Watch Out When Motorbiking Vietnam! 
I think that I should take a small detour from my story to talk about safety when motorbiking in Vietnam. During this loop and my whole time in Vietnam, I saw a lot of travellers that had serious injuries. Some of the things I saw included:
- Someone getting a deep cut on one of their legs after somebody in their group came too close to them with the motorcycle, cutting them with their foot pegs.
- People losing control because they didn’t see a truck that was coming around the corner, making them swerve and crash to avoid it.
- Losing control on the road and crashing straight into a wall on the side of the road, almost getting obliterated by their own motorbike.
- Turning when there was water on the ground, but losing the grip with the road and falling on their side when their body tried to turn into a corner but their bike continued going straight.
One of these injuries was me. Could you guess which one? I’ll tell you at the very end.
I could go on. But the main point I want to make is that if you get into these injuries, not only are they not fun to deal with, but they’ll ruin whatever plans that you might have had. In order to minimize the injuries you would get from your trip, I recommend the following tips when travelling in Vietnam by motorbike:
- ATGATT: This means “All The Gear, All The Time”. You never know what will happen to when your on your bike, and it could happen at any time. So, wear your gear whenever you’re doing anything on your bike. That being said, I sometimes don’t go with all my gear as well, but these are only on very short trips where I recognize the risks and take appropriate precautions.
- At the very least, I would recommend a helmet and knee/elbow pads, as well as long pants. This saved me from getting injuries and getting burned on more than one occasion!
- Drive safely. Don’t take corners too fast, and always make sure you have a full view in front of you slamming on the gas. In general, watch out and don’t let your excitement get the best of you. Yes, it’s really fun to treat the road like a race track, but keep in mind that this is most likely a race track you don’t know, and that there could be trucks coming in the other direction which could hit you head on!
Anyways, let’s get back to the story. Stay safe out there!
P.S.: The correct answer was the last one. It actually happened twice! Luckily, I was going slow enough where the worst I ended up with was a bruise, but if I didn’t have my gear on, it would have been significantly worse!
