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Story  SGN · Ho Chi Minh City

Learning to cross the street in Ho Chi Minh City

From my balcony in District 4, I watched a dog sit calmly in traffic I was afraid to walk into.

Written and photographed by Ethan Ward
Went: 1 month

Photo of three people at a sidewalk table on red plastic chairs, seen from above, with another person sitting at the curb beside a dog in the road as motorbikes pass.
The view from my balcony. The dog understood crossing the street before I did.ETHAN WARD

I kept looking down before I knew how to cross.

My Airbnb was in District 4, and from the balcony I could see the sidewalk in front of my building. People ate at a table on red plastic chairs. Scooters passed a few feet away. A dog sat in the road, looking a lot more comfortable with the traffic than I felt.

There aren’t many traffic lights in Ho Chi Minh City. You step into the street, keep a steady pace, and the scooters and cars go around you. Coming from places with crosswalks, signals and countdown timers, that was terrifying.

The first time I tried, I made it a few steps and ran back to the curb. Two people on their bikes laughed at me. They could tell I was new.

What I came to love about it is that people look out for each other. If you keep moving, they make room for you.

These photographs start on my balcony and end on the bridge I walked into District 1.

Photo of a workboat carrying a yellow excavator along the water beside an exposed bank of earth, with buildings and trees beyond and corrugated rooftops below.
My balcony also looked out on the canal. When I booked the Airbnb, it didn’t look like this. The work went on the whole time I was there.ETHAN WARD
Photo of scooters and a car driving across a striped crosswalk on a wide street lined with shops under a cloudy sky.Photo of scooters flowing through a wide intersection with no traffic lights, beneath tall trees and a glass-fronted building.
Even at a crosswalk, the scooters keep coming. You walk at a steady pace, and they go around you.ETHAN WARD
Photo of laundry hanging outside open apartment doorways beneath striped awnings, above street-level produce stalls and parked motorbikes.
Once I could cross the street, I walked everywhere.ETHAN WARD
Photo of motorbikes crowding a street beside sidewalk produce stalls and shop awnings, below weathered buildings with arched windows and a neighboring glass-fronted building.
Most of the streets I crossed looked like this.ETHAN WARD
Photo of motorbike riders and cars on Ông Lãnh Bridge beside a paved walkway, with buildings lining the road beyond under a cloudy sky.
Ông Lãnh Bridge, where my walk into District 1 began. Bến Thành Market was on the other side.ETHAN WARD

Read next: 5 things I’d do again in Ho Chi Minh City, and 3 I wouldn’t

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