Crossing the Street in Ho Chi Minh City

If you're a thrill seeker, loving that rush of adrenaline, then crossing the street in HCMC is for you. For most people it's 30 seconds of terror. Here are a few things you can count on. First, the traffic is insane. In a city of 8.4 million people there are, count 'em, more than 7 million motorbikes. Second, a meaningful pause in the traffic is never going to come. Never. So don't wait for one. Third, traffic lights and cross walks are meaningless. Nobody cares and nobody pays attention to them. Finally, nobody is going to slow down for you. Not a car, truck or bus. In fact, they may speed up to get by you! So how exactly are you supposed to get across one of these busy streets when you simply have to get to the other side? Believe it or not you have to just suck it up, put one foot in front of the other, step off the curb and go. It is best to try to wait for a break in the bus and car traffic so you only have to deal with the motorbikes but once you start across what you're relying on is the wish, the hope, the fervent prayer that the people on the motorbikes are going to take action to avoid you. That means you must walk at a steady rate - don't stop, don't turn back, don't speed up. Anything you do that could confuse or throw off the approaching motorbikes is a big mistake. They are deciding how to avoid you. Now we were going to take some actual crossing the street pics but decided it was already dangerous enough. If you're really interested just google something like "crossing the street Ho Chi Minh City" and you'll find several videos. Instead here's a pic of us on our street food tour (details to follow) where you can sense the traffic. But here we are on the bikes, not crossing. This is real, we weren't photoshopped in. Also a stock photo of HCMC traffic to give you an idea.