When I was in Vietnam last month, as on previous visits, I was impressed by the street life, in particular, the way a public space, like the footpath/sidewalk, is taken over not only for parking motorbikes and scooters (presenting a barrier to pedestrians), but for a whole range of mercantile activities and services. While waiting outside a city centre hotel for some fellow travellers en route to Ha Long Bay, I snapped a few passing hawkers.
What they all had in common was wheels, without which their little businesses wouldn't have been possible. Or at least, they would have been much curtailed. As I watched the passing traders, I realized that the possession of a bike gave the owner an opportunity to set up and run a mobile business. In short, possessing a bike is a form of empowerment. With a bike, the women concerned -- and these bike shops are mostly run by women -- can transport their merchandise (mostly foodstuffs) from a farm or market to a town centre location where there will be people wanting to purchase. If one location doesn't prove worthwhile, the shop keeper can easily move on, and this kind of wheeled relocation is often to be observed. The kerbside shop also means that motorbike or scooter based shoppers don't have to stop and park, but can simply transact their purchase from the saddle.
The next step in the mercantile chain involves a motorbike. While I was waiting, a motorcyclist and his passenger stopped by to make a delivery of what looked like some kind of prepared vegetable. So, wheels also provide the basis of a delivery service.
There is a whole mercantile ecology to be found on the streets of any Vietnamese town or city. The push bike based shop occupies one of the lower ecological niches, and, hard work though it undoubtedly is, it provides a living -- probably a marginal one -- for the women shop keepers. All this entrepreneurial street activity reveals the mercantile bent of Vietnamese, and, traffic ridden and polluted though these streets are, I couldn't help but feel that they also have a buzz which is lacking in the well ordered town centre of Henley-on-Thames!
