Happy Driving, Vietnam!

While there are heaps of cultural differences between Vietnamese and "Western" culture - if such a thing exists - I could adress at this point, one of the most prominent is definitely the way of driving. Especially for me as a German who is used to a very orderly and regulated way of driving, which on the other hand allows us to drive quite fast, the traffic in Vietnam is very fascinating. Lanes do virtually not exist and there are different speed limits for various vehicles. The Lonely Planet describes aptly: "Size matters and small vehicles get out of the way of big vehicles. [...] head-on collisionsare all too common." To give you an idea about how driving in Vietnam is like and why you should refrain from hiring a car yourself and use the public transport instead, I recorded a short video of our drive from Halong Bay to Ha Noi. Don't worry, our driver did an excellent job!