xanawu » video

driving in hanoi – 2

xanawu — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:52:42 +0000

actually, this is me cycling on my way home from work. traffic is the number one thing travelers to Hanoi notice most, and it took me a month of cycling before I got the guts to go for the motorbike.

this is fairly light traffic, but gives you an idea… note the lack of traffic rules and the liberal use of the horn. my roommate makes the apt analogy with downhill skiing: just mind what’s in front of you, not what’s behind you (signaling is rare, and lots of people actually remove the rearview mirrors because they just take up space on the bike). heck, people don’t even follow traffic lights when there are any. and they don’t look down the road when shooting out of alleyways: a colleague claims this is a remnant from the French, who had some weird traffic law giving right-of-way to those coming out of side streets. some advice: don’t ask yourself questions like, “why is the car parked horizontally across the road,” or “isn’t this a one-way street?”–you’ll just confuse yourself endlessly. and never, ever get road rage. no one else cares.

driving in hanoi – 1

xanawu — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 04:04:14 +0000

where sidewalks are apparently passing lanes.

and not a drop to… shower with

xanawu — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:04:43 +0000

it’s been raining for the past 2 days, apparently the worst since 1984. and by murphy’s law, I of course live on what seems (to me) the worst-hit part of the city. this video is from early in the day, when I first tried to get to work:

it only got worse later. nowhere to stand without being submerged, and all the shops busy trying to sweep water out of their businesses. those who had given up just stood around watching the chaos. I’m amazed at the number of people who still insisted on driving their completely submerged motorbikes, only to be stranded minutes later.

(I did make it to work in the afternoon, but when I made it back in the evening, there was a taxi floating down the street, with drunken on-lookers laughing)

it's better to walk

this would all be a bit more tolerable if weren’t for the fact that we now have no running water in the house. not such a great thing after wading in, well, everything you can imagine is on the streets of hanoi (ahem, I saw a big rat float by my house this morning).

osheaga

xanawu — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:34:36 +0000

both taken with my new sony-ericsson k530i.(and if you don’t know what osheaga is, check out osheaga.com)

chinese tour group: hangzhou

xanawu — Thu, 22 May 2008 05:58:18 +0000

plastic ‘clappers’ were provided for our convenience.