Vietnam is still referred to as a third-world country by some; others may call it a developing nation. My daughter seemed keen to know the distinction and I found myself at a loss to define a United Nations' attempt at political correctness.
But, there is nothing developing about the Vietnamese transportation system... unless you see it as a cancer, growing everyday, eating away at my life force. I personally have been involved in two minor accidents in the past two weeks.
Yes, the rules of the road in Vietnam place us squarely in Bizarro World, or Thrae (Earth spelled backwards). Why? Because here, the larger vehicle has the right of way and the pedestrian sits clearly on the bottom of this heirarchy. The first of my two accidents in the past two weeks is a case in point:
In this real-life example, I am on foot, crossing a small road returning to my house after lunch. There is no cross walk in the area so I look (left, right, and then left again) to make sure the way is relatively clear. I use the word "relatively" because outside of the hours of 0100 to 0500 there will always be some traffic. I have plenty of time to make it out of the oncoming lane before the approaching taxi gets close, but as I start walking, the taxi moves in my direction as if there is an invisible magnet on my belt pulling it to me. Some fighter pilots may refer to this as target fixation when on a bombing run. I continue to walk to where I am actually in the paved shoulder of the opposite lane by the time the taxi gets to me, but he still wants to pass in front of me, rather than behind. I thought about speeding up to where I was square with the middle of the taxi's hood, but decided better of that and opted to let the taxi hit my hand on the side view mirror. When the mirror folded in, the driver stopped and acted as if I was in the wrong and sported a very angry face. In my best Vietnamese, I invited him out of the car so we could call the police to resolve the issue, but he opted to remain in the car and explain to Diep, who was right behind me, how he had turned on his signal. Diep was having nothing of his flimsy excuse, so now the taxi driver has two angry people at his window (Diep, of course, was the scarier of the two). He continued to yell at us in the vehicle and I continued to invite him to step out; and it appeared we were at loggerheads for the time being. All of a sudden, I thought it was appropriate to hold my hand and say "ôi, chắc tôi gãy tay tôi rồi!" (Ow, I broke my hand!) which seemed to immediately resolve the issue. The driver proceeded to drive away, but you could see his reluctance in doing so since I had already recited his taxi number back to him.
The point of the above example is that the driver of a motorized vehicle - any motorized vehicle - always has the right of way when confronted with a pedestrian. This is, of course, in sharp contrast to California law where one can slide a toe into the crosswalk and watch cars come to a sliding stop. There was some government interest about two or three years ago in fining pedestrians who crossed the road outside of designated cross walks for jaywalking. Several articles were posted in local-language papers promoting the use of crosswalks and enacting a fine when pedestrians crossed outside of them. It obviously didn't catch on, but it really annoyed me that the onus was placed on the pedestrians when (1) many roads in the city don't have a crosswalk within 1,000 meters of the intersection (see my real life example above), and (2) pedestrians still in reality have to yield to motorized vehicles even when crossing in the crosswalk. Heaven help the assclown who runs me over in a crosswalk. I just know I better be dead or unconscious if it happens because I will beat the person to a bloody pulp if I have the wherewithal to do it.
My second incident on a Vietnamese roadway was really a non-accident. I was on a narrow road and an electric bus was coming from the opposite direction. To yeild the right-of-way, I pulled as far over as I could and stopped. The bus (more like a 10-seat electric golf cart) then came through. He cleared me in the front, but then turned into me with the side of the bus. I leaned the bike as far over as I could and yelled for the bus to stop, but he kept going and ended up crushing my pinkie toe (no break, just a little painful - I was wearing sneakers) and bending the gear shifter on the bike. I did make him stop the bus and say he was sorry in front of the 30 or so spectators wondering why the foreigner was going nuts, but didn't know what to do next so I let him go. It wasn't till I got back on the bike that I saw that the shift lever was bent. The repair cost me 10,000 Vietnamese Dong (about fifty cents), but it upset my domestic situation when I got home. Diep was livid that I didn't make the driver pay for the damage to the bike. She is now convinced I am not fit for driving in Vietnam (even though I was not moving on a motorized bike in either situation) and posted the damage to my bike on FB. I was rewarded with everyone and their dog asking me if I was okay. I am just exaggerating about the dog. The concern grew to such a crescendo on Diep's FB page that she eventually had to delete the entry. If Diep ever wondered if people really liked me or not, she knows now. Hah!
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