Vietnam's cyclos pedal back into fashion
HANOI - They banned them. They even banned a film about them. But now the humble cyclo is back on the streets of communist Vietnam, striking a retro note as the country celebrates the 30th anniversary of its battlefield victory over the United States. Behind the comeback is 56-year-old Do Anh Thu -- a man the Vietnamese press dubs "The Cyclo King".
A university graduate, truck driver on the Ho Chi Minh trail and ex-cyclo driver himself, Thu says he wants to preserve a national symbol, not glorify a way of transport seen by many as outdated and an unsavoury reminder of Vietnam's war-torn past. For many American troops based in the South, one abiding memory was a city tour by cyclo, a three-wheel vehicle with the driver pedalling at the back and a compartment in front big enough to seat two passengers -- or one big foreigner.
In his fight to save the cyclo, Thu took on his own government -- and won -- to build a thriving business, one of a myriad ways that Vietnamese found to survive in the economic devastation left by the "American War". There were once 10,000 cyclo drivers in Hanoi alone, with similar numbers in Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, and Danang. Hanoi now has just 200, and numbers have dwindled elswhere.
"The cyclo is part of our life and heritage," Thu says. "We couldn't let it die."" In 2001, as Vietnam strove to lure foreign investment and present a modern image to the world, the cyclo was banned as a remnant of the past. "The government was modernising the economy and they just didn't fit," Thu says.
The cyclo had already run into trouble five years earlier when authorities banned the critically acclaimed film "Cyclo", accusing director Tran Anh Hung of blackening the country's image for its gritty portrayal of a hard-pressed cyclo driver. It seemed as if the cyclo's days were numbered, but then Thu hit his law books and argued that they could survive as a "tourist vehicle".
Four or five trips a day
The government agreed and in 2003 the ban was lifted. Now Thu, who once had a fleet of just five, runs 140 cyclos charging 20,000 dong ($1.25) for an hour's ride. As he sits in his small two-room apartment in a back alley of Hanoi's Old Quarter, his mobile phone rings endlessly with calls for cyclos from hotels and tour organisers.
"Each driver generally makes four or five trips a day," Thu says. "We also have special occasions like weddings when Vietnamese ask for them." Thu says that in the two years since the ban was lifted his revenue has tripled and is still growing. He acknowledges that the cyclo will never again be the mass transport vehicle it was in the past.
"I accept that their slow pace doesn't fit in today's traffic," he says. "But there is a place for them still." That place can now only be in the niche market of tourist transport. City commuting has been transformed as Vietnam's economic fortunes have risen, with virtually every household now owning at least one motor cycle, often several.
But Thu is building up another source of revenue from his cyclos -- tourists so enchanted that they buy them up and have them shipped home. "French and Australians love them. And we had one Saudi Arabian customer," he says. His eyes light up with recognition when I mention multiple Tour de France cycle winner Lance Armstrong. "He'd be a good cyclo driver," Thu says. "I'd hire him at once."
By Brian Williams - Reuters - April 19, 2005
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