Jan's Blog: Have wheels, will travel.

Although I had heard about it, it’s not until you see it with your own eyes, that you realise how resourceful the Vietnamese and Cambodian people are with their pushbikes and motor bikes. I have seen, and admired, entire books of photos of what people put onto bikes.

I found bikes very difficult to photograph:

They are moving, so they either blur or you miss them altogether.
There is usually something else moving between you and the bike you want to photograph.
Bikes I photographed from the bus window usually ended up with window glare.
Sometimes I felt I was embarrassing the rider.

I totally missed my two favourite bike moments. One was a man on a pushbike loaded up with about 30 large cube-shaped plastic bags of water each containing a large goldfish, about 20cm long. The other was a family of six on one motor bike. By the time I took out my camera, both moments had passed.

Here is a selection of some bike moments from our trip. Some are a bit blurry or obscured, but I still wanted to savour the moment:

Taken from a tuk tuk in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. In front of us is a motor bike pulling a trailer carrying a load of pipes, at least seven large white sacks with three men sitting on the sacks. You can see the back wheel of the motor bike under the trailer.

Now we’re a bit closer.

Here is a side view of the same bike. (I promise that there is a bike pulling it all, I saw it.)

Still in Phnom Penh. This man is wheeling a push bike loaded with enough baskets, brooms and feather dusters to stock a small shop.

This tuk tuk in Phnom Penh, proudly flying the Cambodian flag, looks as though it is involved in house demolition.

You don’t even need a trailer if you have a friend to carry your load for you.

Two pretty girls and a baby.

Little one calmly plays, in between Mum and Dad.

Three on a bike (no helmets) Phnom Penh.

Four on this bike, but at least one of them has a helmet.

I think there are seven people in the trailer behind this bike.

Timber-carrying motor bikes.

One in front and one behind. I think the little fellow in front is actually balancing on the angled bar of the bike. This is at the stone-carving village between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. The carving they are passing features the Cambodian symbol of the towers of Angkor Wat.

Waiting outside the school at home time, Hoi An, Viet Nam.

Chickens. One of the villages between Halong Bay and Ha Noi.

Also in one of the villages between Halong Bay and Ha Noi.

This is one of my favourites. This and the following pictures are all in Ha Noi.

Barmobile.

Traffic would generally stop at the lights, but you still had to keep an eye out for the odd car or bike which would decide to come through anyway.

When you’re wearing a short skirt, there’s only one way to sit.

A bike can also double as a shop front or a chair.

A floral arrangement, complete with cane stand.

Our guide told us that the masks, which many people wear, are not to protect against pollution, as we had thought, but to stop the people’s skin getting too dark.

White skin is prized in Asian countries as much as tan skin is in our culture. Many women wear this kind of jacket while riding, which protects the face, arms and hands from the sun.

As if he didn’t already have enough on the back of his bike, this rider also has some of his cargo held between his knees and on his lap.

While this mother is wearing her “white skin” jacket, the children don’t even have helmets.

Cyclo for tourists.

Not sure who is steering here.

Crossing the road in the rare places where there are traffic lights can be quite intimidating, as you launch yourself out in front of this solid wall of bikes and cars, especially as they don’t all necessarily stop.

Even more intimidating is crossing the road where there are no lights. The trick is just to launch yourself out into this moving mass, walk slowly and steadily, and they will avoid you. But it takes a lot of nerve.