Saturday Trip To the Market

Today was a busy day. We got up this morning and met with our agency representative, Mr. Hiep. He will pick us up at 9am on Sunday and take us to meet Jett for the first time. We are very excited. I don't think I can describe how we feel right now. I'm sure that first meeting will be very emotional. We have invested a tremendous amount of emotion into this over the last year, and it will all climax tommorrow. We can't wait.

After we met Mr. Hiep, our friends Joe and Katie came over to the hotel and took us down to the Binh Than market to look around. (I'm the dainty looking bodyguard on the right for the three celebrities on the left.)This was an amazing experience. The market is one of the most interesting places I have ever been. We entered the market right down the street from our hotel. The side we are on houses the meat and vegetables. You can find almost anything you can imagine here. The aisles are filled with live fish, shrimp, crabs, beef, pork, and things I have never seen before much less know what they are. The smell is putrid, but it is so interesting to walk through. We bought a few things today, but not a lot.

The market has every thing you can imagine. Clothes, jewelry, purses, collectibles, medicine, herbs, coffee, you name it. The price is negotiable on everything. The clothing sales people are very pushy. Some young girls grabbed me today and pulled me into their booth. They keep saying, "We have your size!" She tried to unbutton my shirt so I could try one on. Some of them would make excellent car salesmen. I also don't believe that many people have my size. I am something of a rarity here. I don't speak Vietnamese well but I can pick up on remarks that people make as I am passing about my heighth. We have not met any rude or mean people here. The people are very gracious and polite.

There are a lot of places to buy things in this area. People are set up to sell all up and down the street. There are also a lot of older women cooking, selling fruit, or taking things to the market to sell.

Many of the items are very cheap. We bought DeanAnne a backpack to replace her torn one. It was a North Face and it only cost $10. Many people are walking around begging for money. If you give any to them others will follow you around and beg. Many of these people are handicapped and you feel very sorry for them. There are also alot of very young children roaming around by theirself begging.

Well it's almost dark and I think DeanAnne and I are going to go get something to eat. Next time we should be able to post pictures and tell you about baby Jett. Until then, thanks for checking on us.