Traffic in vietnam and other things..

Anyone who has been to Vietnam will definitely know the hazards of crossing the street here. It must be because of the insane tax on importing motor vehicles or something(think - US $70-80,000 for a Camry), but most of the population here rely on their motorbikes. According to my most reliable source (Wiki), there's about 6.5 million people living in Saigon, so you can imagine the insane amount of traffic especially during peak hour.

One thing to note about crossing the street here is that the people on motorbikes do not stop for you. So if you're standing by the side of the road waiting for the traffic to stop so you can cross, then good luck, and see you next year. I've figured out that the trick is to slowly edge your way across the road at a slow and predictable pace and simply let the motorbikes dodge you. Don't try running across the road or that'll be the end of you. Quite terrifying if you've never done it before. Luckily for me, this ain't my first time here lol.

Just from observing the people driving past, you can see a great deal of acrobatics going on - I mean, the number of people you can fit on a motorbike is really quite amazing. Let's say Dad's the driver, Mum's sitting behind him, toddler wedged between them, and another kid doing a balancing act up in front of Dad. That's four people.. on one motorbike. Thank god they finally introduced the helmet rule this past year. People also carry their sleeping babies on the motorbikes here. Honestly, I don't know how the babies fall asleep because if it were me, I'd be terrified lol. Here's an example (not my own pic btw - forgot my camera cable back at home):

One thing I've decided while I'm over here is that I'm going to start my own little doll collection. I want a doll to represent every country in the world. I also want the dolls to come from the actual countries. Abit ambitious, I know. But hey, at least now I can say that I have a hobby. Here's the first addition to my collection, bought from the Ben Thanh market (it's dressed as one of the hill tribes of vietnam and is made with sapa fabrics, or so I'm told). I'm also pretty sure I got ripped off considering I paid 100,000 dong ($9) for it.

Something that's going onto my list of things to do next time I'm in vietnam is to get an ao dai (our national costume) tailormade for myself. I can't even remember if I ever owned one, but I feel as if I should have one as backup incase I ever happen to err... need... one.. not sure at what time I would need one, but I still feel like I should get one! But I must leave this til the next time I'm here because I need to lose weight have no time to get it made. They're actually quite beautiful when you think about it and compare it to some other hideous national costumes out there (google England's 'pearly kings and queens' costumes).

And on that note, I feel I must mention the fact that I am a whopping size XL here. Going from a medium to an extra large sure is doing nothing for my self-esteem. Sigh. Well, I suppose it's not my fault that everyone here is stick thin and flat as a surfboard. Everywhere I go I feel like a beached whale. Even my size 7-8 feet feel like elephant feet seeing as no one has my size.

Quite depressing actually...