Shopping....

Hi from Anne. Mark and I found ourselves exploring a grocery store today on the edge of the city. We rode our bikes all over hell today, unsure where to go or what was what, but ended up at a riverfront restaurant with Saigon beer and fresh spring rolls. I bought a beautiful light blue shirt and a birthday gift for friend Andrea.

Anyway, these photos show Mark wearing face masks that are for sale everywhere and which practically EVERYONE wears to fight the exhaust fumes (personally, I don't think the fumes are that bad, but I'm only here for six months...). Another shows a supermarket aisle heavy on the sauces. Another shows a fancy boat that you can take overnight along the river (definitely not for those with children, though I'm still hoping that with enough "training," our nanny, Trang, might be cajoled to do an overnight for us, but that's way down the road...)

Anyway, we are well and looking forward to the weekend. We have two excursions lined up: Mark will run with a group led by Hanno, a German expat who runs a great resort here and I will take the kids to the resort for drinks and swim and we will all meet up after at the resort, and another on Sunday that involves another resort on the edge of town, My Khanh, much more local, but also involving a swimming pool and drinks.


Lest you think we're having too much fun here, please know we spend a good amount of time hanging laundry out to dry, trying to keep or get Lily potty trained, and standing in our alleyway for sometimes monotonous hours watching the kids bike up and down. Not a bad life, I guess. Very little excitement, but I do love to lie in bed for just a minute each morning and watch the sun filter through the coconut trees out the window. That part is good.

love to all,

Anne