Crossing the Street in Ho Chi Minh / Saigon

Crossing the street in Ho Chi Minh City made me feel like Moses parting the sea, but this is a sea of vehicular chaos. There are 3 million motorbikes in Ho Chi Minh, and they all seemed headed straight for me every time I set foot on the curb.
The Proper way to cross the street in HCMC:
1) Look both ways before crossing
2) Step on the street
3) Look both ways again
4) If there are no traffic lights and there is a continuous flow of traffic, walk at a consistent pace
5) Don’t stop if you don’t have to, but if you do, they will drive around you
6) Walk faster if they appear to be slowing down even slightly
7) Congratulations, you have made it in one piece
I had some practice crossing the street in Hanoi, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as Saigon. At first it was a little frightening because there are motorbikes coming from every direction. But, after walking around the city, I started to feel more comfortable. The only scary thing is that while I was in the middle of all of that chaos, the motorbikes came so close to me I thought my foot would get run over or burnt by someone’s exhaust pipe. In Vietnam, I feel better about crossing the street when vehicles are coming at me than I would in Montreal, because in Vietnam they actually slow down.

note: posted by Ilana