The Cyclo Racer
Pedals faster than the traffic · Keeper of the Saigon riverfront
The cyclo is a pedal taxi with the passenger's seat in front. For decades cyclos carried people and shopping all over Saigon.
The legend
The xích lô, or cyclo, is a pedal taxi with the passenger's seat in front and the rider pedalling behind. Cyclos came to Saigon in the 1930s and for decades carried people and shopping all over the city. Only a few are left today, giving slow, breezy rides past the old market and the river.
“I'd sit in front with the wind in my face.”
Where it comes from
The Vietnamese name, xích lô, comes from the French word cyclo. The machine is usually credited to Pierre Coupeaud, a French industrialist from the Charente who worked in Phnom Penh. He called it the cyclo-pousse and got a licence for it in Phnom Penh in 1935, but Saigon at first refused.
To prove his point, Coupeaud staged a trial on 9 February 1936. Two local riders pedalled a cyclo about 240 kilometres from Phnom Penh to Saigon in 17 hours and 20 minutes, at roughly 15 kilometres an hour. The mayor of Saigon then allowed the first 20. By 1939 there were 200, the cyclo had reached Hanoi, and by 1940 the older pulled rickshaw, the pousse-pousse, had gone. By the late 1940s cyclos waited for fares outside Bến Thành Market.
After 1975 the cyclo slowly moved from daily transport to an outing for visitors.
Where to see it
One operator's morning cyclo tour of District 1 starts at 8 am and lasts about three hours. Its route passes the Reunification Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Central Post Office, the Hotel Continental, the Opera House, City Hall, Nguyen Hue Street, Ben Thanh Market and the War Remnants Museum.
In the game
The cyclo racer stands up on his pedals, grins and rings his brass bell. The cyclo wobbles, and he rings the bell in surprise. The racer tips his hat and pats the front seat for the plane.
