What do you know about cycle rickshaws (pedicab) in Vietnam?

Question

Please share with me your story since I am doing an survey on "cycle rickshaws" in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), Vietnam. Many thanks !

Answer 1

I remember the cyclos very well when I was a kid, and taking a cyclos ride was one of the things I wanted to do during my last visit. I was born here in America, but visited Saigon when I was a kid around 1972-1973 and started school there too. I visited Vietnam again late last year.

There were the motor-cyclos and the bicycle-cyclos. That was basically the taxi service for Saigon back then, and they were everywhere. You wanted to get a motor-cyclo because it was faster to get around, but bicycle-cyclos got around fairly well because Saigon was not as spread out as it is now.

Mechanically, both were regular motorbikes or bicycles in the rear with modified forks in the front to accommodate passengers. They usually seat two, but I remember seating three from time-to-time. Most of them had a canvas type of material for a top with a canvas cover for the front when it rained (it rained A LOT too). There was a plastic window for the passengers to look through.

It was pretty cool riding the cyclos through Saigon. As a passenger, the traffic is literally right in front of you. Vietnam's traffic was and still is nuts. It was always a thrilling adventure riding in a cyclo, especially being five years old at the time. Nowadays, the cyclos are replaced with cars for taxis, which doesn't have the thrill of in-your-face traffic like the old cyclos did.

Today's cyclos are not practical transportation in Saigon. They are a novelty, used mostly by tourists, for weddings or other special occasions. They are much more gaudy looking than the ones I remember as a kid. They're all chromed out and look like they belong in a museum rather than on the streets.

I had seen several motor-cyclos through the country that looked like they were old enough for me to have ridden in them 35 years ago. None of the motor-cyclos I seen were passenger capable like I remembered them being used as taxis. They were modified to be more like a pick-up truck, and they seem to do well in that roll. I would pay good money to ride through Saigon in a motor-cyclo taxi just one more time.