVERYTHING gets wet’. Must be a Mars/Venus thing…
I have to admit that the only living being to ever get warm from the shower below is the size of a flea.
My innocent comment that we don’t need a warm shower in a tropical climate is met with the kind of icy glare that makes me search for some hot water to thaw out.
Note to other men: Don’t EVER say, ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’. You’ll likely be getting stronger sleeping on the floor.
That’s what we heard from our young guide just 5 meters in front of us.
Just a little disconcerting in a country where the US and others mined extensively and many of the tons of bombs dropped didn’t explode. We’ve been warned not to stray off well-worn paths and know that, sadly, many Lao are still injured every year.
Fortunately our young guide started laughing almost immediately so we weren’t too concerned. It did seem odd, in a country with so much trash littered about, that he proceeded to spend the next 5 minutes trying to scrape human excrement off his bike tire. Oh well, just one of the mysteries of travel in another culture.
We had signed up for a mountain bike tour with one of the local tour companies and it had been an interesting day. We picked the company because they had the nicest mountain bikes and were close to our hotel. Most everyone in Nong Khiaw offers the same routes – ride through Hmong and Khamu villages around the big peak then back to the Nam Ou for a boat ride back to town. We are experienced enough riders to feel that for a one day trip we could take care of ourselves if necessary. So 5 of us set off with 5 guides (the normal contingent is 2 guides but we were told this was a training day). This meant the European co-owner of the tour company periodically scolded our affable (mostly teenage) Lao guides but did very little of what I would consider training. He never seemed to explain the importance of one guide leading and another sweeping and we just got used to seeing our guide drop behind us and we would wait at turns periodically to ensure we were going the right way.
Although not a technically challenging ride we had great views of the mountains and countryside from a mostly quiet dirt road.
Early on, the European guide encouraged one of the female tourists to turn back as she seemed to have very little experience with cycling much less the somewhat challenging climbing we would encounter. So we were quickly down to 4 tourists and 5 guides. Nice mellow pace for me and Winona with plenty of time for village visits and photos of the stunning scenery. We had a nice stop for lunch in a Lao village complete with Lao Lao (their local whisky) and a couple glasses of the ever-present and good Beer Lao. The village consisted of about 50 typical stilt houses. The villagers were very welcoming and didn’t mind me taking pictures of their pot-bellied pigs and puppies. Winona purchased a beautiful silk scarf that was woven by a woman on a traditional loom under the raised house.
About 1/2 hour on we entered a beautiful Hmong village (after a pretty tough climb) that was a welcome sight. Rather than the dust and trash that was common in other villages, this village of about 50 homes had planted trees, vegetable gardens and even very hardy grass between the structures. It looked like a well-manicured park or condo development from the US. We watched as the boys played a spinning top game we hadn’t seen before. One group of kids started spinning tops while the other flinged their spinning tops to knock the others out of the way.
We had a nice cup of tea and some fruit then rode through an adjacent Khamu village before heading to the river. The Khamu village was clean but dusty where the Hmong village kept the dust down with lots of vegetation. Both villages were in a beautiful setting with soaring peaks all around as shown in the picture at the top. Sort of a tropical version of the French alps.
Within an hour we had reached the river but not before a chain reaction crash started by one of the tourists that caused a guide to crash when he couldn’t stop in time. Neither were wearing helmets (being geeky mountain bikers from the US of course we used helmets). Fortunately neither hit his head and we continued on after the scrapes were bandaged.
At the river we found that we had lost a couple guides but were reunited after a 15 minute wait and much discussion about where they might have ended up.
Quite a collection of kids at the river playing and Winona immediately was engaged in games of Patty Cake and girl conversation.
The Lao children are playful and very warm with strangers.
A nice place to hang out while waiting for our boat.
Enjoyed a fun boat ride on the Nam Ou and we were back in Nong Khiaw in 40 minutes, just in time to watch the sun go down behind the mountains.
We arrived in Nong Khiaw, Laos yesterday and are already wishing we had come here earlier. Very small town on the Nam Ou surrounded by peaks and stunningly beautiful.
Staying in a nice little bungalow along the river. Cold at night so we plugged in the heater under the bed. When we didn’t feel much effect, I lifted the mattress and found a light box with 6 100 watt incandescent bulbs. Now I have visions of a burning mattress keeping me warm.
Clearly they will need a new plan when CFL bulbs obsolete incandescents!
I can take pictures of them but I can’t eat ’em. Great in a dish, but don’t bite down on one by accident!
Annoyed Cyclist 