First, I have to post a picture for the other family.  The husband was not able to come on the trip and still hasn’t had a chance to see his little girl, so I’m posting a picture for them here:

That said, this afternoon we went to the market, which is just up the street about a block or so.  It is kind of a free-for-all.  Whatever you would like to buy, you can.  The part that is a little difficult to deal with is the food aspect.  It is hot and humid (not awful … probably not as bad as a person would think it would be), and there is all this food sitting in the open.  On the way to the market, there were several people selling food on the street.  Here is a lady selling crabs:

And I have no idea what the next two people are selling.  I didn’t ask and didn’t want to know!

There are many vendors that walk from place-to-place with carts loaded with food.  I loved this cart because of all the bananas on it!

There are also people walking around outside the market trying to get you to buy their wares.  While most of the people are very low key and not very obnoxious, these vendors who are walking around are very aggressive and can be somewhat irritating.  We had one guy trying to sell sun glasses that, even after telling him over-and-over that we were not interested, he insisted on putting the glasses on one of the lady’s with us.

At the market, there are several out door shops with lots of really pretty flowers and various souvenirs.

Inside the market, it is divided into three areas.  The front area is various meats and fruits that can be purchased.  This is NOT the place for Westerners to go.  Raw food mixed with hot, humid air.  This area pretty much ruined my lunch the other day.  Below is some sort of meat, origin unknown.

And here are three little fish in a basket.  I kept looking for a few loaves and we could have fed the whole place!

The next third has cooked foods where people can sit down and eat.  Again, I wish I could send you the smells along with the pictures.  It is probably to your benefit that I can’t.

Finally, the back third is clothing, electronics, souvenirs, etc.  When we first got there Kelly commented on not knowing where to start.  As you will see by the progression of shots, she pretty much figured things out quickly and was working hard to get some deals.  This first girl is the one of the girls that Kelly mentioned in her blog.  She was very cute a personable and worked the BOTH of us like a pro.  I wasn’t sure we were EVER going to get out of her booth. 

These girls didn’t fair to badly, either.  Especially the girl on the right in red.  She took quite a liking to Mia and you can imagine how that worked on Kelly.  Again, these girls are professionals!  Notice how there are multiple people “helping” Kelly out with her decisions.

This next girl didn’t get a sale.  OBVIOUSLY she needs to take a few lessons from the others. 

As you can see in the next shot, Kelly had become a professional in her own right by the time we were ready to leave!

After coming back to the hotel and letting Mia nap for awhile, we left to go to Pizza Hut to celebrate Kelly’s birthday today.  Those of you who know Kelly know that she doesn’t really care for Pizza Hut, but there was something nice about going somewhere that is a little like home.  Before leaving while we were in the lobby we had Mia do some of her tricks.  First, here is the dress that Kelly said I didn’t take a picture of:

Then, the tricks.  Kelly got Mia to take a few steps across the lobby floor.  The boys who work in the lobby LOVED this!

Here is a picture of the mall, called The Diamond Center, that has the Pizza Hut on the fourth floor.  It was as nice if not nicer than any mall we have in the U.S.

That is actually the last picture of the night.  Not long after this, I was informed by a security guard that it is illegal to take pictures in the mall.  So, I was shut down. 

I hope you enjoy the pictures!  We will see what I can come up with tomorrow.  Have a great day!

Cameron