Cheating death

Welcome to Vietnam! An endless sea of motorbikes overflows the streets and sidewalks. There are 8 million motorbikes in Ho Chi Minh City alone. I think I saw most of them! The sound is deafening as thousands pass by in minutes. It sounds like a Nascar race as the cars make the last turn before taking the green flag. Look closely at the pictures and imagine crossing the street in the moving traffic, it does not stop for you! You slowly, very slowly, step into the oncoming bikes and keep your pace. Suddenly change your pace and you die. Once committed to crossing you cannot go back. The spot behind you fills in quickly with bikes. Turning back would be disastrous. The riders will swerve to miss you as you cross. You look left as you begin and pray that no rider is coming the wrong way, which they often do and sometimes kill pedestrians as they do so (many pedestrians die each year this way, they get blind sided). As you cross the bikes sound like flocks of geese squawking with their constant honking as they battle for position. You get into a rhythm of a slow walk and in a few seconds find yourself in the middle of the road where you turn your head and look the other way now. You may have to stop for a second as a bus passes by.

The first rule of crossing is never challenge a bus, you lose! A cycle can swerve and miss you since people are small targets, but a bus is too big and awkward to swerve or stop quickly, so let them be. Never cross with a group, the target becomes too big to miss! 2 people can cross if they are in sync and cross shoulder to shoulder. My first time crossing was sheer terror. The cycles are moving about 20 mph. If they stop to miss you they would cause many bikes to crash behind them so stopping is impossible. Timing is everything!

After my first crossing I was in ecstasy. I felt I had cheated death. My adrenalin was flowing. I was exhilarated. God had given me a second chance at life!

I crossed many times of course in my week stay. The real danger is getting too confident. One miscalculation and you are seriously injured or dead. On those few occasions where I saw a clear spot I would be tempted to hurry. Phuong grabbed me once and yelled at me to slow down, hurrying was a sure way to die since a clearing never lasted long enough to run across it!

Crossing is a dance. Both rider and pedestrian get into a grove together. Each predicts the others move in a millisecond and reacts. You are partners. You have no rehearsal time. You don't know each other, but you instinctively keep the dance step going at the right pace and make the right turns at the right time. You just pray everybody can dance in the same rhythm. Miraculously they do!

I promised Bonnie I would not ride a motorbike, and I kept my promise. What she didn't know was the danger of crossing the street. They do have some traffic lights but they are far apart and cycles will turn every direction at them and they are as dangerous, if not more dangerous to cross, since your guard may be down. I felt safer crossing the middle of the street then at the corners where no sense could be made of traffic flow. There were too many directions to watch at once. If the light changed with you in the middle of the crossing you were dead meat.

One day I sat on a business step and watched the flow of traffic for nearly and hour. I saw 3 and sometimes 4 riders on one motor bike; little toddlers in the front, mom and dad on the back. I saw one handed riders as they carried large bundles of fence, or a large piece of sheet rock, and such, with the other hand. It was hot and humid but most riders had helmets, masks, and jackets on with gloves to protect themselves from pollution and flying debris (see the picture above with Phuong on the bike with Joseph. Notice her attire.)

Ho Chi Minh City is a sea of constant moving motorbikes with hot and tired riders just trying to make a living. I salute them for their courage and courtesy, they never hit me once! It takes them hours to travel to work and back. Many young ladies wear beautiful dresses on their bikes as they go to work. Modesty is out of the question as they ride. Many of the riders would see me on the sidewalk and nod their heads to me saying "hello." Many would smile at me. Others had blank stares of fatigue as they battled the traffic for another trip to somewhere. As you can tell I was fascinated by it all, and thankful I got to cheat death many times.