My Cyclo Adventure

On Wednesday, my friend picked me up and took me to the Metro, comparable to our Costco or Sam's club.  I needed to look for a small vacuum along with meats and other food items.  I found one that and box was not to large so after completing our shopping we went out to her motor bike and discovered that with the box and two large shopping bags we would not be able to carry this safely.  Her bike is smaller than her sons.  I offered to take a taxi back and she went to give the taxi driver instructions.  Well I am not sure what happened, they haggled awhile, I don't think she liked his price ?? After a few minutes she looked at me and said, you take cyclo home.  OK, I have not done that yet so, new experience!  They are trying to outlaw them in Vietnam because they are such a hazard, to slow for all of the motor bikers and taxi's.  I got in with my box and the thing is like a lounge chair.  He put the cover over the top because it was still sprinkling.  Now this was a very small, thin man and I am no lightweight especially with my box. We did alright the first few miles but then we came to a hill.  I really wanted to jump off and let him peddle up the hill  but their was a communication problem and there was rush hour traffic and the roads were flooded from the storm.  Well to make a long story short, we made it home in 55 minutes a 20 minute motor bike ride and as we came to my building I was pointing to it and he thought that I was admiring it.  He went right on past and I thought ok, now what, maybe he is going to the light to turn around?  As I said traffic was heavy.  No we passed the light and finally I began pointing back and trying to tell him to turn around.  He finally got the message. Arriving back I realized that my friend had my purse in one of the shopping bags with my money.  I did have a large bill so I gave it to him and of course he had no change.  He went to one of the men sitting by the building and asked for change. The nice man called me over and said he did not have any change but let him keep the change, he is very poor !! Well I ended up tipping him the whole charge for  the trip so he made double on me but he also had to peddle this not so light weight foreigner.  Never a dull moment !!

CYCLO

Happy Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I just wanted to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving.  We are so grateful for all of you who are taking this journey with us, we could not do it without you !!

Since we are 15 hours ahead of you, I wish I could say that we had a great turkey dinner. Unfortunately, I don't think turkeys live in Vietnam, not the bird kind anyway, so I opted for a pork roast, which is plentiful and of course rice and a salad.  We had been given a bag of limes and we love the lime juice at most cafes, so I squeezed them for the juice and all I got out of the whole bag was one cup of juice.  Now I have never done this before but how hard can it be? Well....  I think what makes the drink palatable is the tons of sugar they put in it.  I on the other hand used splenda, and splenda and still more splenda, tart is a good word to describe the end results.  Even watering it down did not help.  

Mark has been teaching this week and for lunch they asked him what he usually eats.  He told them 1/2 tuna sandwich, yogurt, some chips and maybe an apple.  Well they wanted to please him but could not find a can of tuna so they brought him a can of pork-liver paste, yogurt, and for desert would you like some durian?  Durian is a very smelly fruit that you either love or hate, we tried it in Thailand on one of our trips and people were burping it up for hours, of course we were on the road in a van which did not help.  Never again!!  He opted for an apple. Smart guy. 

Tomorrow I will get to see my family by SKYPE anyway.  They are all going to Jen's for dinner. I hear even my grandsons are dressing up in their Indian costumes to show me what they wore to their school Thanksgiving party.  They are so cute !!  Grammie misses you guys.

Jen's oldest, Ethan, turned 5 years old this week.  Happy Birthday BIG GUY!!   

New Furniture

Yesterday the rest of our much needed furniture arrived.  We are renting a semi- furnished apt. but there were some things we had to buy ourselves.  No Asian home can be without a shoe rack or cabinet for those who come to visit.  They could leave them outside the door, which many do but then you run the risk of someone walking off with them, so we invested in the three tier variety.  It has a beautiful finish and can hold up to 20 pairs of shoes.  A must have.  Then because we do want people to come and visit we had to get a bed for them to sleep in.  Our first guest was treated to a mat, a very thin mat, on the floor.  Fortunately she was used to sleeping this way.  We have a guest coming from the states who really does need a bed.  We ordered the frame but had not decided on a mattress.  There is a company in Australia that makes a special mattress that everyone here seems to love so we told our friend to order it for us.  That was at 2:30 yesterday, at 4:00 we heard a knock on the door and much to our surprise a gentleman had our new mattress.  He probably broght it on a motor bike !!  What service, the US should take note.  We had to run out to the ATM and get money to pay for the thing.  Did I mention that this mattress is only 10 centimeters in depth.  So now we have an official Asian bed!  Low to the ground.  I might be getting to old for this.  

   Then there was the chair that Mark wanted.  It is a wonderful wood variety, no rocking chairs in this country, that we could find anyway.  It has flowers made from eggshells etched into the wood.  It  moves, which is good enough for Mark.  The bottom extends out to make a lounge type chair.  I think he likes his naps to much.  The only problem is, it is all wood.  Not to bad but I think I will invest in a cushion for the head as I tried to nap in it and ended up with a headache.  I found a chair for myself which is a glider but I have to remember where we saw it and get a ride back there.   

New Furniture

The Goats

ODDS AND ENDS

Ok, so I hear the roosters every morning around 4 Am, early risers, and then the church bells, not sure what time they start but I was up at 3 AM and sure enough they were ringing, not sure why, do they have services at that hour? And of course, the dogs are also early risers and the horns of the people going to work start at 6 Am but why does someone not hear that baby crying and take care of him?  Well it turns out that that baby is a herd of baby goats.  We have a large marsh like area behind our apt building and as I was preparing to close the windows for the rain that was coming I spotted them heading around the pond and as I watched, they proceeded to go down the street and into a warehouse type building, that I guess they call home. I have seen and heard them several times since and they have found an old piece of cement to lay down on and sunbathe ! It is so cute to watch.  

