I arrived in Hanoi exactly a month ago. From Noi Baiairport, after casually missing my connecting flight (airline’s fault, I swear!), I was welcomed by the hustle and bustle of too many motorbikes around me as I was driven from the safety of a Toyota Corolla to my hotel in the historic Old Quarter, (pictured, Hoàn Kiếm), where I would be staying for the first few nights.

The entire journey motor-bikes (which I separate from motorcycles of North America since these are not nearly as powerful) were zooming by around, with near misses everywhere I looked. Nevertheless, I was anxious seeing drivers alongside transport trucks, cars and each other at 50 km/hour in the rain, some without helmets. I thought these people were asking to die. Intersections (see above) lack traffic lights, and when they do, they’re often just suggestions, and more relevant to cars than motorbikes, depending on the volume of traffic and time of day. The 40 minute ride passed pretty quickly, as the window was my TV, and a pretty damn entertaining one at that.

My arrival in Hanoi has been partly facilitated by my local co-workers, but I have many thanks for my friend, Raheem, for fast-tracking my ability to settle down. I was able to get a phone and apartment within days, and didn’t have to struggle with simple things like finding a grocery store and understanding transport in the area.

As part of my degree in Health Systems, we’re required to do a field placement — a practicum they call it. I am working on a worldwide project funded by Michael Bloomberg on road traffic injury prevention, which takes place across the nine countries that make up 50% of all road injuries worldwide. Starting remotely from the summer, I did analysis for the program but admittedly, I valued this opportunity for the technical skills over the subject area. Hence, at times I found it difficult to understand the need. But when I came here and during that brief ride into the Old Quarter, it suddenly became obvious why Mr. Bloomberg was putting in so much money into road injury prevention.

Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among 15–49 year olds, a crucial group in a rapidly developing Vietnam where they are the most economically productive age group. These injuries also represent the second highest burden of disease, second to only cardiovascular disease in the country. Road traffic injury prevention is commonly seen as the “low hanging fruit” where proven, high-impact interventions exist that have the potential to achieve the greatest positive impact for the greatest number of people. So in terms of money for value, or statistical lives (I’ll get to this in a later post), Bloomberg made a good choice. In Vietnam specifically, the focus is on drink driving (the academic term for ‘drinking and driving’) and helmet use. Simply put: not everyone uses the common sense to wear helmets, and like most places, people like to drink socially.

Having understood that it’s unreasonable to write about everything I do, this platform instead will be used for ideas, thoughts and themed explorations (in the works: bahn mi and cafes) of Hanoi and beyond.

So there you have it. Working by day, exploring by night, Hanoi has plenty for me to discover.

Oh, and why don’t expats drive motorbikes? Cause we’re all too afraid to get hurt and taxis are cheap (relative to home).