We most of us think about biking we divide the population in several groups from the weekend warriors to the hard core riders that ride every day rain or shine. I mayself have thought this way. Living on two wheels is a lifestyle but coming to Asia, it is not a choice. It is a way of life. Saying the term "Live to Ride" to the Vietnamese would be like saying "show your boobs" at a nudist colony. It just doesn’t make sense. EVERYONE rides 2 wheels
How many people have parents that rode and pictures of being a kid on their parents bike? Here since everyone rides and has been riding, it is a daily occurrence. It is very common to see whole families on bike. I even seen a baby sleeping on a gas tank face down as the family rode on.
All ages ride. Not just the young but the old as well.
In the states, if you ride your bike year around back and forth to work, that is considered pretty hard core. Here, they don’t just ride their bike TO work. They ride their bikes FOR work.
In Vietnam they have a limit of 250cc’s although you have to have a special and very hard to obtain license to ride anything above 165cc’s.
Here a scooter
"pegs" a bicycle with about 20 full size sheets or drywall ( sheetrock). Any one that has ever hung drywall or even lifted it knows that this is a VERY heavy load. I have even seen bikes carrying heavy loads of steel rebar.
The bike that I am riding is a Honda Win 100cc. So far I have already put almost 2000 miles ( well over 3000 kms). I have done every kind of road condition with mountains and beaches including a while lot of mud and dirt.
After a month travel through Vietnam and rode west and crossed into Laos. I now am riding down beside the Mekong River that borders Thailand and Laos. After I enter Cambodia I will again head west and try to "smuggle" my bike into Thailand as they will not allow me to ride it in but I think I can put the bike on the roof of a bus, enter their country and then unload the bike and ride though. What could go wrong with a plan like that?
