##Saigon traffic wtf ????##

**240** · 31st October 2017, 08:08

Just got back from a couple of weeks in Saigon.What a fucken awesome place!!! You tube traffic in Saigon and you will get an idea of it if you havn't been!!!!
Total chaos but it works, crossing the road is the first thing to learn you just slowly cross without stopping or speeding up and the scooters go around you.
Apparently about 95% of vehicle registrations is motorcycles (they call scooters motorbikes).Saw a little kid about 2 years old in a mall looking at a scooter on display twisting his right hand like a throttle looking at it he probably learnt that before walking

,scooters are more than just transport to them its like a way of life.A barman I was talking to rides his 125 scooter to visit his parents once a month the trip is 4 hours each way!! They dont give a fuck they just do it as its the norm.If you ever get a chance go and experience this mad awesome place!!

**Voltaire** · 31st October 2017, 09:05

Riding in the traffic is not as bad as it looks, we rode two up from HCMC to Hanoi on a Honda Firehawk ( 150cc of awesome).
Crossing the road is crazy ....just walk out and they go around you.

On the back roads it can take all day to do about 200 k's.

**Blackbird** · 31st October 2017, 09:09

Hanoi was worse when we were there! You're right about crossing the road. The only extra thing we were told was don't make eye contact - just step out. My wife showed her complete distrust of this advice by crossing a few paces downstream from me so I'd take the impact

**Cosmik de Bris** · 31st October 2017, 10:00

My son lived in Taiwan for a couple of years and rode a scooter. He said the general rule is to give way to anything in front of you. Like the OP said total chaos but they seem to make it work. I think this is our problem on the roads, we get hung up on our rights, in asia there are so many people that the selfish attitude doesn't work.

Cheers

**Viking01** · 31st October 2017, 10:07

Morning.
Reading the first post on this thread brought a smile. Agree with other comments
re scooters in both Saigon and Hanoi. Crazy, but it works. No road rage over there.

The first two shots are from the late afternoon rush hour in Saigon. But somehow
the travel photos still couldn't quite portray the sheer density of scooters out on
the road at any time. Even week-ends had high numbers of scooters out and about.

The last shot is a favourite of mine, simply because of the circumstances. It was
taken from a bus on the 20km Hai Van Pass road on the way to Hue. It was the only
wet day we experienced on the whole trip, and we were in a convoy of three buses.

Two scooter riders (one of them two-up) decided to overtake us on the way down,
both wearing as you can see only a helmet and a poncho as protective gear. It was
hosing down with rain, the road was windy and it looked as slippery as hell.

After having overtaken us, he caught up with the next bus on a 180 degree corner.

As that bus had to swing out slightly to the other side of the road in order to make
the turn, the scooter rider undercut him and took him on the inside. Just two seconds
flat, and he was through the gap and away. Bigger cojones than me.

A great country, and well worth the visit. Would be happy to go back again.

**rastuscat** · 1st November 2017, 07:44

Interesting to contrast the economic development of North v South.

USA lost the war in the South but commercialism has taken over. People make more money there than in the North.

As a result, cars are more prevalent in the South than in the North.

I've been to HCM City a few times over the years, and Hanoi a couple of times. The progress in the South has led to the proportion of cycles and motorcycles decreasing relative to cars, yet in Hanoi they still rule.

It's a product of economic development. Capitalism won the war in the South.

**Voltaire** · 1st November 2017, 09:59

The Doco on TV1 on demand on the Vietnam War is a good watch. Lots of interviews with ex vets from all sides.
We stayed at Khe Sanh and there was a group of guys there with SUV's and very short haircuts.
My mate who used to be in the RAF struck up a conversation and they were US Army doing MIA recovery.
They also do a lot of landmine clearing, bomb disposal and Agent Orange decontamination works.
According to the doco they dropped more bombs on Vietnam than Germany and Japan combined.

**haydes55** · 4th November 2017, 06:22

I didn't enjoy HCMC anywhere as much as I enjoyed Hanoi, DaNang and my fav place Hoi An.

The missus put her foot down and we weren't allowed to rent a scooter (her aunty had a massive accident cycling in Hanoi and almost died). But to be honest. I think it would be safer traveling on scooter than walking. No one walks anywhere. It's crazy but everyone rides their scooter right up to the shop they're going into and parks on the footpath. No one ever struggles to find a park, but I sure as he'll struggled to find a footpath to walk down.

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