Oh what you can see from ten stories up.  I love the view and so I am at the windows alot.  There always seems to be someones roof top that needs repair, especially since the wind can blow hard when the storms get ready to hit.  Since the roofs are made of tin, there is always someone out there banging away with the repairs.  Then there are the antenna's, of which every home has, they are a thin pole that reaches to the sky above the housetops.  The winds love to reek havoc with them too.  Of course, there is also the factory near us that has this metal crushing sound coming from it.  Do they recycle here?  

Saturday night Mark went hunting, on foot, since we have no motor bike, for a new place to eat.  He came back and we ventured out to his great find.  It was a couple blocks away and we had to use sign language and pictures to order.  We decided to just try the basic fried rice and there famous noodle soup.  We were not sure if they understood but when it arrived we ended up with fried rice with several types of meat in it and the soup, well, I have no idea but it had no noodles and  the meat in it had lots of bones. Next time we take the dictionary with us.  Then there are the girls who stand guard over you, I mean who serve you.  They never take their eyes off of you.  I am not sure if it was because we were foreigners and they were curious or if they guard everyone.  The service was good, the tea never ran out.    We ended the evening on the 17th floor cafe of our building, which only serves coffee and ice cream, not sure why they call them cafes, and watched the airplanes take off and land.  

I decided that I had to do something about my gray roots.  It was way past time to have them colored.  I got a recommendation for a salon that catered to foreigners and called them.  They wanted $80.00 US to just color and that did not include a cut.  Well we are on a budget so I went next door to the market and since it is pretty small they only had black dye so on Sunday Mark and I took a taxi across town to a larger market.  We had pizza and shopped at another larger market.  They had black and two bottle of blond.  I chose the blond since black just does nothing for my skin color, although I might blend in better.  The directions came in four different languages and since I am not fluent in any of them yet, I checked out the pictures and then found a bit of English subtitles.  I got ready for the process and prayed that I would not look like a freak at the end of it all.  Well the results were good but I sure enjoy it more when I can have it done by someone else.  Don't even ask about a haircut.  Mark got one for $1.00 US and yes you get what you pay for.  I had to cut the back because they only trimmed the top!! I think we will continue looking.

 

A Ride Anyone ??

After returning from Singapore, to our humble abode we realized that time is flying and we have to get some more furniture as our friend Ken from the states is coming to visit.  I don't think he would like the hard tile floors or the simple mats that the Vietnamese sleep on.  Our friend took me on his motor bike to look at furniture.  There is an area here that has tons of store fronts with much the same furniture.  It was about 4:30 PM when we began our trip.  Rush hour here begins at 4PM.  I have decided that if I am going to live here I need to have a better attitude about this motor bike thing.  After the half hour drive to the furniture store I am convinced that I can do this, even if we did almost cream a young girl who pulled out in front of us.  That lead to a conversation about women (girl) drivers.  He stated that it always seems to be the girls that cause the accidents.  Sound familiar?  We even stopped at a Pizza Hut and brought home two large pizza's, two for the price of one night.  He carried them and drove.    Now Mark is wanting to get a bike so we can get out more.  I trust the friend who has been riding for 10 years with no accidents or tickets but Mark??

The next day he came back and we ventured out again, this time to the large Metro market.  We passed the meat section and they were handing out samples.  I took it and then asked what it was.  Would you believe I tried barbecue crocodile.  It was spicy from the sauce and OK,  but I do much better if I don't know what it is I am eating.  After buying our many items, I was stocking up since I don't get here often, I thought I would take a taxi back to our apt.  Oh no, he said, we can carry it on the bike !!  Well we had a case of diet coke plus a bug zapper, plus a juicer and a bucket for mopping and a mop,  plus a lot of meat and other items.  Well he packed it all into two large bags which he had in front of him with the case of coke.  I held the bucket and mop and wished I had a camera.  We made it home without mishap and I got to save myself, the taxi fare.  And he has never had an accident, did I mention that?  Now all I need is a helmet that fits me.  Mark bought one after we arrived but I just thought I would take other transportation, until I found out how much it cost for a taxi.  my Next venture will be a city bus !!

Singapore - Mini Vacation

We had to fly to Singapore this week to get a replacement insulin pump, mine died last week.  We have friends there who let us stay with them.  They live on the 19th floor of a 21 floor apt building. The view from their apt is beautiful.  They are right across the street from the water and we could see all of the ships docked there.  The lights at night were fabulous.  

Singapore is a little bit of heaven.   They have a very strong litter law and no gum chewing.  They have such a well built and well maintained island.  They only allow a certain number of cars on the island and those must be equipped with a machine that you insert a debit type card into.  As you drive in certain areas you are charged if it is a peak time of day and also  the machine debits money for parking in certain areas.  It can get quit expensive to own a car.  They have a great transit system.  The bus goes everywhere and also a subway.  

On Tuesday we were taken to a shopping area called Orchard Street.  It is a street that caters to those who love to spend money.  There is also a Starbucks on every corner.  Many of the malls are 5 - 6 stories and have most everything including grocery stores.  We also went to an Ikea store where we had lunch and I was able to look around.  I got so lost in that place, they actually had arrows on the floor to direct you from area to area.

Everywhere we go there seems to be funder storms as my grandson, Gavin loves to call them.

The lighting, lights up the skies and then the loud, loud booms come.  Our apt in Vietnam was actually hit by lighting last Sunday.  It was the loudest boom I had ever heard and then we heard something fall and crash.  They do have lighting rods on the buildings.

We have been invited back to spend Christmas in Singapore, they decorate the whole city, they have already started and we look forward to the programs they have.  It won't be home but it will be the next best thing.  

SIngapore