I was scanning through websites looking for photographs of Viet Nam that would take me back to my time there, and this picture fit the bill perfectly. Here we see a roadside bicycle repair shop, which are extremely common along city streets in Viet Nam. I was amazed when we saw our first motorbike repair “shop”. I noticed a jack and an air hose that led to a compressor type machine and wondered why these things were sitting in the middle of the sidewalk. It was after seeing a few of these set ups in different areas of the city that I realized that they were Viet Nam’s version of a mechanic’s bay in an auto body shop.

The city dwelling Vietnamese live a large percentage of their lives outside of their homes. Tiny, cramped, hot homes force people into the streets to pass the time, eat their meals, socialize and work. There is neither the space nor the desire to erect buildings to house institutions such as mechanics stations, when the people are out on the street anyway, and it is so much more convenient to pull up to one of these mechanics and have your motorbike or bicycle fixed on the spot.

It was hard for me to grasp the idea of not spending your free time at home (which is where I prefer to be.) When we first landed in Hanoi and were traveling to our hotel by van I asked our agency director about all the people hanging out along the streets. I wanted to know what they were doing. I had never seen anything like it, and as a regular visitor to Manhattan I’m no stranger to cities. I suppose I was just used to people in constant motion, so to see huge numbers of people sitting on tiny plastic stools or on the ground, seemed strange to me. It was then that I learned about their living conditions and how it’s completely the norm to congregate outside to pass the time right up until it’s time for bed. Walking along the streets of Hanoi a person can find anything they need at almost any time; even a repair shop on the sidewalk.



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