Actually, my story is not about this. It's less violent and less movie-like, but still a life-threatening phenomenon: the traffic of Yerevan.
Not that there are no traffic-lights at all, but somehow Armenian people tend to care about the signals not the least bit. A turn from there, a reversing here, a sudden braking and nobody can pass. The creaking of wheels, impatient drivers. Loud swearing composes music with the even louder honking. A frequent affair in Yerevan.
What is even more dangerous is being a pedestrian. The usual "left-right-left-let's go" doesn't work here -- you need to develop special methods for safety reasons. Making use of a resident can be a good solution. You wait until he arrives and then hop to it, you follow him as a shadow. A perfect one-side defence. Actually me and my friends had an even better possibility: bodyguards. No, we did not want to employ bodyguards, we were just given them -- God's gift. OK, actually the Israeli Embassy's. They thought Armenia was such a criminal country that the Israeli friends of mine couldn't exist without bodyguards.
So there they were, two men in black, looking after my friends and me, additionally. As for Armenia, the level of crimes is said to be one of the lowest. But bodyguards are multifunctional: they can be tour guides, photographers, entertainers, drivers... And when the life-threatening moment came, there they stood -- one from the left, one from the right -- stopping the cars with the risk of their own lives. A heroic act, indeed.
So if you ever decide to visit the capital of Armenia, as an experienced Yerevan-visitor I can recommend you the following:
- Employ a bodyguard (safe and tidy, but expensive)
- Use inhabitants as victims (only one-side defence provided, but cheap)
- If you can't afford yourself any of the above mentioned, you are in big trouble. There's only one advice I can give you: Run for your life!
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