Hi Gram,
I’m still not feeling great this morning. I don’t feel bad, per se, just tired and like I’m getting over a cold. I don’t have a cough or fever or stuffed nose or any of the usual symptoms. I’m just feel crusty and tired. I’m hoping it’ll pass with some good walking today. I got up and did my morning routine, then took my laundry down the street. The sights and smells and sounds of the city in the morning always fascinate me. I passed vendors selling their street food, saw people getting in and out of taxis on their way to work, and smelled the soup of food and garbage fighting for everyone’s attention.

Back at the hotel, David and I met up on the rooftop for breakfast. I was happy to finally get some yogurt after not really having the option for the last few weeks. I’ve had smoothies with yogurt mixed in, but this was my first chance to just have a cup of yogurt by itself. After breakfast, we headed to the mall to look for shoes for David and shorts for me. Lesson learned, the mall didn’t open until 10am, so we took the extra time to walk the streets and talk about how they have KFC, Burger King, and 7-11 just like every American town in the 90’s. We looped around back to the mall and waited for the doors to open like a really calm Black Friday. We took some time to wander the giant mall but David finally found some shoes and we got in quite a few steps before taking the elevator down the 6 levels back to the ground.

A Grab car, which turned out to be a taxi driver, took us to a temple where we met up with Chris and John to go walk the Streets of Chinatown. We took turns getting food such as dumpling, bao, and fruit juice then dipped down an alley to get away from the noise. Hot and looking for another beverage, we dipped into a coffee shop to soak up their AC.

After some coffee and iced tea, we went looking for a restroom and ended up at a bakery named “a) Pink Rabbit CAKE SHOP”. I’ve noticed a lot of stores and businesses start their name with the letter “a”, a symbol such as “)” or “@”, or both, probably to elevate their listing in directories.

Each of us ordered a different dessert – I got carrot cake of course – then shared our sweets over talk of life. Honestly, I fell asleep a little, but I’ve done that before – fall asleep in the middle of friends. It’s one measure of being comfortable with people when you trust them enough to fall asleep. Once I woke and we paid the bill, we hugged our goodbyes and ordered a Grab car.

Traffic was awful, giving us a chance to talk even further about life and the mysteries it holds. Finally, we got back to the hotel, I went up to my room, and I just relaxed the rest of the day until it was late enough for bedtime.