Thit Cho

Today was a chance to explore south. I wandered south to go a park I had not been to before. The streets are still not very crowded and I suspect that many people are away on holiday. I have found a nice park to visit and make my way over to a lake. I have brought a newspaper and find a nice veranda to sit on. It is very hot and others come to enjoy the view and the breeze. Several people are taking naps around the park. Suddenly it starts to rain but the vine is so thick over the veranda that we don’t get wet.

I have decided make my way back towards to movie house but after the rain it is now like a sauna with steam coming off the ground. It doesn’t help when I see a sign saying it is 33 degrees Celsius. I don’t know what that is in Fahrenheit but since a normal body temp is 37 Celsius I know that is hot. I find that I am basically stumbling from one cool spot to another. Although I don’t always look the neatest as a Westerner I can go into a large hotel and hang out in the lobby for a few minutes to cool off.

One of the cool spots is an ice cream parlor and I have some of the best gelato I have had in some time. They send me on my way to the movie house on Ba Treu street. I think that I am close but oddly the numbers on the left and right side of the street are not in sequence. I need to get to 191 but on the left side it is already 280. The location of the cinema is on the 6^th floor of what is by all appearances and American Mall. The theatre looks a lot like the new Rave in Vestavia. The tickets are a lot less but in a new twist the seats are assigned. I go to see Fool’s Gold which is good escapist fare. The audience seems to laugh on cue but there is a lot of physical comedy. I wander about the translation since it was in English. Right as in correct was translated re phai, which I know means the direction but I don’t know if it works the same way in Vietnamese. I will have to check it out with my friends.

I thought I was cool enough to walk home but I found that I was still far from home. However, I notice a shop with the words thit cho on the window. I know that this means dog meat survived here. I decided it was time to pass and get a cab back to Ha Noi towers.