Today we go to the nearby island where there are some promenades and a large street market.

We taxied to a promenade at one end of a bridge over the canal.  From there B and M went running and I walked the promenade on this side of the bridge then crossed the bridge and walked the promenade on the other side.  Eventually, we reconnected in the area of the street market to get soup.

I met a number of people and creatures on my promenade.

Can you guess which one solicited my attention?

Since Sunday was a holiday (Teachers Day) most of the vendors were not working so the market was rather sparse.

The soup was amazing, of course.

Apparently I dove into the soup with such gusto that I neglected to shoot a picture.

We returned to the apartment and I remarked on our afternoon.

We are sitting here this Sunday with the tree lit, a fire on the TV, and Buble’s holiday album while Bill looks back through pictures from Albania and Maria irons things that like to be ironed.  Bill is telling stories of riding through that countryside and not getting attacked by dogs, poppies growing in the wheat fields, and finding a donkey skull.  There does come a moment in one’s life where one gets rid of one’s donkey skull.

Then I left B and M to have dinner with Dave (who lived in Seattle for a time) and Phuc (who will be my tour guide into the Mekong Delta).

Phuc will be my guide for an excursion into the Mekong Delta.

Having eaten our fill we departed and went to Pasteur Street Brewing for some beer.

I bought a small bottle of barrel aged barley wine to share and we caught some of the opening ceremonies around the first game for the World Cup (Qatar v Ecuador).

And finally walked home to sleep.