Nice, you got one "Bikes of Burden" Picture in there...

By the way, I want to explain for you why the guy that almost made you crash was smiling at you.
Vietnam has this weird kind of handling of these situations. We as Westerners can hardly understand it but there is a reason behind the smile.
Believe it or not, but this means that he is just trying to avoid any kind of conflict with you. Smiling in this case means that he is probably aware that he made some kind of mistake which caused you to look at him angry or frustrated. To clear the situation, he offered you a smile, not because he didn't care, but more not to get screamed at or get punched in the face.

Classical case of "LOST IN TRANSLATION"

As always, good blog !!!