VietBlog

A comment about the infamous traffic in Ho Chi Minh City from special guest blogger Jay Dryer:

CHICKEN, ANYONE???

No, this time I am not referring to KFC, although The Col. Sanders famous recipe can be found in Ho Chi Minh City.

In Vietnam, the motorbike, or ?moto? is the ?King of the Road?. As I sit in my hotel room listening to the street noise, it sounds like being at a go-cart track. It starts before daylight (which is around 4:30AM) and continues until well past midnight. And it is the custom here when a vehicle passes another to sound your horn, so you can imagine listening all day to a go-cart track with the Road Runner beeping merrily along.

But as economical as the motos are, the students here are careful about their use because of the high price of petrol.

Getting back to my original thought, traffic in Ho Chi Minh City is incredibly busy. The streets are choked with cars, busses and mostly motos.

This is where the ?chicken? comes in. When I first arrived, I thought crossing these busy thorofares safely would be an impossibility. Crosswalks, overpasses or underpasses were non-existent. But the natives were crossing, and so must I.

The best way to learn is to follow a locals
and play ?chicken? with the traffic.

No, I could not just step out into the path of a vehicle, but it sure felt that way.

I had to wait for a break in the traffic flow and walk steadily and briskly to the center of the street and then look in the opposite direction and then wait for another break.

By walking steadily, the moto drivers can steer around you. As long as they can predict your action, they will avoid hitting you; but, if I were to stop suddenly, I could get hit.

After awhile as I gained confidence the game of ?chicken? became more fun than frightening.

Here are some pictures of the traffic in HCMC, one showing a member of our group accompanied by a Vietnamese student crossing a street and another showing the ?wall? of motos at a traffic light, and a photo of the real thing.

We want say goodbye to Jay, who will be leaving us tomorrow (or rather yesterday for y’all back home, as Neal points out). We loved having Jay accompanying us in our journeys here and leaving a trail of happy kids with toothbrushes (he’s a dentist you see.)

We wish Jay a safe journey home!