...and more stuff moves through the streets

Back to the topic of carrying loads around Saigon. This time its carrying big or unwieldy loads on motorbikes and bicycles. When my fiancée visited me in the US over Thanksgiving she gave me the book "Bikes of Burden" packed with photos of overloaded motorbikes. It inspired me to try and get some similar photos and videos for myself. This video is a montage of several overloaded motorbikes and bicycles. Kind of a "flavor" of the typical sights seen while riding around the city.

Many motorbikes at the end of the video are carrying various sorts of plants. Those shots were taken in the days before Tet holiday. It seemed everyone was getting some type of tree, shrub or flower to celebrate Tet. There's also a clip of a family of four on a motorbike. Not a commercial load but still an overloaded bike. And I'm sure there's more motorbikes in the background of the other clips overloaded with people.

Also note the way people dress. Many are fully covered with long sleeves, hoods, gloves and long pants. The daily temperature is about 90°F±! The Vietnamese are protecting themselves from the sun but why they don't get heat stroke in the bargain I can't understand.

Perhaps these clips are not as awe inspiring as the bicycle rider/delivery guy. However this activity goes on morning to night. Like busy ants working tirelessly to support the colony. At some point I might not take notice but for now it continually intrigues me to see all these oversize loads carried on small vehicles crisscrossing the city throughout the day. The motorbikes are typically 105cc I'm told. And of course it's just legs when its a bicycle!

Update: Apparently the typical delivery motorbike is only about 70cc and a decade or two old. The 105cc bikes belong to people better off than the delivery drivers.