Score!

SCORE! July 13, 2010 Tuesday
Today was a walking score. On the taxi ride out to karaoke Sunday night, we passed a Star Mart down the street from the night market. It was way down the street, but at least it was easy to find thanks to a landmark we are so familiar with now. Today, we set off to walk to that Star Mart. Instead, just 2 blocks down from the night market, there was a ‘book store.’ I said, “Hey! Let’s go in and check it out!” What the hell; we had all afternoon.
We started to walk past the military security at the front door, and he told us to check my bag. I just know this because I’ve done it so many times in so many stores; he didn’t actually speak English, and I didn’t understand his Vietnamese; it was purely context. OK, so I check my bag. I asked for the plastic bag to be wrapped around my bag so I could carry it around, but they didn’t go for that, so I took my ticket and hoped for the best. It didn’t really matter: My wallet and Anthony’s wallet came out and with us through the store, so the only things left were my translation book and a few odds and ends.
Within minutes, we were SO happy we stopped!! They didn’t sell any dairy or fruit/vegetables, but they sold everything else we needed, and we get most of our fruit and vegetables from the street markets now anyway. It turned out that we didn’t even need to trek to the StarMart. We may make the attempt anyway some day, just to continue exploration, but it was nice to know that this is so within walking distance for us, and it saved us about $120,000 in round trip taxi rides that we were spending on ‘Big C.’ Oh, yeah, and they sold books, too, but no novels in English, so that part was a wash for us. Not that we actually planned to buy any, anyway. We each bought a novel last weekend and read them in one day—not a strategic use of funds. Instead, I found a site where I can download 5 novels for free every month. Many are ‘home grown’ written by non-famous people who just uploaded their novel, and many are classics, but they’re fun to read and keep us occupied in our down time.
Oh, the hotel people are SO NICE. She just came in with new pillows. Someone must have told her that I thought the pillows were hard or something, I don’t know. I bought my own the second day we were here, so I can’t believe she even worried about it, but in she came. I gave her (well, actually I gave ‘him,’ but I told him to share) several bananas that I bought from the street vendor this morning before work.
That’s another story. I was in the room, dressed and doing something, when I heard the ‘bai-da!’ monotone guy outside. I grabbed my wallet and went running down the stairs—he’s the banana guy!! When I got outside, he was nowhere to be found, but I was sure I had heard him. I looked at some woman standing there in the street and said, “Bai-da?” in his same monotone. This doesn’t mean banana; I don’t know what the hell it means, though. Anyway, she was like, “Taxi?” I said, “No. Bananas!” as I kept looking around and spotted the guy with his bicycle cart coming out from the back side street a block down from our hotel. I went running and stopped him. I know I would have mortified Anthony had he been outside, but the banana guy was just glad to see me. Anyway, it was a little victory, because I recognized what I was hearing when it was still far enough away to get down 2 flights of stairs and catch him! Up until now, if I’m not on the street when he goes by, forget it, I get no bananas. And let me tell you, bananas are a staple food for me while I’m here. It’s either bananas or Pepto Bismol, and I’m down to my last pink chewable.

That’s my story for today!!!