Motorbikes!!

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Oh my GOD, there are motorbikes EVERYWHERE in Vietnam.  I mean, they are literally everywhere, they’re probably a good 95% of the vehicles you see on the road.  Imagine it for a second.  Imagine stepping outside of your house, to the end of your driveway, and instead of seeing a car drive by every now and then, you see THIRTY motorbikes pass by EVERY second.  That’s what all of HCMC is like from six in the morning until about midnight.

 

Crossing the street is seriously an adventure.  As I said, motorbikes are going by at about thirty every second.  They are NOT going to stop for you.  If you wait for them to stop, you will seriously never get anywhere.  They just don’t stop.  Even at red lights, they just go, and they expect it, so they don’t really get into accidents.

 

I think I said this before, but the only way to get from one place to another is to look forward, pick a spot, NOT look sidewalks, commit completely to not stopping, and go without stopping.  If you stop, they’ll hit you.  They know how to avoid a walking person, but not a still one.

 

If you ever do go to Southeast Asia, just wait for a local to cross the street the first time you do it and stay downstream from him/her.  After that you’ll understand how maneuverable the motorbikes are.

 

But yeah.  I literally walked across four-lane highways with no traffic lights in sight because that’s just what you have to do.  It’s kind of awesome.  Motorbikes are also crazy fuel efficient.  I’m definitely going to consider buying one in the future for any driving I’ll have to do around where I live.  They get like TWO HUNDRED MILES PER GALLON.  Worth it!