Every Wednesday after work, I go to a Vietnamese language class near my office.

This week was no different. As I was about to cross the street on my way to class, I suddenly stopped in my tracks. There was no way to walk straight across the crosswalk.

At a relatively busy intersection, I came across a middle-aged man who had skillfully hung a hammock between a traffic signal pole and a road sign post right at the entrance to the crosswalk. Was he actually taking a nap there?

A hammock blocking the crosswalk

Sure enough, he really was taking a nap. He looked completely at ease, as if there was nothing unusual about it.

After class, I headed back the same way, thinking he would surely be gone by then. To make things even more surprising, I was completely wrong. The hammock, with the man still inside, was gently swaying in the breeze, continuing to block the crosswalk. (LOL)

It’s obviously not something people should do, and it certainly caused an inconvenience. But somehow, the sheer boldness of it left me both amazed and amused. At an intersection where motorcycles, cars, and even buses were constantly passing by, I even found myself worrying that if he rolled over in his sleep, he might fall out of the hammock.

This happened sometime between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. The world really is an interesting place, isn’t it?