This is my third year living in SE Asia, and I don't really think about being a visible minority any longer. What is harder for me is being conspicious because of my seemingly strange foreign ways.
This past Sunday, Chris and I rounded up Madeline, popped Sadie into one her strollers, and and set off for a walk in our new neighbourhood in HCMC. I thought that we were just walking up the road and around the corner to the newly-opened Fanny's ice cream shop with the plastic toddler toys in the courtyard. Alas, I was wrong. Chris led our party of four up and down several roads. And I do mean road, since the sidewalks were nearly all unpassable due to being taken up with construction materials, motorcycle parking, and other obstacles. So we were walking on the road, pushing a stroller, and I was growing less comfortable with the situation as we continued on.
Why? Because there weren't any other people out on this road taking a walk. I felt very much conspicuous as the only family on foot on this road. It made me think that if locals were not strolling along on this street, then it probably wasn't a good one to do so on. I was worried that the sling bag on my back was going to be snatched, that a motorcycle would run into the stroller, etc.
I felt a lot better when Chris took us back towards home on a few side streets!
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