![IMG_4091.JPG](https://steemitimages.com/DQmRLgw4BSeNZGgUWuGBLGTiGfyZsytRxkdcK52SLt3LizC/IMG_4091.JPG)

The traffic in Vietnam is almost impossible to describe. Crossing a street seems almost undoable, but becomes quite easy once you get the hang of it. What seems to be complete chaos is actually a system with rules and norms, that somehow, someway, actually works. To really understand it, I think you need to drive in it, something I did daily for about eight months. I worked there as an English teacher six years ago and I taught evening classes which meant my commute was always right in the middle of rush hour. 

I drove a scooter, the preferred vehicle for millions of Saigonese. There are a lot of cars on the road, as well as buses, trucks, and bicycles,  but motorbikes outnumber all of them. Scooters are what make it possible for Saigon to work. You can probably fit around 10 of them in the space taken up by a single car. If everybody owned a car the roads would be like parking lots. The amazing thing about traffic in Vietnam is just how close motorbikes drive to each other, and how few accidents there are, at least compared to what it seems like the rate should be. Most people choose to take the mirrors off their bikes as they usually stick out just a bit beyond the handlebars. I personally like being able to see behind me while I drive and so I used mirrors. Some other people feel the same way, and it's common for your mirrors to touch theirs while driving. That's how close you are. 

I liken a group of bikes on a road in Vietnam to a school of fish. It can turn left, right, speed up, slow down, and open up to get around an obstacle before forming back together again. And somehow, almost inexplicably, each fish, each motorbike never crashes into the one next to it. Well, almost never. In the time lapse at the 15 second mark a truck hits a motorbike on the far left. Luckily they were fine and by the 17 second mark they have dusted themselves off and driven away. Vietnamese traffic is also very noisy. The honking is constant. Even in the middle of the night, you never hear more than a span of a few seconds without a beep. In the end, I think it was the constant honking more than anything else that made me leave Vietnam. I still love it there though. 

https://youtu.be/KTxJ4esMRq8

Have you been anywhere with traffic this crazy? For me Phnom Penh Cambodia is the only place I've seen that's close. I bet India has some crazy city traffic too, but I haven't been. Leave a comment if you know a place. Thanks for reading!