I own an awesomely cool bike. It is silver, it has a bad-ass shopping basket on the front, has no gears, is covered in stickers (it did have a Ferrari sticker on it til Dan pulled it off because it embarrassed him) and the tyres tend to go flat every fortnight. I ride my awesomely cool bike all around Soc Trang but, secretly, every time I put my feet on the pedals a little part of my brain is screaming at me to get off the *#($* bike... it’s too freaking dangerous!
I am ashamed to admit it, after seven months in Soc Trang I am still a bit scared of the traffic here. While I’m blasé about crossing the roads (there’s no need to look for oncoming traffic – it’s the job of the drivers and riders to avoid me!) I am still convinced that, as soon as I get on that bike, someone is going to hit me.
The traffic here is mostly motorbike riders, with the occasional big truck, bus, cyclist or the odd private or government car. What worries me the most about the traffic here are the road rules... actually, to be more precise, it’s the complete disregard for the few road rules that actually exist. For example, everyone has to drive on the right-hand side of the road. Except if where they are going is on the left-hand side, or if they’ve just pulled out and are waiting for a gap in traffic to change to the other side of the road, or if they just decide that, what the hell, let’s shake things up a bit and take a spin down the left-hand side of the road. It’s pretty daunting to be pedalling merrily down the road and see oncoming traffic coming
directly at you.
Then there are the rules for giving way. These don’t exist. At all. If you want to go, you go! Don’t waste time stopping to see if anything is coming up behind you, if there is someone there, they will swerve to avoid hitting you. Regardless of what may or may not be coming up behind them. This means that, when you are on the road, you don’t just have to pay attention to the other cars, bikes etc on the road, you have to be aware that, even though you cannot see them yet, someone is likely to come roaring out a side road at any minute.
Finally, there are no road lanes. You ride on the road wherever you want; and because there are so many other people on the road, you invariably end up riding right next to someone. Which is fine, unless it’s someone on a motorbike with a trailer, or someone on a bike holding a big sheet of glass, or someone pulling a big, long length of pipe or bamboo behind them, or someone with massive bags full of vegetables jutting out either side of their bike...you get the picture. So while the rider may have safely passed you by, that massive load they are carting around can still bring you down.
So yes, I am still a bit scared of the traffic here. So I take precautions. If you were to come to Soc Trang you’d easily recognise me, apart from being one of the few Westerners here, I am also the only person in town who wears a helmet while riding a bicycle.
