note to the reader: my apologies to the vietnamese people who read this post and might think that i'm complaining too much and that i shouldn't stay in vietnam if i cannot cope with the traffic. i understand your point and i understand that the traffic here is a jungle where you have to do some crazy things if you want to survive. but driving on the pavement is, according to me, something you shouldn't do. and if, for some reason, you decide to do it, you should also understand that the pavement is supposed to be for people who walk, so please, don't be annoyed with them and don't aggressively honk at them.
i love the frantic traffic of this town. to a certain extent, though. for intsance, when i'm walking on the pavement and motorbikes are honking for me to get out of their way, i just feel like throwing a cobblestone at their faces (YES! here, motorbikes just drive on the pavement when the roads get too crowded!). so today, i was just taking some pictures of some traffic cop being useless: they're supposed to be there to regulate the traffic - only at certain times - and to make people stop when the light turns red (humf!). however, if someone jumps the light to their faces*, they just blow their whistle, raise their little red flag (sometimes, they do not even bother) and... there's nothing else they can do while the motorbikes pass them by. so, i was saying, i was taking some pics of this traffic agent when some other security agent blew his whistle at me because i was sitting on a kinda huge plant pot whose stone edges were like a bench. he looked at me in an angry way and shouted: 'no sitting' (probably the only words he knows in english), while other motorbikes were jumping red lights and getting on the pavement in front of his little useless friend!!
* i was told that what's shown on the 2d picture is actually allowed because the woman is turning right. fine. but i swear i saw some people going straight ahead!
i love the frantic traffic of this town. to a certain extent, though. for intsance, when i'm walking on the pavement and motorbikes are honking for me to get out of their way, i just feel like throwing a cobblestone at their faces (YES! here, motorbikes just drive on the pavement when the roads get too crowded!). so today, i was just taking some pictures of some traffic cop being useless: they're supposed to be there to regulate the traffic - only at certain times - and to make people stop when the light turns red (humf!). however, if someone jumps the light to their faces*, they just blow their whistle, raise their little red flag (sometimes, they do not even bother) and... there's nothing else they can do while the motorbikes pass them by. so, i was saying, i was taking some pics of this traffic agent when some other security agent blew his whistle at me because i was sitting on a kinda huge plant pot whose stone edges were like a bench. he looked at me in an angry way and shouted: 'no sitting' (probably the only words he knows in english), while other motorbikes were jumping red lights and getting on the pavement in front of his little useless friend!!
* i was told that what's shown on the 2d picture is actually allowed because the woman is turning right. fine. but i swear i saw some people going straight ahead!
moodoscope: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6KEahxi1fE
