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Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Graeme Simpson: Vietnam traffic is organised chaos

By Graeme Simpson
Rotorua Daily Post·
22 Sep, 2018 12:00 AM3 mins to read

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Time lapse video of traffic in Ho Chi Min city.

There are more than 8 million motorbikes in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City.

That's a fact. Most are mopeds.

To put that into proportion, the population of this sprawling Vietnamese city is 13 million.
Imagine if most of them drove cars?

When you think you've seen the wildest on-bike combination, maybe a family, one child
on dad's knees with a second tucked in behind and mum on the back or a man and four
Chihuahuas, say, someone will ride past with a metre-cubed of polystyrene boxes
stacked on the back … or a pallet of bricks…even in monsoonal rain …

It's not just the carrying power that is fascinating, it's the way this tsunami of bikes, side-by-side with cars, buses and trucks, all blend, even when some are going the wrong way up one-way streets.

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Traffic lights control some major intersections and these are usually respected - to a
point.

The narrow streets through District 1, the heart of Ho Chi Minh City, constantly
stream with mopeds, all day till late at night.

It took some mental acclimatisation and a leap of faith to launch out to cross these, trusting the traffic would weave and dodge around me.

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By the end of the first week, I was doing it without really thinking.

I got the occasional toot, but this was more a gentle reminder to let me know others were close.

On foot, in taxis, a tour van and on the back of a scooter for night time adventures with
my wonderful guides and fearless scooter pilots, Thao from Saigon Adventures and
Diem from Vietnam Vintage Vespas in Ha Noi, I never heard more than mild parps or
saw a raised fist. There was a seamlessness about it that is a wonder.

Part of this has to be an unwritten realisation and underlying awareness that if there
were road rage or accidents the whole system would cease to function.

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The best way to travel in Vietnam's big cities is by scooter. Photo / Supplied
The best way to travel in Vietnam's big cities is by scooter. Photo / Supplied

I'm sure it's also connected to mutual respect and maybe an element of Buddhism with reincarnation only a death away.

The Vietnamese are also a friendly and welcoming nation. They'd have every right not to
be after the damage inflicted by successive invasions over centuries.

The country is experiencing its most sustained period of peaceful coexistence for a very long time and seems to have come to terms with most of the countries that have put it through the wringer over the years (including ours, if only as a sidekick to the United States).

One tour I took was to the underground hamlet of Cu Chi, on the banks of the Sai Gon
River, built during the "American War" as the HQ of the Sai Gon Military Zone of the Viet
Cong.

On the drive out we visited a workshop where disabled folk created artworks form
polished eggshell, mother of pearl and rosewood.

Many of the workers were the fourth generation on from men and women who'd suffered the after-effects of the Agent Orange or dioxin that the Americans sprayed on their country as part of Operation Ranchhand - when they weren't dumping triple the ordinance that was dropped in the entire World War II.

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The rule is don't mess with the Vietnamese. It may take decades, generations, even
centuries, but they'll eventually see anyone off with the same, almost unnerving
tranquillity they navigate daily traffic.

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