VietNamNet Bridge - With their "iron horses," a group of motorcycle taxi drivers have taken foreign visitors to every corner of the country.

Going to the poorest places





We visited the team of motorcycle taxi drivers who are specialized in serving foreign tourists on the weekend. The team was very busy to change the old name board by a new one. Their “office” is based in a coffee shop on Phan Dinh Phung Street, Da Lat city, Lam Dong.

In 1992, after the country carried out the reform and open-door policy, foreign visitors began to travel to Vietnam. Da Lat is the favorite destination of many western visitors.

Initially, “xe om” drivers (motorcycle taxi driver) only took foreign tourists around Da Lat and the surrounding districts. Then, the journeys have been more distant, to the disadvantaged, the poorest regions, where the life is poor but the landscape is very romantic and the people are very honest and simple.

Along with long journeys beyond Lam Dong’s border, Da Lat’s motorbike taxi drivers have created unique tours to the places where are not bustling and crowded tourist sites nor the convenient, easy going destinations with service availability. The places where they take foreign tourists to are the wild lands, the poorest and isolated areas in the country.

Foreign tourists are very interested in such tours of Da Lat motorbike taxis drivers because they are free to learn about, discover and feel the real values of life from the most rustic things, which they find the clearest difference between Vietnam and their industrialized countries.

Da Lat motorbike taxis drivers take foreign visitors from the rugged highlands to the distant plains; from the northwestern region to the villages of the Tay, Nung, Thai, Dao ethnic groups, etc; from the northeastern region to the southwestern region...

There are trips that dragged on for months to come back to Da Lat. When they left Vietnam, foreign visitors were very happy to feel full of life and people of Vietnam in different regions through the introduction of motorbike taxis drivers and the indigenous people.

Discovering casual things




How many journeys, that much is warm memories and emotions for both xe om drivers and foreign tourists.

Mr. Tran Van Nam, 57, the leader of the team, with dozens of experience years, said that initially, many U.S. people traveled to Vietnam with “fear” of the past. Before the journey, they were still fretful. But then, their fear quickly dissipated by the tranquility and hospitality of Vietnamese rural people.

There are old people and children in the remote areas who had never seen a foreigner or studied English in their life, but when meeting foreigners they waved their hands and said “Hello,” though they were working on the rice field or carrying a basket of corn on the shoulder. Foreign tourists responded them by saying “Xin chao” (Hello).

There are situations that not only made motorcycle taxi drivers moved but also made western visitors to probably never forget Vietnam, though they only come here once.

There were many times that drivers could not find a motel along the way so they had to spend the night at the house of local residents. The hosts gave them the best place in the house to sleep and prepared breakfast for them. The breakfast was not vermicelli, noodles, nor bread; just some sweet potato or several pieces of cassava or corn, but the food was the hospitality and the sentiments of the poor host for their guests.





When the guests left, the hosts saw them off as their beloved relatives, although they just met each other for the first time and even they did not know the name of the visitors.

On the long journeys, many times drivers and their clients face difficulties. Mr. Nam said they always consider their clients as "god," but many times "god" had to help drivers to carry the motorbikes through swampy areas.

For many Vietnamese, who pay for services, they would have felt annoyed but foreign tourists are willing to help drivers to carry the vehicle, to walk when the vehicle is damaged and see it as a celebration of joy in the journey.

Over the years of serving foreign visitors, motorcycle taxis drivers in Da Lat realize that the Westerners live very simple, including the extremely wealthy people. They can eat whatever the Vietnamese eat, including those of the minority ethnic people which many Vietnamese consider "dirty."

For these drivers, this is not simply a job for each person to make a living. They are well aware of their responsibility in bringing cultures and people of Vietnam to international friends.

Mr. Ngo Vi Dan, a member of the team, said that through these journeys, foreigners know a lot about the country and people of Vietnam. To help them with that, in addition to foreign language proficiency, motorbike taxi drivers must have broad knowledge about the culture of different regions.

Kien Thuc