Google Maps can be wrong!

It was getting late in the afternoon, no one was home, we have no food in the house, and I was getting hungry.  I had been looking around on Google Maps earlier in the day to get a better idea of the area and I noticed a new and shorter way to get to the Metro Walk Mall through some back alleys!  I thought this would be a fun opportunity to take a different and perhaps shorter/safer route.  I memorized the route and headed out.

Boy was Google Maps wrong!  I have a feeling that someone just traced what looked like "dirt paths" from the satellite view of the area.  When I reached some of the roads, they were actually just dirt roads leading to construction sites.  I kept biking around, fully aware that probably none of the roads led to the mall, but I felt like exploring and wanted to get some exercise so I kept riding around in the back roads.  There were plenty of great photo ops so here's a sample (with the rest on my Web Album.  I've re-organized it so here's the new link: http://picasaweb.google.com/justinliebregts)

So after biking around in the sticks for the better part of an hour I went back and took the route I normally take to go to the mall (because I was really getting hungry by then).  It's a rush every time I bike along here. lol!

When I arrived at the mall I walked around a bit to cool off in the air conditioning and then headed down to the food court.  Each food vendor has these plastic/wax displays of their menu so it's quite easy to browse and pick what to eat.  This was the first time I ordered something to eat by myself (other than 7-11) but I thought I was up to the task.  I pointed at the wax food model, and started getting out my wallet to pay, but then I had to answer a series of 3 questions (the guy taking my order knew no english).  So we played this sort of guessing game back and forth.  The first two questions I actually think I understood (1.  chicken or beef  2.rice or... some other side dish), but the third question I had no idea and I just ended up saying "Soi Bien La" which means "whatever" in Mandarin. lol.  I think it was for the type of sauce.  We had a laugh and the guy took my money.  Then a few minutes later I thought someone called out my number and I went up to grab my food and almost took this other guy's food by mistake (a bit embarrassing) but I quickly figured out where the food was coming out and waited another few minutes for this beauty food court dish to appear.  It was $4.25.  Most dishes in the food court are between $4-$5.

After the meal I went to the Carrefour (walmart) to shop for a snack or something to have around the house for when I get hungry.  I ended up buying these Pumpkin and Walnut Steam Buns.  The pack was about $3.50.  And I also bought this "Original Yogurt Drink" which was the ingredient in the delicious bubble tea I had at the night market on Saturday.  This "yogurt" drink doesn't really have a north american counter part.  You might think of Yop, but yop is more like... watered down yogurt, whereas this Yogurt Drink is more like a... sort of yogurt-sourness milk.  It's quite refreshing :D  It was $2.25 and came with a free Lemon Ice Tea.

ps - I ended up biking home as the sun went down, which I don't think is the best time to bike because all the swarms of bugs come out and one stretch of the road on my way home had so many "walls" of bugs, I had to keep my mouth closed because they kept hitting my face.  When I got in the door the first thing I did was go up to the washroom and wash my face to get the bugs off.  not so pleasant! :P  Though the sky was looking beautiful.