rooftop get-together

Sarah had a get-together at her place this past Friday night. Her house has the best rooftop! It was nice to hang out up top... overlooking the river and the city :)

rain, rain

Sarah's prepared for the rainy season!

hair washing... a VN best-kept secret

A best-kept secret in Vietnam?? -- getting your hair washed!

Seriously.

For 70,000d (about $3.50) I just got a 45-minute head massage... which also included a shoulder massage and even a hair wash and hair style.   :P

The massage is the best... AND when you actually get your hair washed, there is no awkward leaning back in a chair with the edge of the sink going into your neck...

...No ...you lay down in a chair-bed, which conveniently leads onto a pillow in the sink!

(There was even a girl curled up, asleep on the chair-bed next to me.)

Pure awesomeness.

Mom - you better believe this is on the list of things to do with you while you're here this summer!

There's a lovely little salon (very local) in my neighborhood on one of the side streets... this salon, unlike most in the area, actually has doors on the front of the shop and even air conditioning!

One woman did my hair/massage... and the other two girls in the shop sat next to us the entire time looking at me... looking at my hair... giggling... and even trying to touch my weird hair here and there.   :P

Hilarious. Awesome. Will definitely do this again.

Then... I bought these beautiful flowers on my 2-block walk back to my place...

I love my neighborhood.   :)

Amazing Race in Vietnam

I've never seen the television show, Amazing Race, but this one looks awesome!

This video was uploaded to YouTube in November of 2009... so it's an old season but the part in Vietnam is interesting and shows some great parts of the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City...

I'm surprised that they were able to get clearance to tape a television show in Vietnam... especially in 2009! (It would be hard enough to do so today...)

[gross] STREET CAKE!

Below is a picture of street cake from a lady's cart that is usually on Tham Ngoc Thach Street, which runs into the roundabout at Turtle Lake and then leads right to the back of Notre Dame Cathedral...

I recently decided to pick up and try some of these treats... and now I know that I don't ever need to buy this kind of street cake again! Haha. It was pretty gross... especially since the lady poured (what I think must have been) MSG into the bag before handing it to me.

The plain-looking cake on the right isn't so bad... more tasteless than a bad taste. I believe it's made with coconut milk.

The pastel colorful treats are the gross part. They are gummies and coated with coconut shavings... but the gummy part is no bueno.

Tip: If you're in Vietnam and want to try some street cake... go to a lady who's making pitzel-looking flat waffles and small pyramid-shaped cakes that you can buy in a little bag... now those are delicious. They are usually cooking them right in front of you... on a small burner that is inside one of the baskets connected to the long stick used to carry her 'street cake shop' on her shoulders. There is usually a lady selling such cakes right outside the main post office ...(when facing the post office, she's on the left).   :)

yellow

This is on the day calendar that I bought in Bangkok... yellow is my favorite color... but I'm pretty sure the grammar issues will continue to bother me [in a good way, actually] throughout the year of 2012...  :P  

normal miscellany...

I'm rather used to seeing flattened rats on the street... but this frog caught my eye.
(Just typing that sentence demonstrates to me how much my life has changed since moving to SE Asia.)

I'm not sure which is worse... seeing a frog like this... or on our school's lunch menu (because that happens too...)