Caught in the Rain

On Friday, Mark and I decided to go Apt hunting. He had seem some on the internet and decided to check them out, of course, only having a street name did not help so we had lunch at a KFC and asked if they spoke English and could direct us to the street, four maps later we had a vague notion of where we were headed. Remember many of the street names have the same word in them so you may think you have the right street but don't. After walking for a mile or so the sky opened up and the wind started blowing so that my umbrella, my third on this trip, wanted to just blow away. Thank goodness that KFC is on every corner, we headed in for desert to wait out the storm. They usually only last ten minutes or so. This is where I took the pictures. Nothing stops these people, mainly because it rains alot and they can't afford to stop and wait it out. They just throw on a poncho and take off. Some, if they don't have them with them pull up to a street vendor and buy one. I bought one after that storm and boy they help, especially since Mark does not like to carry his umbrella, but they are hot.

Now back to my story, we ended up not finding the new apt building on that long, long street but took a taxi to another area that I like to call the Beverly Hills of Vietnam. Most of the people that live there are foreigner's whose companies are paying their expenses. We found a real estate office and the lady, who spoke English took us to look at several in a gated area. Not gated like we think of gated but a gate none the less. Three of the buildings did not have lift's or elevators so we ended up walking up four flights of stairs, twice, more like eight because there were two flights for each floor. We liked the apt but No way could I do those stairs alot, especially with groceries. My face was so red by the time we got up there that the poor lady was worried about me. I tried to tell her that my face always gets this way when I am hot. Most of those apts that we saw were out of our price range but the lady was so nice. Mark dropped his cell phone in the taxi on the way back and he called her and she actually called the cab company and the dispatcher put a call out and three hours later the taxi driver returned our cell phone and we gave him a nice reward. How rare is that?

We are now searching for a place to live closer to the airport and friends. Hopefully we find one soon, the suitcases have taken us over.