street marketing

I ended up buying just one mango from this fruit cart... but I'm still loving the plentifully amazing selection of fruits in Saigon!

Sweet spread of fruits...

Fruits on bikes!

This rooster was just chillin' in the street...
wasn't bothered by scooters zipping by or anything...

Guitar Shop Street

Elizabeth and I met up for facials at My Spa on Saturday... and then went on an excursion to find her a ukulele... a student at school gave her the name and address of a shop in District 3.

We found the street... which we found had numerous guitar/music shops! ...Apparently we found Guitar Shop Street... awesome.

Hilariously... the shop that was recommended is the one that is closed! (You can see our two scooters parked in front... on a bustling street... this is the one shop closed... go figure.)  :P

We went into a number of other guitar shops and wandered down some alleys in the neighborhood...

We stumbled upon a church set among houses on a street as wide as a normal sidewalk...

The statue of Jesus is holding... an upside-down L ??

Pretty  :)

From Guitar Shop Street, I cruised by the huge flower market in District 10... I bought a package of roses, which ended up being a mix of red, yellow, pink, and orange roses... 5 dozen to be exact.

...And I paid 50,000 (about $2.50) ...seriously.  :D

The guy even rigged the flowers to the back of my bike!

It was a long, thorny job to cut the stems and put them all into vases... but so worth it, as now I have roses all over my apartment!

the Sites to See in Saigon

I have a good time scootin' around the city this morning, stopping here and there to take photos of the main tourist sites in District 1. I pass by these buildings  almost everyday... and it's good to remember to take in the specialty of each... and appreciate these amazing sites while I'm here in Vietnam.

The Notre Dame Cathedral (and you can see the post office off to the right side...)

Saigon's Notre Dame Cathedral

Central Post Office

People's Committee Building

Ben Thanh Market

Opera House

(This is where our school's graduation ceremony will be held in a month!)   :)

These buildings really show the French influence that can be found throughout the city... but there's really not as much as I expected there to be throughout the city's architecture. I think this is partly due to so many buildings being torn down, to put up new ones... which is really too bad. I love the older buildings with their energetically antiqued spunk!

than lan face

Today, while sitting on my scooter waiting for my shoes to be finished with the mending... something fell into my lap...

...I looked down...

...and saw a than lan! (lizard) ...and a pretty good-sized than lan at that.

Remember when I had the mystery noise in my apartment months ago? ...turned out to be than lans and they (multiple) are still my apartment pets. I've come to terms with this... and do appreciate them keeping other bugs out... BUT... a than lan in my lap is just not needed. And my than lan pets are nowhere near the size of the one from today!

It's especially not needed when this than lan then crawled up onto my chest... which is when I went to grab for it...

...It THEN ran onto my FACE!

Who knew than lans had claws?!?!

I finally did grab it... by the tail... thankfully, the tail didn't fall off!... and threw it to the ground.

The shoe mending guys were all looking at me, as I had just been freaking out... yelping and flailing my arms around! THEN at least they did see the than lan run up onto the sidewalk and back into the tree where it FELL from ONTO me!

...I could still feel the claw marks on my face a minute or two after this escapade... checked out my face in my scooter's mirror and there were MARKS! ...Not only that ...but the than lan had actually drawn blood!

Geez!

street-side shoe mending...

I had a couple pairs of shoes and a purse that needed mending... so I stopped by the 'shop' (aka... what you see below...)

It's cheap-cheap!

I kind of wanted to just stay and watch them at work for a bit. I had new soles put on one pair of shoes, the soles of some sandals re-glued, and a purse's clasp fixed... cost me a total of 140,000d (about $7.00 USD)... perrrrfect.

Even though this shoe mending business has no door, walls, counter, or sign... the man running the operation DID have a legit business card to give me... with a name, a small map showing the location, and the information for my items!

Just over 24 hours later... my items are ready to go :)

Saigon's stylin'

I really like the presence of bicycles in the city... it is such a part of the culture.

This lady's dessert cart is always on this same street corner! I bought some from her one time though, and it was pretty gross.  :P  ...made worse when she poured MSG all over the so-called cakes...

"Back to school!" Awesome helmet ...AND please take note of the hair roller used as a ponytail holder... this is everywhere in Saigon... 

HCMC... on the street

There's a park in the middle of a roundabout near my neighborhood... there are always people hanging out in and around the area. I stopped to get some fun shots on my way home:

Pinwheels for sale!

Dried squid snack anyone?

I stopped and bought some popcorn (...or so I thought it was going to be freshly popped corn but it turned out to be cooked corn with spices and hot sauce! haha)

This guy's corn shop is on his bike. I love that.

Corn on the cob on a bike cart!