Beep Beep - look out for me!

That's how a friend of ours (notorious for getting into accidents) changes lanes.  She turns on her turn signal, says "beep beep, look out for me," and changes lanes without so much as a glance over her shoulder.  it's kind of cute, yet terrifying at the same time.

Driving in Vietnam is the same, though not quite as cute.  Cars and buses and trucks and motorbikes alike all use their horns as a short of notice-giver...they honk to let you know they're there, that they're turning, going straight, avoiding you, you need to avoid them,...practically any reason at all.  Their turn-signals even make noise; motorcycles sound like a little squeak, buses sounds like muted and lazy car alarms.

And yet the amazing thing is that no one is mad.  It's never a "get out of my f-ing way" honk, just an "FYI" honk.

Although our bus driver today - for the entire 1.5 hour ride - was incredibly horn happy.  After about half an hour into the ride, the general consensus was that he should have just continuously leaned on the hour and gotten it over with.  But of course it figures that when I finally had the notion to take out my camera to video the phenomenon, he stopped completely.  It would have made the most amazing drinking game.