Get used to it...

This is the sort of thing that would get people fuming back in the UK. Obstructing the pavement and blocking the ATM machine. Here in Hanoi it's so commonplace that after a while you hardly notice. The pavements are blocked so often, you usually spend more time walking in the road with the traffic than on the pavement.


The road where my school is, Le Van Huu, seems to be 'sign street' most of the businesses seems to be making signs of one sort or another. This means that they are out on the pavement welding and cutting, and using all sorts of noxious smelling chemicals. Health and safety would rightly have a fit. A few weeks ago I was walking along Le Van Huu when the blade on an angle-grinder shattered and fragments went whizzing past my head. I could easily have been blinded had it hit me in the eye. I now try to remember to wear glasses or sunglasses all the time...