Overwhelmed

Breezed through immigration having gotten my visa in advance- I only have one blank page left in my passport so I'll just deal with that problem when I get to my next border crossing. I immediately saw a fellow with a placquard with my name- a bit of a refined as while the hotel had asked me in an email if I wanted them to arrange for airport pick up ($18) then never confirmed receipt of my yes reply. Drive into Hanoi is through some industrial warehouse type areas. Tons of motorcycles- scooters everywhere Most wet helmets - more like baseball helmets. I'm afraid what I have will be overkill. Many people also wearing surgical masks! We had gone maybe 15 min and the driver got off the highway following all the scooters. I knew something was up but tried not to worry as we were on a service road in the middle of no where with stands in the street (very hard to describe) All of a sudden we were surrounded by police- the driver just rolled down the window and said a few words and handed over some money and on we went. The driver explained "big accident other bridge, my friend phone say no go". He had basically detoured onto a bridge for motorcycles only and paid the police $5 to cross (I asked how much he paid). He honked every 2 seconds as every bike had to stop and hug the rail as they was literally barely enough room for us to drive. When I asked the hotel which bridge was for bikes only and told the story they said "but it's very narrow" obviously not believing that I had just done this? When you come here, just ask to go on the Ling Bien bridge over the red river and see what They say!