Frogger

So do you remember that Atari game "Frogger". Crossing the street here is much like advanced levels of Frogger, except that we are actually successful at it here (so far......)

Imagine looking to the left and seeing 2 dozens or so Honda om (motorcycles) bearing down upon the patch of street you intend to cross. They come in a steady stream, no clear breaks in between. And then you take a deep breath and step off the curb. Keep moving....moving....keeping the same pace. Handlebars swish behind you, inches from your back. Tires leave the pavement a foot's width before your soles land in the same spot. Keep moving...don't hesitate. It's like a fine set of gears, each tooth out of the way before the next falls into place. The biggest mistake you can make is to hesitate, to interrupt the flow. A cough in the gears could make everything come to a grinding, schreeching, foreigner-squishing halt. Keep moving. Don't think too much.... Almost to the other side. Don't forget to breath. Don't look sideways too much -- have to see where you are going. At last you arrive at the other side. Somehow it all works. I've seen no one squished yet.

They enacted a helmet law here 2 months ago. Amazingly, people seem to follow it. This is the first country I've seen (other than the US) where brain buckets are the norm. I was also going to say they seem to drive more conservatively here compared to Cambodia...but then we had a 3 hr bus ride last night that put that in doubt. Girls on bicycles swerve in and among buses barrelling down the "hip hop highway" (so dubbed by our VH guide because of all the bumps in the road!) at 40 mph, sometimes sandwiched between a bus and a delivery truck with just inches to spare on both sides. We sat in the front seats of the bus along with an Australian and an Irish woman, and all of us were squirming in anticipation of the potential disasters an arms reach out the window, but all for naught. The VN bike riders don't even seem to flinch, let alone look back to see what is bearing down on them. Again, it all seems to work -- buses, bicycles, pedestrians, Honda om weaving together flawlessly.