[ThanhPhero]

I was tin Việt Nam January and February this year. I have been back there many times since I first got a hankering in 203 to see what had happened after my war. This year I finally took a stab at driving in that traffic. It is easy on a motorbike. Everyone signals every move and there is no such thing as road rage. I had found myself, while riding behind my prot́égé's new husband and looking over his shoulder, picking out the path ahead through the mass of scoots. Hải took every path I had chosen. I decided then that I could do this thing and it turned out to be so. The rules are different, of course. You as driver are responsible for everything 180 degrees in front of you and you don't worry about what is behind you, You signal ever move with little horn toots that annoy foreigners so and with finger and hand signals. You have to watch totally and know right where you are going because when the traffic is dense you cannot be looking for store signs or at pretty girls. What had seemed to me to be the most difficult situation turned out to be easy, and that is where two main roads cross and the lights don't work. The traffic does not stop on either road. There is a lot of weaving and some slowing and sprints but everyone gets through it okay. I never saw an accident in these most horrendous looking situations. One secret is that the speeds are low compared to Chicago or Montgomery. You feel like your just racing along while your speedo registers 40 kilometers or less. The seeds are low but on a scoot you will get across this humongous sprawling and dense Sài Gòn faster than across a similar distance in any large American city, not counting freeways and Interstates. A hundred scooters move more people than a hundred cars do in, say. DC or Baltimore.

[cba123]

I am usually ok, except when it gets (really) crowded.

Then I slow way down, and everyone passes me.

Drives my gf absolutely bonkers. But it is, what it is.

[cba123]

Yes and the thing is, most everyone is on a bike, not in a car.

Bikes respond (much) faster than a car.

I have been told, to be very careful of cars and especially busses.

Those are different. Dangerous. ALWAYS yield to them, and keep a safe distance always.