Early morning in Da Nang. The city is beginning to awaken. From y hotel window, I see workers at a neary construction site eating breakfast. A few bicycles ar on the street. No motorbikes just yet. The din of the workday has not yet begun but hints are in the air. I hear an occasional shout. Soon there will be many more.
The construction site I see is a nine story high-rise. The workers wear shorts and sandals mainly--no hard hats, steel-toed boots or other protective gear. A few wear face masks, the same masks I see many motorbike drivers wearing. The construction site has chickens.
I am becoming somewhat proficient at crossing streets in traffic. It is a leap of faith in that I step into whatever (usually small) opening I find in the lane nearest me,and walk toward the other curb, letting the traffic flow around me. It always works but it challenges everything I learned about crossing streets as a child. A few intersections have traffic and pedestrian signals, which make crossing less nerve-wracking, but even these can produce surprises. Marked crossings are abundant but largely ignored.
Walking on the sidewalk is no guarantee against traffic either.. Pedestrians must watch for motorbikes coming across walkways and into building. Less visible are the motorbikes rolling out of buildings to the street. Most sidewalks are clogged with parked motorbikes, food carts, gypsy entrepreneurs and other obstacles so pedestrians often step in to the street to get around them. Takes some getting used too.
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