Luggage, Equipment & Navigation
Emergency Information to Carry on a Rental Bike: Contacts, Allergies and Insurance Details
About 4 minutes to read
If you fall or fall ill while riding alone in a city where you do not speak the language, the people who reach you first need to work out who you are, who to call and what they need to know. A small card, or a note on your phone, can answer those questions when you cannot. It is quick to make and, with luck, is never used. Here is what to put on it and where to keep it.
What goes on the card
| Item | What to write | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Your name | Full name as it appears in your passport, and your nationality | A helper can read it without searching your belongings |
| The bike | The plate number and the name the rental is booked in | It lets the shop identify the rental quickly |
| The rental shop | Thuê xe máy Nguyễn Hà, 0334 699 969, open 09:00–21:00 daily | Outside those hours a call may go unanswered, so add another contact; the shop’s contact page lists how to reach it |
| Where you are staying | The name and address of your accommodation, in Vietnamese as well as English, and the front desk number | Copy it from your booking confirmation |
| A person to call | Name, relationship and number with the country code | Choose someone who can be reached across time zones |
| Medical details | Allergies, especially to medicines; conditions; medicines you take; blood type if you know it | Write only what you are comfortable sharing |
| Insurance | Insurer, policy number and the emergency assistance number printed in your policy | Copy the number from your policy document, not from memory |
Three lines in Vietnamese
A helper who cannot read English will understand a line in Vietnamese. These three lines are short enough to write by hand: the first two have a gap to fill in, and the third needs your contact’s number beside it.
| English | Vietnamese |
|---|---|
| I am allergic to … | Tôi bị dị ứng với … |
| My blood type is … | Nhóm máu của tôi là … |
| Please call this number | Xin hãy gọi số điện thoại này |
Write the gaps in block capitals. If you are unsure about a phrase, ask the front desk at your accommodation to check it with you.
Writing the medical lines
Keep the medical part short and factual. Helpers and doctors need facts they can act on, not a history.
- Allergies: name the substance, such as a particular medicine, and spell it the way a pharmacy would.
- Conditions: include only those that could change how you are treated after an accident.
- Medicines you take: the name of each, written as it appears on the packet.
- Blood type: write it only if you have seen it on a test result, and do not guess.
Your own doctor can tell you which details matter for your health. Everything on the card is optional, and you decide how much to share.
Where to keep it
- On paper, in your wallet or a pocket you wear. A phone can be locked, flat or broken after a fall, and the bike’s storage compartment stays with the bike, not with you.
- On your phone as well. Phones have a setting for emergency information that can be read from the lock screen. Look for it in your phone’s settings and add the same details.
- As a photo sent to the person on the card, so that a copy exists outside your phone.
Make it easy to read
Use block capitals and dark ink, put the English and the Vietnamese on the same side, and write the date you last checked the card. A card in a clear plastic sleeve survives rain better than loose paper. Keep it in the same pocket every time, so that a helper knows where to look, and tell the person named on the card where it is.
What the emergency numbers are for
In Vietnam, 113 is the police, 114 the fire service and 115 the ambulance. A helper may make those calls for you; the card covers what comes after, such as telling the shop, your accommodation and your family. Keep your insurer’s emergency number on the card too. The questions to put to your insurer are easier to settle before a crash than after one.
Keeping the card current
Check the card whenever your plans change: a new hotel, a new bike, a new phone number. If you move accommodation, rewrite that line; if you switch bikes, add the new plate number. If your bike came through a hotel, identify the contracting shop and its support contact first, and put that number on the card.
If you ride with a bag, how to secure a backpack on a rental bike is worth reading too.