{"id":65,"date":"2008-10-20T13:25:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-20T13:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deidremac.com\/?p=65"},"modified":"2024-04-01T16:35:08","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T16:35:08","slug":"proverbs-and-motorbikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/deidremac.com\/?p=65","title":{"rendered":"Proverbs and motorbikes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We are invited to lunch in Hanoi Old town with my brother and two new students fresh up to Hanoi from far-flung rural provinces. We walk back past Hoan Kiem lake with Canh to find the bus stop back. I ask what Canh's plans are when he graduates.<\/span><\/p>\n

'Ha’e you heard the saying \u2026 you wait for a ‘ousand raindrop' to fill the sea .. I cannot make out the end of this proverb because of the blaring of the traffic, his soft voice and accent, but I am impressed and resolve to follow it up. English teenagers of my acquaintance would not respond to such a bland question in such an enchanting manner. 70% of Vietnamese are under 35. If the streets of Hanoi are anything to go by 100% of them drive motorbikes. Most traffic lights are ignored. As a pedestrian you don't cross the road, you weave the road, with its ten lanes. Did I say lanes? More like an ice rink where anything goes. I draw heart from the fact that there are large penalties for running down a westerner who are novices at this activity. You wait for a bit of a gap and then calmly and firmly cross, having courage that everyone will weave around you, which they do. Whatever you do you mustn't dart. The pavements are fairly impassible; lined with parked motorbikes, street vendors. eating stalls, ironwork welders. When we eat at a street stall we sit on plastic stools 8" high; one step up from squatting which the Vietnamese are so adept at and fond of.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are invited to lunch in Hanoi Old town with my brother and two new students fresh up to Hanoi from far-flung rural provinces. We walk back past Hoan Kiem lake with Canh to find the bus stop back. I ask what Canh's plans are when he graduates. 'Ha’e you heard the saying \u2026 you… Read More »Proverbs and motorbikes<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-vietnam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/deidremac.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/deidremac.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/deidremac.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deidremac.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deidremac.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/deidremac.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206,"href":"http:\/\/deidremac.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions\/206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/deidremac.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deidremac.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deidremac.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}