Vietnam (Intro): I Was Hit By A Bike

I never got hit by any vehicles in other countries before, so here's to the first time encountering it. 

If any of you guys follow my Instagram: @dyllarezan, you probably noticed that I just came back from Hanoi, Vietnam. One of the things in my to-do-list while waiting for housemanship is to update my travel experience for these past few years. I should continue with my India trip first, then continue with China, Taiwan, Bandung, Brunei, and a few local trips. Anyway, allow me to skip all those and publish posts about my most recent trip to Hanoi first hehe. 

Traffic in Hanoi was more or less like India and Indonesia. I was not surprised by the honks anymore, not like the first day when I was in India (click this link to read it; India Trip Day 1 Part 1 -Airport and Honk) hehe. One thing for sure, just like India, you had to be super brave to cross the road. Like, super super brave, or else you will never get to the opposite. Forever. Haha that's kinda exaggerated, but it was scary, especially during peak hour. 

Everyone knows Melaka has a lot of traffic lights. So as Vietnam. But, one thing in Vietnam is it would be very bizarre if a Vietnamese follows the traffic light all the time. I remember looking at a t-shirt showing a picture of a traffic light as below; 

They themselves know that they don't obey the traffic light rules haha. And it was even mentioned by our tour guide to Halong Bay. 

Anyway, on Day 3, since we just reached Hanoi from Sapa very early in the morning, we decided to just stroll around Hanoi on that day. We walked a few kilometers from our hostel, stopped by at a coffee shop, then to a lake, etc. I already planned on places we should go, and at 7pm we were supposed to go to Hanoi Train Street to see the train passes through that street. It was almost 7pm and the train street was quite far from our stop, so Sobri booked a Grabcar. The traffic was already hectic, and Grabcar or taxi would simply stop anywhere by the roadside. Vietnamese people are so pro that even though they rarely use brakes and obey the traffic lights, there was no accident happens. 

For me, I was quite confused with the roads and lanes. Sometimes due to cars stopping by the roadside, they drove on the opposite lane instead and it made me thought that it was one way. Our Grabcar to Hanoi Train Street already reached and the driver stopped his car by the roadside, blocking other vehicles from the same direction, and we had to cross the road. The road was super, super busy that time. It was a main road and at a peak hour. There were 2 lanes, but cars from my right side going on both lanes and somehow I forgot it was not a one-way road. I already looked on my left side and there was no car or bike coming, and when I looked on my right side, I noticed the car towards us was stopping, so I thought maybe the car was giving us way to cross the road. I forgot it was a 2-way road, and clever me just crossed the road, heading towards the Grabcar. 

And baaammmm! 

Something hit me from the left side and my sister screamed while pulling me at the same time. It happened in a split second. I was still standing upright, but stunned. I looked at the bike rider. He was holding a phone. My sister told me that he was playing with his phone when his bike hit me. 

Surprisingly, he only gave me a glance and left us, without even saying 'Sorry'. I tried my best to be 'husnudzon' (think positive) at that time. Maybe he was in a rush for something really important. Maybe. I crossed the road with Ica and Haniza and entered the Grabcar quickly. There was mild pain on the left side of my pelvis. Dah sudah. But alhamdulillah the pain slowly relieved and there was no bruise or swelling. 

From that day I learned that although you should be brave, but you should never underestimate it. Here's a quick view on how was the traffic on a not-so-busy day.