Introduction
This happened a few days ago. The wife and I were in London at Lincoln’s Inn Fields catching Pokemon (Abra nest) and the park closed at 8PM, which was also sunset. Immediately after the park closed, I saw a Mr. Mime nearby. She and I then took off running around a pretty empty neighborhood to catch the Pokemon. It was now around 8:15PM and we were going to walk to Chinatown to grab some food. I followed the Google Maps directions.
Turning the corner
The directions made us turn a corner to the right and we were walking on the left side of the road (remember that they drive on the left over here.) Also note that at 8:30PM, it’s dark but not pitch black yet. The street we turned down was a 2 way street with a pretty wide sidewalk (enough for a car to drive down it.) We both had our backpacks on and staring down at our phones like professional Pokemon hunter.
As we were walking, I noticed a car stop next to us. I didn’t think any of it. We then walked past a bench with 2 people eating takeaway food. Then 2 women walked past us with a stroller. The same car then drove past us and stopped once again, 2 car lengths in front of us. This made my Spidey senses started tingling.
Driver’s ed flashback
Remember back during driver’s ed when you sat in the car simulator and you were graded on how you “drove” in the simulator? Meaning, the simulator checked your speed and how you braked. There was one part in the simulator where you’re driving down a neighborhood with parked cars on both sides when all of a sudden a kid runs out between the cars. If you were driving too fast or you didn’t brake in time, you essentially killed the kid. The point is – you should always be aware of your surroundings and be ready to act if something unexpected happens.
Back to the story
As we walked past the car this time, I then peeked into the car to see if there were any passengers in it. I couldn’t tell if there was a passenger in the front seat since it was pretty dark and the windows were tinted (remember the drivers is on the right over here.) As we walked past the car, another 2 people walked past us. Then there was no one else in front of us. At this point, the people eating were 50 feet behind us and the stroller women past that.
Car drives past again
Once the last 2 people walked past us, the car now drives past us AGAIN and it stopped about 50 feet in front of us again. At this point, the car is in front of us stopped and the only other people were about 50 feet behind us. My Spidey sense was now screaming at me! I realized that if anything happened to us, we were too far away for the people eating to help us. I immediately told my wife to put her phone away and I put my phone in my pocket and told her to turn around and walk fast. We eventually got to the people eating and caught up to the stroller women. We looked behind us and the car had driven away. We decided to then walk to a bigger street where there were lots of people and eventually made it to dinner.
Lessons Learned
Now before you roll your eyes and say it could have easily been a car looking for the right house address, I will agree with you that it most likely was that. I’m sure we were 95% fine, but I did NOT want to take that 5% chance that a passenger in the car jumping out of the car, robbing us, then jumping back into the car and driving away. So let’s talk about some lessons learned here:
- When in an unfamiliar city, don’t walk around at night on a fairly empty street.
- If you have to though, don’t walk with your valuables (e.g. phone) out in your hand.
- Always be thinking of a Plan B (the driver’s ed story)
You’ll get another shot at Mr. Mime,
Got 6 of them. I’m good for now.
Glad you’re safe. And for the rest of you, don’t you judge Vinh! He didn’t say all he did was play pokemon the whole trip.
Thanks. And I’ll Pokemon when and whereever I want! Haha.
3. A new children’s book commercial
btw, you’re visiting a land faraway and spent it catching Pokemon? Are you a 12-year-old? Look around you and appreciate the scenery and the history.
Thanks for the unsolicited advice on what I should do when I travel. Here’s my unsolicited advice – feel free to stop reading the blog. Bye.
Let me finish #3 for you: Don’t live your life through a phone/computer screen, especially when travelling in one of the greatest cities in the world!
Thanks for the unsolicited advice on what I should do when I travel. Here’s my unsolicited advice – feel free to stop reading the blog.
I get unsolicited advice from you every time I read your blog. If you are so sensitive that you cannot tolerate a point of view that is not 100% in sync with you, then maybe — and here is more unsolicited advice so gird yourself — shut off your comments section.
Or ban people like me that dare give you an opinion that you don’t like.
What do you think the purpose of a blog is? I write what I want and it’s out there. If you don’t like it, stop reading it. It’s that plain and simple. I’m not giving you unsolicited advice through writing on my blog. My posts aren’t written just for you.
I don’t have issues with differing opinions. I have issues with the tone of condescension in your comment. If I want to play Pokemon all day, then I’m going to do that. If I want to eat McDonald’s on my trip, then I’m going to do that. Just because you don’t agree with that, it doesn’t mean you should disparage it. I don’t criticize how you travel, so you shouldn’t criticize others. What’s that saying – “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it.”
“If you don’t like it, stop reading.” Is that like “America: love it or leave it?” So, no one can point out anything to you that you don’t like, without you telling them to leave?
Yes, my tone was assholish…too much snark obscured my “living in the moment” message. But your response was uber-sensitive. C’mon, Vinh, you are (sort of) a travel writer and people will chime in—sometimes assholishly—with comments that point out different ways of doing something than you. Are you always going to argue with them or tell them to “leave”? Sometimes, they actually may actually have a point.
I’ve learned to cut people out of my life who stress me out or who doesn’t provide positivity. So if someone wants to be snarky, it’s best I tell them to stop reading because most likely, they’ll comment later on another post with their snarkiness and bother me some more. I don’t have the time and patience for that. If you had made your argument without the snark, I wouldn’t have had an issue with the comment.
I suppose I can handle being cut out of your life. You can tell me to stop reading your blog, but that’s a choice for *me* to make, not you. And you can ban me (or everyone) from posting things you don’t find “provide positivity”, but that reflects more about you and your inability to handle detractors.
It’s amusing to me that you still prefer to engage in this stupid back and forth about rudeness (mine) and sensitivity (yours), rather than to make an effort to address the point that I (and others!) raised.
I’m not going to waste anymore time on this so if you need the last word, go for it.
Why are YOU still responding? I’m done with you. Go troll some other blog.