It's a Beautiful Day in this Neighborhood...

Finally got out of the house today. They plan was to take a tour of the neighborhood! First stop was to check out some 'property' that was for sale. i don't really consider it property because they were fish ponds. Who wants to buy a fish pond?

My mom was thinking about buying them and raising fish. Then she realized they would just get stolen. That happened to her father's pond when she was little. Plus, buying a pond would be ridiculous. On our way to the ponds we saw this fancy display infront of one of the houses.
Here Thao is demonstrating out to use an old school bathroom. Should have seen his wife Hong and daughter Khanh. They thought it was hysterical.
It was pretty crazy when Thao walked over to the toilet because a bunch of fish swam over and collected under him. It then occurred to me that these nasty fish are waiting for some delectable poop to fall into the water and they have been conditioned to swim under the toilet whenever someone uses it. Seriously, sick nasty. Who wants to eat a poo eating fish?
Here is your typical cow. Skinny and short. Nothing like the monster hormone injected cows my aunt has. i wonder what they tasted like...moo.
Our next stop after visiting the ponds was Thao's house. Khanh took me to her room. Had to climb this steep ladder to get to the upper level and there was her bedroom, this tiny box that i couldn't even stand up in. She didn't even have a bed! Just a rolled up mat and a mosquito net. i seriously almost cried. While i'm in my california king size sleep number bed with dual air chambers controlled with a wireless remote, this sweet girl lays on a mat one a wooden floor trapped in a mosquito net. Sniff.

But i'm sure all that will change.
On the way home we stopped by to see my Grandfather. Well, at least his ashes. This is probably the closest i've ever been to meeting him. My mom of course wouldn't get near the display. She gets all freaked out with dead people and what not. Like she wouldn't even look at this picture without freaking out.

My grandfather's box is black one with the white circle.

Next location on our outting was Lac's house. Its a very nice house and has a fancy basement with easy access to store a scooter. Personally i liked this house more than Lien's. It just flowed better. i got a nice vibe from the stairs too. Not sure what that really means or what i'm talking about but i'm just throwing it out there nonetheless.

The top of the house is pretty fancy. With a bunch of plants and crazy brick walls all over the place. Not sure what that is all about but i dig it.
From the top of the house you can see the river. All those houses one the river are apparently getting torn down and that strip of land is going to be made into a park! Woot! Better view from the house!

From Lac's roof you can see my parents house and in the distance to the right, Lien's pad.

Not sure what is going on in this photo, i believe my mom is spewing off theories of thermodynamics. Lam (the 2 yr old) is obviously taking notes. Fiver year old Bao is producing blue prints for a jet plane.
Khanh has a Vietnamese phrase book in her hand. She's so sweet, she reads it everyday and practices English with me since i don't know any Vietnamese. So far we've mostly just done "hello". But once and awhile she will asks me how i'm feeling and point out buildings in English. Huy (9 years old?) is obsessed with me. Whenever we walk somewhere he holds my hand or hugs my arm. Bao holds my hand too but only when the other two are because he likes to hop on the bandwagon like that.

This girl in green...lives a couple houses down. i forget her name but her nick name is "Iraq"...like the country. Because she's so dark. Does anyone else find this ridiculous?
Here is the demon dog Baby. Spawned from the fires of hell. Sure he looks sweet and you can't imagine him hurting anyone..that's what i thought until i went to pet him. He gets scared easily because he's pretty much blind and i found out he doesn't like to be petted if he doesn't know you. So he bit me. i think i'll live but you never know for sure.
After dinner we went out with everyone to get something 'sweet' as my mom would say. We got these crazy things. Like a crazy ass healthy snow cone. The bottom of the glass has layers of coconut, beans, lotus, and other random junx that i don't even want to know about.

When you get it you mash the crushed ice down to make a slushy of everything before consuming it. It was pretty tasty. Much better than the last one i had.
Here is the gang sitting around the kid tables. For all of us to get something to eat it cost a little over 5 bones. Pretty crazy if you ask me.
Here we have Lam again. He's an aspiring model. i believe i've mentioned that before but here i caught him in the act of posing! i call this look 'Brown Bamboo'. See what i did there? Its like 'Blue Steel' from Zoolander but i changed it! Oh man i'm so creative i can't stand it sometimes.

Overall it turned out to be a pretty good day. Hope i don't get sick.

Chickity China the Chinese Chicken

This was probably the most boring day so far. i did absolutely nothing and loved it. Is that wrong? Being in a fancy country like this and just sitting in the house all day on the computer? Like i could do the same thing back in the states.

Anyway, the most exciting thing that went down today was that we installed a light on the front of the house! Not only a light, but a motion sensor too! Pretty gangsta, eh? Well i think so.

The neighbors thought it was pretty cool. They asked my mom if we had a surveillance system too. We don't, but of course my mom said we did. My mom is so tricky sometimes. Like that time she told me i was eating pork...chicken...no it was pork. Turned out it was rat. The sad thing is that it tasted delicious.

In my lone picture i took today you can see Thao and Thoung installing the light. Tin was helping too but he isn't in the picture. Thoung is wearing the helmet for protection. He's silly.

Grilled Fish and Romance...

