So I am picking that Health and Safety in Vietnam is not the big deal that we have in our country. There are not the layers of risk management, stop/go signs, CONES, guys with walkie talkies directing everyone within an inch of their lives.
Not such issue here. I have already mentioned the lack of life jackets for kayaking and of course the road safety where I suspect safety is not actually a word in their vocabulary. The power sockets don’t seem to be attached to the wall and when you pull out a plug, it sparks. The electrical wiring is free form and there can never be too many wires. Verandah rails come in any height and most disconcerting were the ones just high enough to take your knee out.
In Hanoi the whole centre of a street was dug up and I am not sure if there was a plan to refill the road, but they had packed sandbags into the trench. Smart, I guess, but damn uneven. I have also mentioned the guy welding on the side of the road, in the market with no goggles, with people walking past. I glanced and got white glare, imagine what his eyesight will be like after a whole day?
In Hoi An there were repairs to the middle of the road, so there they were, digging a whooping great hole in the middle of an intersection. They had a jack hammer and the poor sod working it had no hearing protection at all. Not a hard hat nor cone in sight, bless them. And in this photo, you can only see two consultants standing round, doing a health and safety audit.
Also, further down the way they were cleaning up trees over the road, so the centre of the road is full of chopped down branches and there are bits falling everywhere, while scooters and people pass by and in amongst it and on the side of the road, is this man swinging a fearsome looking 450mm hooked knife. Just on the side of the road, while we pass. As you do.
This photo below does not do justice to the job being done. It is coming up to Typhoon season, so all the trees in the resort had to be lopped and tidied up. This guy carried his ladder along the side of the pool, propped it onto a wooden pergola structure and after two attempts to get it even enough, up he went. In his hand, that sadly can’t be seen is a machete and he is hacking off branches and letting them fall, whilst balancing on the skinny bit of timber that makes up the pergola roof. Call me a skeptic, but I just feel that that is a recipe for disaster. Hold my beer, while I give him a hand.
Could not go far without mentioning school pickup. I actually have a new found understanding for why some of our parents drive like they do. This blew my mind. You most precious things in the world put 4 deep on to the scooter, no helmets, to weave in and out of other parents doing exactly the same thing. There are no road rules and I did not see a teacher type person in sight. God, could you imagine if suddenly I was transported to a school in Vietnam? After day 1, I would be the ancient, old, gray haired lady suffering from drop off and pick up trauma. Our own place is almost too much some days, but this would probably make me cry!
And then there is this guy. I am thinking he is some sort of security detail at the Reunification Palace. There are several concerns, not the least being the angle of his ladder. What is he doing up there? Seems that is what the other fulla is saying to him?
He is wearing no shoes, he is up a tree, his ladder is post 90 degrees, he can’t actually reach it easily and he is inside a heavily secured public treasure (not the tree, obviously)
I am hoping that is not the smoko room?
Finally, there was an ounce of control trying to be enforced today. We went to cross the road with our guide and a little green man (not alien) blew his whistle and gestured us over to where he was standing at a pedestrian crossing. Our previous experience with such things as cars stopping at the pedestrian crossing doesn’t really instil confidence, but this guy had a whistle, a green uniform AND a partner. So the two green men stepped onto the road and blew their whistles. They both put their hands up for the universal stop gesture and…….scooters just kept on coming. A number of whistle blows later and we had navigated the crossing and at least 50 scooters were unencumbered by our crossing, travelling on as if green men had not whistled at them.
Surely if we took all the over the top safety stuff from our lives, we could get back to people actually recognising something is dangerous and acting appropriately? Surely? I for one would not miss the orange cones…………
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