Saturday, May 15, 2010

Playing Frogger!

Are you sick of my "vacation slides" yet?  Now we're just down to stuff people have asked me about, and things I want to remember.  Only one more post after this, but if you just want to skip these and come back next week sometime, I totally understand!

One of the first things we noticed on our trip - thank-you taxidriver from the airport - was the difference in the driving.
See, apparently, in some other countries, the lines and signs there are merely suggestions.(Even more than it is in California, if you can believe that!)
If there's only one lane going in your direction, and that doesn't work for you... make two! or even 3! And the person with the right of way is either the bigger vehicle, or the nicer one. You just sorta decide these things on-the-fly.
We thought about getting it on video, but that would require letting go of our deathgrip on the sides of the seat.
After a few days, though, we figured out the secret to getting the drivers to drive more safely. Just pull out the video camera! Here's a shot The Brain took. This is tame driving, because the guy knew he was on camera.



Some of the cities have an interesting thing they do with busier streets.

They have the regular busy street with 2 lanes going either direction. Then they have a side street on each side of the busy street for slower traffic like busses, taxi drop offs, short deliveries, and what not. Then sometimes they have even ANOTHER smaller street - , which you would think would be a sidewalk, but it's actually for bikes and mopeds.
Basically, it makes crossing the street like one big game of Frogger!
I turned around and took a video after a particularly scary crossing.



(It still makes me think of one of my favorite Jeff Foxworthy lines:
"It was Pandelerium!! I thought we'd be killed, or even worse!")

Why didn't we just walk to the corner, you ask? Because it's NO DIFFERENT.  In fact, doing that would just double the insanity by adding another whole street of traffic to dodge.  
Frogger Level 10.

16 comments:

Kristina P. said...

Glad you didn't splat like in Frogger.

goddessdivine said...

So that double yellow line means nothing. It's interesting how you visit another country and actually appreciate the laws we have here.

mormonhermitmom said...

Wow.
Everybody that understood the Frogger reference raise your hand!

Randi said...

REALLY?
Ok for those who don't know Frogger, here's the reference from Wikipedia:

Frogger is an arcade game introduced in 1981.

The object of the game is to direct frogs to their homes one by one. To do this, each frog must avoid cars while crossing a busy road and navigate a river full of hazards.

Man, I'm old.

Tammy said...

Yup, I think I would have had a panic attack in the cab. Crazy driving for sure! So glad you made it home safe! And by the way, I'm loving the trip posts. It's fun learning about another country without getting in an airplane.

rocslinger said...

Hey, the trip posts are fun. I've learned so much, like the love a woman has for her purse is universal.

Janell said...

Ah, that's the China I know and love :) That was really tame driving! I once had a taxi driver take off his side-view mirror in his driving frenzy. He just kept going as if it'd never happened. . . I'm sure he has a dozen spares at home.

Rhonda said...

way to cross that street! I love frogger, not sure If I'd love LIVE HUMAN Frogger. I'd be a nervous wreck!

Oh and that video of the driving...SCARY! Do they have a super high rate of accidents there, I wonder?

rocslinger said...

Their are people who don't know Frogger? I shouldn't even mention that the first video game I played was Pong. Does that make me old?

Yvonne said...

How come there was no one screaming in the cab--I would have been ; )

Frogger was fun, but more fun playing than being one of those frogs--like in the last two pictures ; )

Barbaloot said...

I spent hours playing Frogger as a child---but I don't think I would ever be ready for level 10 in China.

Tammy said...

Hugh said he love playing Frogger! He appreciated your analogy.

Heather said...

I loved me some frogger back in the day. However, I think I wouldn't love it so much if I was actually living it. Were there any snakes on the logs when you reached the other side?

Super Happy Girl said...

OMGosh, he's driving on top of the double yellow.
:D

I totally got the frogger ref. It's the same way in Mexico, like my mom says "I'm gambling my life just to get to the other side of the street."

Dave said...

at fisrt i was like "meh"

then it got... "exciting".

is it possible to teleport in china? cause my visit may have to wait for that to be invented

Loralee and the gang... said...

No crosswalks? They need them more than ever since there's every type of transport known to mankind going on there! And are those food vendors on the side of the road? Gives fast food a new spin, for sure!