When I first touched down in Hanoi, I realized the significant similarity it has with China - honking at every opportunity!
If you have seen the worse of honking in China, think again. You will find high decibel horns here all day all night. It was quite amusing at first and yet irritating. What's wrong with these people? Are they on a rush or something? You will find everyone honks at every part of the city streets, alley ways or even highways.
It has been a part of the culture in former communist countries such as China and Vietnam. The people are conditioned to horn all their lives. I have read some comments on
"Reckless honking riles expats in Vietnam" found in VietNam Net, which I found quite amusing to share with you. From the article, I understand that honking has the worst complaints by foreign tourists visiting Vietnam. I guess that would include me.
Some suggestions from the article include civil road usage education, stricter road laws, but the funniest one I have read from the above article on
Quiet The Horn project is this:
" Joseph Shepler, American, HCM City
First, every person who buys a motorbike or car should have to pay VND5mil to 10mil to get a horn installed, depending on the level of aggravation caused by the sound of the horn. The driver will then have to pay VND10,000 for every beep. So, "beep beep, beep beep beep" equals VND50,000. It would work like a prepaid telephone charge card. The more they like to beep, the more they will have to pay to charge up their horn account. The horn would stop working when the account is empty of funds. The money collected for this Quiet The Horns project could be used to help pay for a much needed mass transit system".I cannot really stop myself from laughing after reading this. It's hillarious and yet true.
Honk, honk, honk. Look every angle: left, right, back, front before making a move. This die hard culture is sure to live with Vietnamese people. What an eye-opener indeed.