Chapter Eleven: Crossing the Street

But that's the glory of foreign travel, as far as I am concerned ... Suddenly you are five years old again. 
You can't read anything, you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work, 
you can't even reliably cross a street without endangering your life. 
​Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses.
Bill Bryson, Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe

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2011: Hanoi, Vietnam

Hanoi hires tourist security guards to help tourists like me to cross the street. In the
photo on the right our tour guide, Thuyen, helps one of his guests cross a busy street. 

​Susan, Rubia, and I braved the streets of Hanoi for lunch at Lemongrass Vietnamese Cuisine.

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1972 - 2019 British Commonwealth
(former and present, except Canada)

No one drives on the "wrong" side of the street: just on the right or the left.

​Sometimes signs help us remember which side to drive.

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2015: India

We cautiously followed Dil across the busy street to feed the cows. 

Cows were not the only obstacles in the street.

On our first evening we had dinner at a restaurant in Connaught Place, built
by the British. Much of the sidewalk was in disrepair, literally bringing one of
our guests to his knees. He and his wife flew home the next morning. 

Driving on the sidewalk wasn't limited to Vietnam. I caught this maneuver from the
​bus window on our first day in New Delhi. I was glad not to be in the pedestrian crossing.

India has a problem with men urinating on the sidewalk. The government is
attempting to curb the behavior by paining pictures of the gods on the sidewalk walls. 

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2003: Japan

The Shibuya Scramble in Tokyo was fun.  No collywobbles here, but I was distracted
​by the shop on the other side: Condomania.  It has since moved down the street. 

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