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Transport in Vietnam - page 2. Trucks (by Dick Gilbert)

Last updated 29 August 2024

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These pictures were taken during a delightful journey down the Mekong River from Siem Reap in Cambodia (home of the glorious Angkor Wat temple complex) to Saigon in Vietnam (officially called Ho Chi Minh City). Here are some snapshots of trucks and other vehicles that I saw during the Vietnam part of the trip.

Hyundai seems to be the dominant vehicle badge in Vietnam (as it was in Cambodia, too) along with the largest number of motorcycles I've seen anywhere - squillions of them. So let's start at the small end of the scale and work our way upwards:

It all started like this, but most people are getting motorised now.

Then the motorcycle arrived, in a small way at first, a Honda Wave X in the market town of Sadec.

You can carry anything on a motorbike. Fancy a block of ice between your knees?

Even the whole family. It's got a Porsche badge but I don't believe it.

And now there are millions of them. Rush hour in Saigon.

Waiting for the lights to turn green. Don't be on that zebra crossing when they do! Actually, don't be on the crossing at all.

Here's a typical Indochina tuktuk - i.e. with four wheels - near Saigon. It seems to be having a standoff with a Vietnamese THACO / Chinese Foton truck.

This is a 3-wheel freight tuktuk based on a Chinese Yinxiang motorbike. Yinxiang, by the way, was a Manchu prince of the Qing dynasty from the 18th century.

Moving up to the level of the light van, this is a Veam. Veam Motor is a Vietnamese company formed in 1990 and producing its first truck in 2009. This could be a Rabbit, Cub, or Fox - I can't tell the difference between them.

Vinaxuki is another Vietnamese company, based in Hanoi. The company was formed in 2004. making cars and small trucks. This one is in Chau Doc, just south of the Cambodian/Vietnamese border.

Moving up to the size of a concrete mixer, here is a Kamaz from Russia, seen in Sadec by the banks of the Mekong river, just visible behind the building on the left.

Here's another concrete truck - the mighty Mekong is on the left of this picture too, but much wider downstream in Saigon. This is a CNHTC (China National Heavy-duty Truck Co) Sinotruck Howo 336, so named because its 9.7 litre diesel engine has 336 horse power.

This is also from China, a DongFeng carrying bricks. My guess is that it's an 8 x 4 DFL1311A1.

Much rarer is this Beiben V3 from Inner Mongolia. I'd certainly never seen one before.

Something different - the vehicle in the background of this photo looks to be an ex US Army M series truck converted to a breakdown wagon.

I know nothing about boats, but I wonder if this is an ex US Navy vessel left over from the Vietnam war. If anybody knows about these things I'd be delighted to hear from you.

Now to some aircraft. During the Vietnam War a Vietnamese Air Force Bell UH-1H Huey was kept on the roof of President Nguyen Van Thieu's palace in central Saigon, and there's still one displayed there now reproducing the original 69-15445.

So what's this? Well, on the subject of Bell Hueys on the roof, a few minutes' walk from our hotel was this view which has passed into history as the location of the final evacuation of the last Americans from Saigon as Communist forces took over the city at the end of the Vietnam war in April 1975. Below is the classic photo of that moment, which is often referred to as the roof the US embassy but was in fact a staff accommodation block.

Also in downtown Saigon is the Vietnam War Remnants Museum, a sobering and shocking place but it's essential to go there. Outside they have several captured aircraft on display including this USAF Northrop F-5A Freedom Fighter 66-9170 which allegedly still has its 20mm cannon on board.

Also at the War Remnants Museum is this former South Vietnamese Air Force Cessna U-17B Skywagon 71-1448.

US Army CH-47A Chinook 66-0086 was captured and used by the Vietnam Peoples Air Force.

US Army Bell UH-1 Iroquois (Huey) 69-15753. It's a bit cramped trying to get pictures of these aircraft.

USAF Douglas A-1H Skyraider 139674. The prop has been put on backwards. And that's the end of the trip.

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