Traffic

Monday, December 28 – One of the MOST interesting everyday things we saw in HCMC was the traffic. Strange to say, but it’s so remarkably different here than where we’re from. Guess that comes from the motorcycle culture.

Luckily we had a taste of it in Cambodia, but it wasn’t nearly as busy there as it is in HCMC. There are cars and busses, but the motorcycles just swarm the streets in a ceaseless parade.

Oh. And they’re not just limited to the streets. During rush hour, they hop up on the sidewalks too. Any way they can get through the throng. Makes life as a pedestrian somewhat hazardous.

When the sidewalks aren’t crawling with rush hour motos, they’re pretty much blocked by parked scooters, street vendor stalls, and sign boards. So you’re often scooching out into the street to make your way on foot wherever it is your going.

And crossing the road is no picnic. You basically just walk across – through the throng – slowly and steadily. You keep an eye out for cars and busses because they have the right of way, but scooters will anticipate you and slow down/go around you as long as you keep a constant pace. Don’t even attempt to change direction suddenly while crossing the road.

It’s the same in Cambodia, but as we said, much less congested. So it was good practice for us to try street-crossing there before we got to HCMC.

Check out these short videos – one showing the motos on the sidewalk, and another with a POV shot of us crossing the street.