Avoiding road rage....

If you are prone to road rage, Vietnam is not the place for you.  Given four million motorbikes (not to mention cars, trucks, buses, bicycles, and cyclos) in Ho Chi Minh City alone, the traffic congestion can be very frustrating.  Thankfully most of us tourists don't attempt to drive in Asian countries.  Here is a bus driver's view of the traffic:

 

All the guidebooks say that "saving face" or not "losing face" is important in Asian countries, and I think I understand that.  Nobody wants to feel put upon or beat down by anyone else.

But you have to realize that you don't lose face simply because someone pulls out in front of you or cuts you off (WHICH HAPPENS ALL OF THE TIME!  And this also happens when you are walking down the sidewalk and a motorbike pulls in right across you.)  After all, the person pulling out in front of you doesn't see you since he does not look for oncoming traffic before pulling out.  Therefore that person does not lose face because he caused harm to others, and the persons presumably harmed need not lose face because the offender did not look at them.  Does this make sense?

Well, it has to make sense because you are going to be a very frustrated angry person otherwise.  Just accept this as one of the conditions of driving or walking in Asian countries.  You only lose face when you let your anger be visible to others and that anger results in your feeling of having lost face.

Go with the flow.

Comments

[Doug]

Funny thing - I am about to start a series of postings on two-wheeling in Viet Nam.

Its funny becuase once you actually start to drive in Viet Nam, the urge to rage disappears. The horn, for instance. In America the horn is used to "tell" somebody something - usually, not nice. The horn is often accompanied by the middle finger salute. In Viet nam, the horn is used for a totally different reason. They drive by ear here - blow your horn to let people know where you are. There is no feeling of anger in using the horn here.

[The Hoppy Mailman]

Nice article, we could use some of that "saving face" here in Denver.