Cyclo rider's life on the Streets of Ho Chi Minh City

Traveling to Vietnam is a journey full of memory experience seeing new things from Vietnamese peoples. Make sure you have a Visa to Vietnam beforehand. however, here in this Article i am going to write About the life of Cyclo drivers in Vietnam.
Through the smoke and pollution, groups of battered old men lean against their Cyclos - Three wheeled rickshaw, operated by pedal power, with a seat attached to the front. Win, a veteran Cyclo driver recently explained, It's hard to earn one's living. You have to bend in order to pedal and earn a little money.

Before the American war many Cyclo drivers were doctors, teachers or Journalists, but like many of their friends they were punished for siding with the Americans. After the cease-fire, tens of thousands of them were stripped of their citizenship and sent to re-education camps for seven years or even more. Over 20 years later, it is still impossible for them to return to the jobs they are qualified to do and, as most do not have an official residence permit which means they can not own property or business, it's technically illegal for them to be in the city. Many of Cyclo drivers have never had families because they could not afford a home to live in.

Around the restaurants, hotels, nightclubs and Karaoke bars of central Ho Chi Minh City , It;s hard to miss miss them in their work clothes and tar-stained sandals, victim from years of being caught in the jagged chains of the cyclos. The coming  and goings are a constant form of entertainment and business for the Ho Chi Minh City's Cyclo drivers. Nothing misses their sharp eyes. Their courteous propositions hide their desires to stablish your first name and claim you as 'Their property' while you're in Ho Chi Minh City, Once known, cries of your name across crowded streets will hound you as the determined drivers compete for your business.

Cyclo drivers are, however, excellent city guides - these days Vietnam Package Tours Organizers are using Cyclo to just maximize the local culture combine on their tours as Cyclo drivers know every corner of the city and can give you a potted history of the key sites, Also, the front seat of a cyclo really is one of the best ways to see Ho Chi Minh City - but it does take some getting used to. In heavy traffic  it's like riding a roller-coaster at a fairground; the traffic races towards you at starting speeds from into a gap that magically appears in the traffic, while you thank the gods that you are still in one piece.

Tourists love to reverse roles and have a go in the saddle, mistakenly thinking that it is easy to spend one's day cycling from place to place, but their opinions quickly change. Inmost cases they find the cyclos too hard to peddle and, if they advance at all, they don't  get vary far on the uneven, potholed roads.

The Cyclo driver's home is usually a street corner, which is made colorful and interesting by using wooden tables and small, multicolored, plastic footstools which support them only inches off the ground. Their floor is broken up bits of pavements slabs and the Cyclo drivers drinks cabinet's nestles just behind them.

After a day Sightseeing, they might invite you to join then for either a whisky in a Coke bottle or the local beer Ba, Ba, (Ba Pronounced it 'baa-baa-baa'slowly because in Vietnamese  it can also sound like you are saying'three old women'!!). An evening with these guys in always worthwhile, but remember it's not always tobacco being smoked in those wooden pipes.