Yes, this blog is about Hanoi, but please allow me a quick digression to start with. I didn’t dare get on a motorbike in Sri Lanka or India: no sidewalks many places, unremitting vehicle beeping, big trucks that seemingly want to squash you, thousands upon thousands of people on those crowded streets, and, the coup de grace, lacking street signs with which a map won’t help you ensured that my confidence was sufficiently tenuous to not even attempt to ride on those streets. Some tourists do, I know; and they do it successfully. I, on the other hand, could not garner the courage. However, once we’d got out of India, things seemed to settle down somewhat on the Asian roads – not that it was simple, since it was still Asia – but it wasn’t India
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