Nguyễn Văn Vũ

Thach Hoa of Hai Phong City, a long-time owner of a transport company, says he had long favoured Japanese petrol cars because of their reliability, durability and high resale value. His rental fleet of five to seven vehicles used to consist entirely of Japanese brands. He calculated that each car, running 300-400km per day, generated profits of around VND1 million (US$38). Thus, after two and a half years, he could recover the VND600-700 million investment for a B-segment car.

Two foreign tourists riding a motorbike lost control on a sharp downhill bend on Vietnam's Ha Giang loop on April 8 and slid across the road into the path of an oncoming truck, stopping just inches from its front bumper after the driver braked in time. The crash, captured on dashcam footage, occurred on Bac Sum Pass, one of the most heavily trafficked sections of the route that draws tens of thousands of foreign backpackers to northern Vietnam each year.