reading signs

I'm resurrecting the "road sign" project I started in Sri Lanka. I've been meaning to add to this list for months and am undeterred by the late hour. Part of the traveling experience definitely involves feeling out of place, especially with regard to language. I spent so much time trying to read body language or other nonverbal cues. I think that's why signs become such an integral part of the traveler's world. When we finally do gain access to information about our surroundings, that experience arrives bundled up in yet another unfamiliar package. I like to call this English with a twist, and for a solo traveler hungry for information, it offered me a grammatical glimpse into some of the worlds I visited.

1. The environment...it keeps you clean until you unclean it.
2. Enjoy chocolate malt food drink
3. On a sign outside McDonalds: Buy a large meal and win a trip to South Africa
4. At a western style restaurant in Hanoi: Do not step on toilet.
5. At the crocodile bank near Chennai: Visitors are requested not to disturb crocodiles or throw stones, sand, sticks, etc. Crocodiles are for your enjoyment. Please spend/take your time watching and you will find them fascinating and interesting.
6. Sign inside a pagoda in Hue, Vietnam: Note: Solemn place / keep silent / wearing tidy clothes when coming to imperial court. No smoking, wearing hats, beating drum, beating wooden lish, lying, sitting and running around.
7. On a display board at the War Remnants Museum in Saigon [What we call the Vietnam war is called the American war in Vietnam.]: "Yet we were wrong, terribly wrong. We owe it to future generations to explain why." -Robert McNamara
8. Inside Angkor Wat near a restoration site: Inconvenience caused is regretted
9. Near the main tourist street in Siem Reap, Cambodia: How will you feel when your whole country finds out you sexually abused a child?
10: Also near the main tourist street in Siem Reap: Happy Hour / Angkor Draft $.50 Hours scratched out and replaced with, Open - Close!
11. On Khao San Road in Bangkok: Very strong cocktail / We do not check ID card
12. In a botanical garden in Sri Lanka: Beware of resting and parking under trees / Please refrain from feeding the monkeys
13. In Mamallapuram, India: He who litters opens evil's door
14. On a random street in Khon Kaen, Thailand: Poo Milk Cafe
15. On a jungle tour in Khao Yai: The site for bird photograph
16. At the port bound for Koh Pha Ngan: For your safety, all passengers shall wear life jacket along your trip. Please request your life jacket from skipper and wear it all the time. [I never did meet the skipper.]
17. At a bus stop in Laos: Paylay Grilled Goat & Guest House
18. Inside the Hanoi Hilton: ...no frolicking...