Page 4 - DLNdec2017-1025

flooding in the town. However they get quite a lot of this sort of thing here
during the rainy season and a week later we were told everything was cleaned
up and open. And it is - but there does still seem to be quite a lot of water
around.

Cycling is quite a good way to get about because the terrain is fairly flat,
but down near the river you do need to be fairly certain of which bits are road
and which bits aren't. [see cycling pic] It's mostly the little kids and the old
ladies (and the tourists) who cycle.
Teenagers are generally on electric bikes, and
almost everyone else on motorbikes.

Thurs 23 Nov
Now further south in Ho Chi Minh City,
(generally referred to as Saigon by the
south Vietnamese). The weather is a lot
better, apart from the occasional
thunderstorm, and the traffic is a lot
heavier, apart from - actually apart from
nothing, it's ALWAYS heavy, day and night.

Motorbikes rule here, apparently 5 million of
them in HCM. They have a much more
economical sense of personal space than in
the UK, think of a continental pro peloton,
and you get an idea how close. [see
motorbikes pic] Except that in a peloton
everyone is going in the same direction, and there aren't pedestrians crossing
through the middle.

If you want to cross the road, then you just cross the road, and cars and
motorbikes magically avoid you. None of this 'right of way' nonsense - everyone
has right of way, but gives it too since no-one actually wants an accident.
Pedestrians seem to have precedence, but that doesn't stop motorbikes
riding on the pavement when the roads clog up. It's a little annoying having

4