Walking

Walking in Ho Chi Minh City is an absolute nightmare. The streets, pavements and outdoor markets are covered by motorbikes and are not geared towards pedestrian traffic. The pavements are broken or non-existant...in a state of constant construction (or is it destruction?)...newly laid for five yards before work has ceased leaving unlaid slabs at irregular intervals to trip up on. Or - on finding yourself with an apparently clear stretch of 20 yards - you walk confidently forward only to pratically garrot yourself on a low strung telephone cable.  And any traffic jam turns the pavements themselves into roads – suddenly without warning you'll find scores of motorcyclists riding towards you!  However walking along the edge of the road is easy enough - any motorbikes behind you will generally beep at you to let you know they're there!


The traffic police occupy themselves with random roadside checks and do not bother the motorcyclists that are running red lights or driving on the pavements.  Recently I heard that the police have announced a crackdown on pedestrians! Apparently this means that the pedestrian is likely to be held responsible if involved in an accident with a vehicle!

I have to admit to liking the anarchy of it all...

On xe buyts

The Great British Bus Conductor. Wise-cracking, jack-the-lad, loveable rogues or arrogant bullying tinpot dictators – you decide. I've come across both archetype s in my time. But, alas! Now they're defunct, extinct, as dead as a parrot. Replaced by grouchy bus drivers whose sociapathic tendencies were always recognised and contained by placing them in that little sealed compartment at the front of the bus. it was a cold day in hell when they let them out to serve us! But this blog is about Vietnam, so enough of them.


Generally speaking I am enjoying my bus journey to and from work. The buses are single deck and (usually) air-conditioned. And what do you know - the Viet bus conductors are the characters that their British counterparts used to be. They're constantly hauling people on and off the bus (it never actually halts at a stop just comes to a 'rolling stop') turfing people from seats if a pregnant lady or olderly person – even a foreigner! - gets on (although to be fair the young people often volunteer their seats...there's a respect for the elderly here) and often jump out of the bus to direct traffic when there's a jam ahead or the bus wants to turn across a busy road.

And, I'm pleased to say, there's one who's the dead spit of Reg Varney in 'On the Buses'! "I 'ate you Butler".

Great fun to watch them in action.