Kick Out The Jams!

Ho Chi Minh City is a constant swirl of mopeds, harrying busdrivers, dodging pedestrians stepping off pavements packed with food stalls, touts and even more scooters.

We were warned it would be full on, and happily it was.

Considering the amount of people on the roads, the traffic flowed surprisingly smoothly.
It took us a couple of hours to pick up the rhythm, but once we found it we loved it.

If London replaced 90% of its cars with scooters and bikes we might be getting somewhere with the congestion problem. Obviously, that's too simple a solution, but we can dream.

Thanh was the man who supervised a pillion tour we took around the city with Saigon On Bikes - Kim and me on a bike each in our fetching lime-green pisspots (there's nowt better than standing out like Dumb and Dumber) with our guides doing the hard work up front.

Stopping for lunch, snacks and a chat now and again, they spun us around the different districts - business, residential, backpacker, Chinatown, "dog" street (traditionally for pet shops, or where you pay the ransom for your kidnapped pedigree, apparently).

Along boulevards and freeways we went, over river bridges, down tiny alleyways, ending with a rush hour spent in the throng of thousands of home-bound commuters.

It was like a race track (sometimes F1, sometimes motocross over gravel shortcuts), really exciting, really mad, breathless, good fun.

In between dodging the HCMC traffic, we had some lovely grub (including two Indians!), made a new friend, visited the Cu Chi tunnels and did a Mekong Delta trip - more on these next time...