The last two days were pretty much uneventful.  Until…the monsoon rain. 

I finally washed some clothes and had them hanging up to dry outside in the sun.  All of a sudden the monsoon rains started and they were pouring hard and fast.  The kids and I were upstairs playing cards when we all looked at each other and scattered to our clothes that were hanging to dry.  Mine downstairs, their’s upstairs over the balcony. We tried as quickly as we could to get our clothes out the rain.  On way, running through the living room, I dropped a pair of underwear on the floor. 

I think it is a big taboo to have anyone see you underwear because when you hang it up to dry you have to shield it with a shirt or pants or if possible hang a pillowcase over them.  But no one seemed to notice anyway.

Late in the night, at about 8:00 (pitch dark outside) the kids asked if I wanted to go with them to the cafe.  Of course I said yes.  On our way they taught me new words like “sơ thích” which means hobby.  However, the cafe was closed so that asked if I wanted to go far away to a different cafe. They said it was 1 kilometer away.  Me, not knowing how to convert between our stupid imperial system and the metric system said, “Sure, why not?”

I was about 10 or 15 minutes away and mostly in the dark.  At one point we had to cross a huge pool of muddy water caused by the earlier monsoon. And of course, i stuck my foot in mud up to my ankle. 

When we finally got there, I drinked tea, ate ice cream with fresh fruit, and had hot chocolate.  The kids also had similar deserts but ate yoghurt instead of hot chocolate. A desert for 4 which would be at least $20 in the U.S. cost a mere $3 here. I have barely spent $10 so far.  My breakfast at the market has costed about $1 at the most.

Getting here may be expensive ($1400) but once I’m here, it very inexpensive, and delicious.