The art of crossing the road in Southeast Asia!

You may find this Blog title rather curious, but some will know exactly where I’m coming from hence why it deserves an entry of its own. It’s these sort of things which stick in your mind and are conversation makers when talking about travel experiences.

By saying Southeast Asia I’m primarily referring to Vietnam and Cambodia but I suspect the motorcycle/moped is king in places such as Thailand and Laos as well? Apart from the fact many of the alleyways in the residential areas are far too narrow to take many cars, the motor vehicle is far too expensive to buy and run for many although progress has been made from the humble bicycle in the big cities of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and Phnom Penh.

This, in turn, means that the local population have learnt to carry all sorts on a moped but the most bizarre thing I’ve seen must have been two adult pigs and yes they were alive, when we caught up with them at the traffic lights I heard them squeal. This has to be one of my favourite travel photographs of all time!

Some are so stacked up, I really hope they don’t lose their balance when they come to a stop while the art of sleeping on a moped must be akin to sleeping in a hammock?

But back to the matter in hand, imagine you are faced with the following scenario, you wait and wait but no gap big enough is forthcoming, the traffic light changes are so quick, mopeds are coming in all directions with no pelican crossing nearby, you start to think you will never get to the other side of the road. Now is when you need that leap of faith.

The trick is to look for a small gap where it will be a few seconds before a moped gets to you and to walk out across the road at a constant pace and not to stop. Your instinct as a moped approaches is to second guess and stop-start, but you will both do this and will end in disaster, trust me. By keeping a constant pace the local will skilfully dodge past you. This will freak some out for sure but it does work, I’ve tried it out a few times notably in Hanoi where there are an estimated 6 million mopeds. Although I have to say I always had a sense of relief afterwards.

In Ho Chi Minh City while walking the streets a couple of locals did offer me a ride on the back of their moped for a fee but declined the offer. In hindsight, it might have been quite an experience, but being 6 foot 3 inches in height, I didn’t fancy my long legs sticking out in the moped crowd.

At Hue in Vietnam, we came back to the hotel via rickshaw which gave a different perspective whilst in the traffic as you see from this video and is supporting evidence for my theory!