Happy New Year everybody! I made it back safe and sound from yet another visit to a Communist country. Actually the biggest difficulty in Vietnam is rather mundane. It sounds bizarre to say this, but the most difficult thing to do in Saigon is cross the street. The rules of the game, learned when we were three years old, just don’t cut it when the roads are filled with motorbikes, bicycles, trucks, cars, scooters, and water buffaloes each going at their own pace and honking their horns for everyone to flee before their imminent arrival. Adding to the confusion, traffic lights are scarce and traffic rules are disobeyed with impunity. It soon became quite clear that whoever attempts to cross the street does so at his or her own risk. In this life or death struggle
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