No report on Vietnam could possibly be complete without reflecting on the phenomena called traffic. There is one rule in Vietnam. The larger your vehicle, the more right of way you have. Nothing else counts.

The lowest denominator is the pedestrian. It doesn’t matter whether you are venturing across a zebra crossing or have a traffic light showing a green man, you are at the mercy of the kindness of the motoring public.

Taking the above principle that size is all that counts, one can see that it is fairly powerful to be the driver of a bus. This means that the lowly pedestrian, surely the customer, is treated with total disrespect by the bus driver.

He barely stops to let his passenger on and he hardly slows down to let his people off. As for waiting for somebody because they might have jumped up to leave the bus as he stops, not likely. In fact, prepare to tear up or down the steps as fast as you can!

Mr Bus Driver is ably aided by a conductor who pushes and shoves passengers around to where ever he feels like shoving them. Of course what adds to the chaos is the fact that the rest of the traffic starts, stops and crosses lanes in its own time and according to some strange traffic system.

The most accurate way to view the traffic is that it resembles shoals of fish that swim in some weird and wonderful patterns, managing somehow to swim around obstacles without collision or stress. Check some YouTube videos for fun!

For foreigners taking part in this ebb and flow of traffic it can be nerve wracking and frightening. Moving slowly across the intersection, hoping like crazy that you are seen and avoided truly requires a mountain of courage.

But somehow it works. Considering the amount of traffic and the way it flows, it is quite surprising there are not a lot more accidents than the four or so deaths a day. Hopefully, yours truly, is spared that part of the experience! After all I have to cross a very nasty road in the mornings to catch my bus to work.

Gets the adrenalin going every day!!