Traffic is terrible in Bangkok. Terrible. One thing you rarely hear is the honking of horns or the sirens of police or emergency vehicles. I have always been shocked at the lack of horn honking or sirens for such a large city.

I’m working in Ho Chi Minh City this week, the traffic here isn’t nearly as bad as Bangkok, but the horn honking is simply staggering. It is rare that a single minute will pass without the sound of horn honking, annoying doesn’t begin to describe the addiction Vietnamese have to horn honking.

Of course, Bangkok traffic will always have the sounds of the tuk-tuk’s revving their little engines and the joys of public buses spewing pollution and Bangkok will always have the traffic as the city wasn’t built for the massive numbers of vehicles currently on the streets.

But, sitting in HCMC with horns blaring, if there must be traffic, at least it’s a quiet traffic.