How to Cross the Street in Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City (still called Saigon by half its residents) is home to a violent history and an ever-growing resilient population. Over six million people crowd the streets and walkways and most motorists don motorbikes. Motorbikes are an excellent mode of transportation as they enable unsurpassed mobility, consume very low levels of gasoline, and comfortably fit one or two (and sometimes three!) people.

High volume and high density traffic on its own is no cause for concern. High volume and high density with very little regard for traffic control, however, produces a chaotic scene that is very entertaining to watch, but panic inducing when you're an unfortunate participant. They believe in stoplights, but only in select intersections. While the most populous vehicle, motorbikes are not alone in the madness. Busses, tour vans, bicyclists, cars, and even reverse rickshaws, called "cyclos," join the mix.

Without traffic control features, motorists tend to jet directly into intersections without looking, then engage evasive maneuvers to avoid imminent collisions. It would certainly be easier to just look first, but they seem to enjoy the thrill. And it really is quite exciting to ride around on the back of a motorbike, but only after telling oneself that it's not real. Self-deception may be the only defense.

Crossing the street on foot, however, is a different and more difficult challenge because the continuous stream of motorbikes prevents any possible break in traffic. The skill that must be honed requires you to step right onto the pavement, even while every sensible instinct in your body screams at you to get the hell back on the curb, and then walk slow and steady to the other side. Look up if you can avoid soiling yourself, because slight adjustments in pace are often necessary. The slow and steady gait enables most drivers to gauge your movement and compensate their direction and speed. The remaining drivers just assume hit you, which is why slight adjustments are often wise. It's a lot like playing the old video game "Frogger," only you can't stop (because you'll get hit and run over) or go in reverse (because you'll get hit and run over) or try again with another life (because you're dead).

If you survive the often necessary task of crossing the street in HCMC, you'll be rewarded with a modern, developing, South-East Asian city that radiates with capitalistic potential, even while under the control of a communist government. The city offers numerous mementos from the recent war, French architecture as evidence of their brief occupation, countless pagodas (temples), and bustling markets that are as packed as the streets. Ho Chi Minh certainly would not recognize the city named in his honor today.