Dr. Gregory Frazier - Vietnam Photo Gallery

Vietnam is no place to learn how to ride a motorcycle. Traffic, like here in Hanoi, can be wild.

Street traffic is congested with thousands of small motorcycles.

A parking lot for bicycles and motorcycles, but there’s no room for a large motorcycle.

A motorcyclist is being directed over by a policeman who ticketed him for crossing the white line at a stop light.

Ural motorcycles were imported from Russia but new imports have stopped.

The scooter looks big but has a 125cc engine.

Motorcycles are like the family car or a delivery truck in Vietnam, one of the most motorcycle intensive countries in the world.

This motorcyclist is not on an adventure tour, merely delivering goods around town. I saw no locals “touring” in Vietnam, they don’t have the time or the money.

Minsks were quite popular in the north of Vietnam. The company has ceased production but many Minsks are still on the road using Vietnamese made spare parts.

Some signs were in English, or close enough to figure out what they meant.

A motorcycle at the daily market.

Minsk taxi drivers waiting for a client.

A Chinese import costs about 1/4th what a Japanese motorcycle costs due to taxes on the Japanese models and trade agreements with China.

A helmet law seemed to be lightly enforced, some riding opting to wear one, others not.

The Minsks used 2-stroke engines with oil poured into the gas tank when filling, crude but effective

My $5.00 USD per day Chinese knock-off copy of a Japanese motorcycle.

The house of Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi was very simple, with a cave nearby for shelter during bombings.

My Minsk had no instruments or ignition key, long lost to the scrap pile.

Petrol was easy to find and all attendants knew the Minsk needed oil added.

Rice fields were everywhere, tended seven days a week with no time off for holidays or vacations.

Mornings in the mountains could be near freezing close to the Chinese border.

This was a $10.00 USD per night hotel with a private bathroom and was very clean.

The Minsk excelled at off-pavement riding, far better than my 600cc big bike would have managed.

Not all the roads I traveled were paved.

Mud, slippery, sloppy stuff, especially after the midday rain showers.

Mileage to the next town was clearly marked, and often in English.

Dynamite this day was making a new road where 40 years ago explosions were bombs destroying the same section.

I needed to use a boat to cross a large reservoir where there was no bridge.

My little motorcycle had to be walked, pushed, pulled up a plank to get it on the boat.

My motorcycle on the boat for a 2 hour ride up a reservoir for $20.00 USD, that being for rental of the boat for me and the motorcycle, the only passengers.

Locals in the small villages were as curious about me as I was them, but they were also very shy.

This lady asked me to take her picture and was very pleased when I did.

Some of the road hazards in Vietnam.

High above the clouds in the cold north, the town of Sapa, near the Chinese border.

Shopping day at the market brought the hill people to town

The busy market was colorful and vibrant.

That night’s dinner salad came from the public market, not from a plastic vacuum sealed container.

That’s China in the background on the other side of the river, and this was as close as I could get without a Chinese visa and large wad of cash to pay for permits and required government guides to ride in China.

Ocean life and boat people in Hai Phong Bay.

The start of the Ho Chi Mink Highway/Trail in Vietnam. Much of the road is paved now and not the jungle tracks used during the Vietnam War.

Streets in Hanoi are narrow and parking tight.

I hate snakes, even ones pickled in snake whiskey, a very popular drink in Vietnam.

An HIV/Aids warning. These were not uncommon.

At a stoplight all traffic must stop behind the white pedestrian crossing lines.