I thought of a few more Vietnam-specific things to add.
As a tourist, you are not a legal operator of a motor vehicle in Vietnam. There is a process for you to go through but it takes weeks and you don't have that time unless you are a fairly long term visitor. That said, there seems to be a concerted effort on the part of Vietnamese law enforcement to ignore tourists operating motorcycles illegally in their country. I have heard various theories on this, ranging from
hassling tourists is bad business because tourists bring a lot of money into the country to
cops don't speak English and don't want to be put into an awkward communication situation. For whatever reason, I found that most traffic cops avoided making eye contact with me when I went through their roadside setups.
The beige uniformed cops are traffic cops. They will have one set up out front, and and on or more set up to write tickets or most commonly shake drivers down for bribes. You are supposed to stop if they point the white baton at you. Only once did a traffic cop point his baton at me...
About 40 miles south of Hanoi I was hauling ass down the road, riding defensively in fairly heavy traffic consisting of about 95% motorbikes. I passed over a freeway/interstate looking road and noticed that the road had huge signs with the outline of a motorbike and the universal circle with a diagonal line over it. I looked ahead and noted that my road made a 270 degree loop and would put me ON that no-motorbike road. There was no exit except a U turn against traffic. Shit.
So I got onto the road , lowered my head for better aerodynamics and pinned the throttle. I was the only motorbike on the road. But I was hauling ass, passing trucks and even a few cars. People in other vehicles are staring at me. I'm thinking. "Exit, where's an exit? No cops. I don't want to see any cops."
About 5 miles down the road, no exit yet, and I see them. Traffic cops are set up on the right side. One out front and a cluster of them about 150 feet ahead. I am trying to be invisible. See photo below to understand why this is not working.
The cop looks at me, looks puzzled, and points his baton at me. At this point I make a snap decision. If a cop in the cluster points at me or waves me down, I will stop. If they ignore me then I will dummy up and keep on going. Throttle was still wide open. The cluster ignored me, I crouched lower, and I jumped off on an exit which came up about 4 miles later. Then I fought motorbike traffic into Hanoi from the south.
Pics or it didn't happen:
Here is a piece of shit Chinese Honda Win clone. For the love of humanity don't do it. Even a scooter-looking bike like a Honda Wave or a Yamaha Nouvo is better, much better. Picture taken on Ho Chi Minh trail in the Central Highlands.
The beige uniform cops are traffic cops. Here are a couple of them posted up at the southeast corner of Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi.
Here is a pic of the good bike I rented, a Honda XR 150. Picture taken in the mountainous Northeast of Vietnam.