Look both ways...

Ho Chi Minh City - 10 million people, 4 million motos, and no crosswalks. During rush hour motos and cyclos largely outnumber cars, and apparently the rules of the road don't apply to them. While buses and cars usually stop at red lights, motos pass on through, weaving in and out of oncoming traffic.

Morning and afternoon rush hours are amazing sites to see...until you need to actually get somewhere. With taxis charging outrageous prices for tourists, one day I opted for the slower method of hiring a cyclo. Imagine a bicycle with a small carriage attached to the front and that's pretty much a cyclo (you can kind of see one in the picture here). As the cyclo driver came to an intersection, he edged forward into oncoming traffic to find a way through the horrible tangled mess. This is fine and dandy for him, but unfortunately put me and my defenseless carriage out into the path of countless motos racing in from every side. We came out of the traffic unscathed, but afterwards I resolved to cough up the cash and take taxis from them on.

The ultimate money-saver is of course your own two feet, so for most of the shorter treks through the city Phil and I braved the streets with only a small copied map and my directional intuition. Miraculously, this worked quite well with our only problems occuring at those pesky traffic intersections. We figured it out, but it took a while....

How to cross a street in Vietnam
1. Look both ways to assess the traffic situation.
2. Seeing a continuous stream of cars/buses/motos in both directions, realize that you have no hope of waiting for a break in the traffic.
3. Take a leap of faith and step off the curb.
4. Walk slowly and steadily across the street while looking toward oncoming traffic to make eye contact with the oncoming drivers...they'll be more likely to feel obliged to swerve around you.
5. Continue across without hesitation, even when bright headlights make you pee in your pants.
6. Step out of the path of death and take a deep breath.

It sounds extremely unsafe, and it definitely is. Every day in Saigon (HCMC), 4 people die in moto related accidents. We've seen countless wrecks where dismayed onlookers do just that...look. Fortunately these numbers don't include me or Philip so we can all take a big breath; we took these suicide walks as infrequently as possible, but it's often unavoidable.

However, soon after we left the city we found out how easily foreigners can be included in such statistics. In Nha Trang we were in an internet cafe when a vietnamese motorbiker hit a backpacker pedestrian right outside. Not wanting to be part of a rubber-necking crowd we delayed our response in coming to see what had happened. When we finally came out we found people literally just standing around; not a single vietnamese person lifted a finger to help the unconscious driver who lay helpless in the street. After repeated calls for an ambulance someone finally reminded us that there's simply not one...no one to call, no one to help. With camp counselor first aid training, Philip and I were the most qualified people on scene to deal with the backpacker whose ear was sliced completely through and whose face and scalp were bleeding steadily - not a situation I actually felt ready to manage. Thank goodness for the taxi cab who offered to take her to the hospital despite the risk of getting blood in his car (this was actually a concern for others). Let's just say that I'm quite thankful for 911 and will be glad to soon be in a country where I can actually trust the hospitals.