Retail Therapy

Today, we decided a little retail therapy would be god for the soul and so we arranged for Mr Bar to take us to Danang. Mr Bar has proven to be a much safer driver than any yelow taxi driver we have had and as usual he is there on the dot of 8 am, holding open doors for us and making sure we are comfortable - off we go, Mr Bar with mobile in one hand and radio a tad too loud, but we adjust the volume and settle in for the ride... through the vegetable plating village with the prickly pear cactus for fences to the intersection at Anh Bungh Beach and turn right...past the empty shells of houses the government bought up for the new road to Danang - "good road" Mr Bar tells us "five years old" as we marvel at how a road could get in such a condition in 5 years, past the graves that are still by the roadside because the families haven't dug up the bones because the spirits have told them the time isn't right yet, past the Greg Norman Golf Course (the signs read: "there's a white shark in Danang), past the construction site for the biggest resort come casino you have ever seen (we wonder what this will do for the Vietnamese economy...) onto Danang! We arrive about 30 minutes later all excited to be going to "Metro" - we have heard so much about Metro and all that it can offer for deprived middle aged women suffering from retail withdrawal. Mr Bar parks the car and rushes to open the doors for us but we are out before he can utter "go forward and shop". We are stopped at the front counter by a rather serious store attendant who engages in a onversation with Mr Bar. It seems we ned ID but Miss Suong assured us this morning before we left that we didn't need any - Lyn comes to the rescue with a copy of her passport (think she must have been a boy scout or girl guide; always prepared)and she is given a "permission to shop card" ( as if we needed permsission!) - then we are ushered to another counter where we are told to take our money and phones out of our bags. Mr Bar takes our phones and pockets them - just as well he has so many pockets- then our bags are taken from us and placed in a plastic bag, zip tied and handed back to us! Felt a bit foolish for a while wandering around with our handbags secured in a plastic bag hanging around our necks but the locals didn't seem to stare or find it odd, and besides, nothing was going to stop us now - we were in the biggest single storey supermarket come variety store you have ever seen!!

First stop - printers. We picked out a printer to donate to Linda for CEF. One thing we have learned is to make sure anything electrical we buy works before we buy it and so when we had chosen a printer we asked the girl for a boxed one - none in stock, so we have to take the floor stock... no worries so long as we can see if it works first - simple request but NO!, we have to pay before they can test it. "What if we pay and it doesn't work?" I ask. "We give you your money back says the assistant"......?? - I hope so....Anyway, all is well... after installing the software we finally get to test the printer and Wollah!! wonders will never cease - it works!! We spend the next 15 minutes trying to get it back in the box and head off proud as punch with our new purchase to explore the rest of the store.We didn't miss an aisle and were like kids in lolly shop for the first time - the excitement mounted as we found M&M's, Ritz biscuits, Bega Tasty chese, Australian Camembert, pillow slips for our newly acquired soft pillows, a small esky, air freshener, cashews, pringles, chup-a-chups .... the list goes on......there was nothing you couln't buy from this store.... and as we shopped we knew we would be back...... (Mr Bar, who had been waiting patiently outside for the two and a half hours it took us to meticulously inspect each and every aisle for hidden treasures, was probably hoping we wouldn't be....)

The fresh food section intrigued us as we wondered through the fruit and vegie, fresh meat and diary aisles - so many unfamiliar and familiar sights! The most bizare was huge fish tanks with live fish in them, including eels and sea snakes.... certainly adds relevance to the catch cry "Fresh Food People" - Woolies have nothing on this store!! What we wouldn't have given for our cameras which were securely sealed in our plastice bag sealed handbags hanging from our necks..

Lee and I stopped to look at some whiteneing face cream that was being promoted in the store and noticed a DVD presentation on a large LCD screen above the display. As we watched we were horrified to see that it was a story about a young man who breaks up with his girlfriend and finds a girl and gets another grlfriend. The girl is very upset and starts using the whitning face cream and eventually gets him back and they get married!!! You had to see it to believe it!! Little did they know we would galdly swap them for their skin!

As time pushed on and thirst was getting the better of us we made our way to the check out. After making individual trips to the ATM to get cash (we couldn't use a credit card)we finally paid for our goods and left the store with them packed into huge kermit green sports bags and Mr Bar in tow. Alas, the expedition wasn't over yet - we were stopped at the door by scurity to get our recipts stamped (mind you the receipts look like a ledger than a receipt. The check completed we headed for the car to pack away our treasures to be stopped again by security - Mr Bar and the security girl were once again engaged in a serious conversation while we rummaged through our bags to find our receipts to again have them checked....??? by now we are beginning to think that we must look a tad suspicious but we get the nod from Mr Bar and the girl disappears and we are in the car and off for a nice lunch - Mr Bar's choice / we pay. Through the streets, horn honking, swerving in and out of motorbikes and reminiscing about Hanoi and Saigon - Mr Bar tells us that Danang is the 4th largest city in Vietnam - 1.5 million people!! would never have guessed - on our way to Hoi An the first tme when we passed empty beaches and saw little traffic on the roads, but today they were all out!! - maybe they knew we were coming??

Mr Bar took us to his favourite restaurant where we guzzled a couple of cold drinks straight down (shopping is certainly thirsty business)before suggesting Mr Bar order for us. We had a delicious chicken and orange rice dish followed by a cabbage (looked like broccoli leaf) and shrimp soup. Cheap meal - ony 60,000 VND each!! That's $4 AUD !! lucky to get a coke for that in Oz!! As we left the restaurant, we noticed the shop next door sold coffins - "expensive" Mr Br told us "5,000,000 VND !!" we quickly worked this out and figured it was about $250 AUD - not expensive from our perspective and it was solid tinmber too!!

Back in the car and feeling revived from our therapy session we headed home, anxious to unpack the treaures we had found. We stopped at China Beach on the way to take some photos and check out the live seafood at one of the eating stalls - eels, crabs, prawns, lobsters, oysters, mussels........ ertainly puts a new slant on fresh!

We made it home safe and sound thanks to Mr Bar and settled in for a nanna after unpacking. Tonight we dined on fresh bread rolls buttered with new Zealand Anchor Butter and tomato, onion and Bega tasty cheese ....... we savoured every mouthful! - it doesn't get any better than this........ or does it??? - it is even raining so the temperature is now a mild 20 degrees ...... NO - it doesn't get any better!!