Alright, so i've been staying in cheri's room for the first couple days since i had yet to get a bed in my room. My mom did some bed frame shopping and found a fancy one that was actually built for a newly wed couple. But they have been late picking up so the guy had no problem selling it to us and making a new one for them. Nothing too fancy but its pretty strong and that's all that matters to me.

Our next buy was a mattress. We stopped by this random shop one our way to check out the fancy hotel down the main road. The first mattress they had was like foam. Really soft and thin. Pretty sure i wouldn't like it after awhile. So we asked for something a little harder. The lady then pulled out this folded mat thing..like it was rock hard. i can't believe anyone would sleep on this thing. Like it was pretty much concrete. We looked around the store some more and found a queen mattress that pretty much looked like a regular mattress and was a little firmer than the first but much softer than the second. i felt like i was in a Goldilocks story or something by this point..anyway, we got it but never got a really good look at the mattress because it was wedge vertically between two other mattresses.

When they delievered teh mattress about an hour later, this was the surpise in my bedroom...

Seriously, why do they even bother making designs on mattresses?! They're just going to be covered up with sheets anyway! i guess i'll never know, lemon.
At least the mattress sits above the foot of the frame so i don't have to working about hitting it with my legs getting in and out of bed.
After i moved my clothes and junx up from cheri's i did some work on the computer. After awhile one my cousins knocked on my door with this!
i forget what its called but its freakin' delicious! Its some crazy sticky rice that has been cooked forever with black eye peas and coconut milk poured over it. Pretty much the best thing to eat after a good Vietnamese dinner..or for a snack!

jonathan isn't a fan of the stuff because the black eye peas remind him of prison food...at least that's what he told me.

Grilled fish was on the menu for dinner! Big fat fish from the river! They were still alive when they started cooking them! My cousins first stuck a stick through them so it would be easier to turn them on the newly purchased grills my mom had bought in the morning.

The one fish kept moving its tail the whole time it was cooking. Silly dead fish..moving is for living fish!

Here my mom is giving me fish cooking advice. The little boy in the picture is Lam (sp?). He is hilarious. He does this model impression. Caught it on video but you'll probably never see it.

More fish!

Still grillin'.

With the fish we had noodles, assorted veggies, rice paper, and roasted pork!Once the fish was deboned some oil and onions were poured over the fish. It was quite tasty.

My mom ate the head of course...i stay away from that stuff myself. i'm on a strick no fish head diet.

Trust Me Trust Me, I'm a Pharmacist...

First morning in Chau Doc we grabbed a bowl of pho, surprised? i'm not. We went to this pho shop that my sisters say is the best place in town. i'll be the judge of that. i don't know what to think anymore, i've had so many bowls of pho i don't know what its suppose to taste like. What i do know is that this bowl was way better than that one i had in Nha Trang or that bowl my first night in Saigon.

Cà phê sữa đá was the drink i had. i guess that's the way you spell it.

Here is the outside of the place.

i feel like a giant at these restaurants. With my knees hitting the bottom the table and sitting on these tiny kid stools..
This must be one of those cute Vietnamese girls brent was talking about.. Personally they don't do it for me. i have one Vietnamese woman (mom) in my life, and quite frankly that is more than enough.
After breakfast we hit up the Chau Doc market! This place is pretty crazy. Sure it doesn't offer as much stuff as the market in Saigon, but the when it comes to buying stuff here its way cheaper than in Saigon.
While walking around we stopped at my cousin's wife's pharmacy! If only one of my cousins had a rice patty, that would gangsta and i would be all over that. But i'll have to wait until we visit my great aunt to see that.
Here is our crazy house. My room is on the second level on the right. i have the smallest room in the house..lemon. But i also get the most sunlight! Take that suckers! Also, since the room is smaller it takes less time to cool it down with the air conditioning! holla!
There is also a dog here, well..i guess it belongs to my cousins. Its name is Baby. Apparently cheri named it after petting it for hours until it would stop whining all night. What happens when i try to pet him? He bites me. Right on the joint of my index finger and it hurts everytime i move it. Baby is lucky i don't eat dog. If i did he would already be in my stomach.

Chau Doc What What?!

Got an early start in the morning. Originally we were going to leave at 5am but the driver was waiting outside of the hotel since 4am so we hit the road at 4:30. i sat in the front and slept most of the way. They time was awake though...i was scared for my life. It seemed like every 5 minutes we almost collided with a car going the other way.

We had to jump on two ferries to get there.

The second one was jammed pack with motorcycles/scooters.

After getting settled in the house in Chau Doc, we had to be out the door again to go to a wedding down the street! i won't lie, it was a little awkward...the food on the other hand was alright.
In this picture you can tell that i was thrilled to sit at a table with a bunch of random Vietnamese women that don't speak any english.

Got to try a new beer! Too bad it was only 4.3% alcohol.

Here is the bride in and groom!

Dessert!

i keep forgetting what this fruit is but its awesome. Looks weird, but still awesome.

For some reason my dad took a picture of this girl...because she looked cute? i guess she is kind of cute but its like this is for a school photo or something...
After the wedding we headed back to the house and chilled for a bit before going to bed. My cousins were nice enough to give me a back massage. Its nice to be back. How come brent never gives me massages?