How to make a left-turn in Saigon…
Very very carefully, that’s how.
There is no protection: no helmet, no airbag, no seatbelt. Heck, you are not even in a car. You are on a 100-CC Honda scooter, the ubiquitous means of transportation for more than 76 million Vietnamese. There are no apparent traffic rules. The only rule you live by around here is survival…of the fittest, the most agile, and timing – very precise timing.
Le Duan Street, Sai Gon. The streets are lined with important landmarks left over from the French colonial days, with the US Consulate and other buildings heavily guarded by men in loosely fitted olive-color uniforms…you are headed towards Dinh Doc Lap, Vietnam’s Independence Palace – its famous gate bulldozed down by NVA army during the Fall of Sai Gon in 1975, the losing side airlifted from rooftop…
At the red-light, you are packed inches away from the motorcyclists. You can see the glistening sweat on the back of the guy in front of you, the flowery pattern on the face-mask of the girl on your left…you can just reach out your hand and grab the cigarette from the guy on your right. You keep your legs as close to your body as possible while maintaining your scooter vertical – those exhaust pipes leave nasty scars. You are one of the hundreds sweating under the sun, waiting for that precise moment when that light turns green (or not) to once again wiggle through to your destination.
DOH! You weren’t one of the lucky & daring 4 who were quick enough to zip left before the arrival of incoming traffic. Now it’s official: you are about to make a left turn at one of the busiest intersections of Sai Gon.
Pulling as close to the incoming traffic as possible, you plunge madly into that tsunami of wheels and smog, picking your way through micro-inches between a bad day and a worse day. The other motorcyclists and cars will honk into your ears, they will not slow down, they will not yield…but dear friend, you do not slow down or blink as a result of this daily game of chicken. You simply plow on, counting on the guy behind you to not speed up, the girl in front of you to not slow down, the incoming traffic to NOT see the same 1-inch-wide crack with which you will pull leftward. And just like that, magically, your front wheel straighten out, and you are once again on good water.
If the world ever wonders how Vietnamese people won wars when all the odds were against them, I invite them to come here, rent a scooter, and make a left turn in Sai Gon.
