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Learning to cross the road in Hanoi

The traffic in Hanoi. Take a deep breath and have faith. Above all, don’t think about what you’re doing, because if you think about it, you’ll be overcome with fear.

I wasn’t planning on writing about Vietnam (or anywhere on our travels). If you’re interested, Sherylyn will be posting on Facebook, but we’re here, and the other blog I planned is trite and ordinary. Or maybe I’m just in holiday mode, so you might get more holiday posts after all.

Anyway. Vietnam.  Hanoi.  The traffic!

The lady who met us at the airport was lovely.  “Some advice,” she said.  “Crossing the road.  The traffic here in Hanoi can be daunting. Just copy what the locals do, cross when the locals cross. And if you start to cross, don’t hesitate.  Just keep going.”

Believe me, if you need one piece of advice for Vietnam, that’s the advice you need.  Even on the way into Hanoi proper people ran red lights, cut across in front of our driver and did all sorts of crazy things.  We both agreed, we’re never going to drive in Vietnam.

After we booked in to hotel, we decided to go for a walk.

This was Saturday afternoon, mind.  It was crazy, and as for the pedestrians, they just stepped out into the middle of it all.  It was terrifying.

We ended up going around the block, because we were too scared to cross an actual road.

So this morning, we spent a couple of hours practising crossing roads.

It’s a big leap of faith, and still scary as anything, but we managed it.

Now we have to get up and do it all again tomorrow.

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