A Neighborhood Tour

On Friday, I met Steven for lunch at a vegetarian restaurant near his school, where you can order from a variety of dishes, on display on a cart for your viewing pleasure, for less than a dollar. And it was delicious. Vietnam has a leg up on Atlanta in the tasty cheap food department.

After lunch, I walked home from the school taking pictures along the way, thinking again what a good decision it was (Steven's) to live close to the school.

When I got close to the apartment, I decided to continue my walk down through the park we walk to to get to Hung Vuong Plaza where our local movie theater is and see what else the Plaza had to offer.

One of the biggest perks of our location is this park and our proximity to the movie theater, which is one of our favorite pastimes (although since we've been here our movie viewing has decreased substantially due to the sad selection of movies that make it to Vietnam).

Hung Vuong Plaza is a very upscale mixed residential/commercial development to rival any think similar in the states. The first three floors are one huge department store selling everything you'd find in a Macy's at home at similar prices (I saw a dress I liked for over 2 million dong (or $120)). The fourth floor houses a bowling ally/video arcade and the most enticing food court I have ever seen, complete with Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Japanese/Sushi food stalls, along with the requisite "Ga Ran Kentucky." The entire fifth floor is comprised of the largest fitness facility I have ever seen, "California Wow" a gym based out of Thailand, with what I estimated as at least a hundred stationary bikes, treadmills and elipitical machines. At 1:30 on a Friday afternoon, I saw three people working out, but perhaps over 300 do come at once to use all of those machines around 6:00 p.m...

The next floor consists of a fancy looking Chinese Restaurant, The Royal Garden and the next floor houses the MegaStar movie complex.

During my tour of the Plaza's fancy bathroom facilities, I received a call from my husband informing me that his principal had taken ill and that their afternoon of professional development had been postponed; so I made my way back down through the over-priced merchandise and back through the pretty little park to our apartment, where Steven and I planned our next adventure.

The beginning of the park around the corner from our apartment.


The big pink church around the corner - which is unfortunately surrounded by a barred fence so I couldn't get in on Friday - maybe on Sunday...


Our walk to the movie theater through the park.


More Park


More Park


More Park


The Hung Vuong Plaza (and movie theater) through the trees on the right.


A sink in the bathroom on Hung Vuong Plaza that was so fancy I had to take a picture. Yes. I am easily impressed.