We’re legal.  Here’s the top of our lease.  For some reason, I love this piece of paper.

Here’s what it translates to.  A sweet, one-room studio apartment on the 2nd floor with a little balcony.

And a cool bathroom door.  Even more cool than the bathroom door is the bum gun.  Heh, heh.  Who knew we needed one of those?  If you don’t know what that is, you’ll just have to come out and visit us.

The outside of our apartment, with the  abandoned building next door cut out of the frame.

We have our own little alley to get to the street behind us.  It’s the “good acoustics” alley.  Every day the same food stand is set up at the other end.  Each day we all smile and repeat, xin chao.  Hallo.

 

Our market run for the day.  The green leaves are morning glory, called rau (which translates as “vegetable”).  They’re stir-fried into everything, or sautéed as a solo dish.

The big purple thing is a banana flower.  Take the leaves apart, roll them up, then slice super thin.  Soak in lime-water, then toss in a salad and dress with lime, garlic, fish sauce, sugar and chili.  A little crunchy, like a cross between an apple and a daikon.

 

This big dude looked too good to pass up.  Gac fruit.  Turns out, it cures pretty much everything.

 

Also new to us were the little, round, reddish fruits.  Fresh passion-fruits.  Their aroma is heavenly.

 

Outside our gate a vendor walked by with the 2 baskets hanging from a pole, with these freshly baked sesame crisps.  The smell was as good as the crunch.

 

Just another day in the country of independence, freedom and happiness.  So far, so good.