I wanted to point out the insanity of driving around Ho Chi Minh City (which I will now refer to as Saigon for brevity). The population is around 8 million people, which not a joke puts it outside the Top 25 most most population cities in Asia (Saigon is 30th according to Wikipedia). Don’t let that fool you though. Saigon is gigantic and the population density is crowded.
The #1 problem with movement in Saigon is the public transportation. They are in the process of building one of the World’s Most Expensive Metros that should cover most the city. They hired the efficient, well qualified Japanese to build this subway, and yet predictably Saigon is not going to finish on schedule. Due to these delays and lagging productivity the Japanese firm is already seeking compensation from the city of Saigon.
As for options in 2016, this means two things for visitors. Taxis and motorbikes. Renting the bike is very cheap ($50 per month) but you may want to price in the cost of death that you must escape everyday. I’ve rode for 5 years in Thailand, and certainly the Thai roads are no picnic. They are routinely featured in the Top Ten most dangerous countries for international drivers. And Saigon is possibly worse. It is certainly no place for beginners. Nobody follows the law and it’s hardly ever seen enforced (que to video 1).
This is a street two blocks from my room. A “standard” two-land road. But each lane is people coming up the side!
It’s a weird feeling having motorbikes coming straight at you in your own lane. But I’ve been in Asia a long time, this really is nothing new (though I haven’t seen it on this scale before).
The real “Woah” moment for me was watching, and then participating in the crazy Saigon intersections. Lack of city planning and intersection lights has created these intersections where everyone just flows together. Why wait for a red-light when you can just jump into the crowd.
These videos are only 10-15 seconds long, but the crazy thing about this traffic at one of these intersections, it never stops. They have red lights, but nobody cares. You can stand on the corner waiting to cross the road for an hour and realize that there will never be a break in traffic. The only way for a pedestrian to cross is to walk at a slow consistent pace and watch the motorbikes swerve around you like a school of fish. Or do what I do – wait for a group of Vietnamese and cross with them for cover.
In light of wanting to live a few more years, I downloaded the Uber app for the first time and started taking taxis into District 1 (The center district). I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the rides are in Vietnam. Air conditioned, relaxing, no need to watch out for kamikaze motorbikes. Here’s my receipt from my first ride.
3.75 km, just under 12 minutes. And the price – 34,000 Dong! You may be thinking, that’s an outrageously high looking number. But with the exchange rate at $1 = 22,000 Dong, we get
$1.53 is a price I can live with.
Val
November 14, 2016 at 8:06 pmThis reminds me of learning to drive on the Left (wrong side of the road) in Malaysia with all the crazy motor bikers. It is a good thing we learned the basics of traffic and crossing the street in the kindergarten spot of Kuala Lumpur. It makes it so much easier to adapt in each foreign country we visit. You never drove in KL, but it took me three weeks to get the courage to drive on the left with motor bikes coming at me.
The taxi prices have gone up 50% but still a bargain. Mom
user
November 15, 2016 at 8:56 amI didn’t mention it in the article but driving a car seems 10x harder than the motorbike. You have to maneuver a much bigger machine through traffic and “aggressive” driving is the only way to make turns and change lanes. It’s pretty wild.
Bob
November 22, 2016 at 4:29 pmThis is a great story. I laughed out loud at the second video! I remember being the first car at a traffic light in Malaysia. The oncoming traffic was stopped but the motor bikes just kept piling up at the red light. When it finally changed, the bikes headed directly toward me and then split around both sides. Very nerve racking! Saigon looks a lot more hectic and confused.