Shopping in flooded Hanoi

This morning I needed some groceries for a dinner I am preparing tonight. Some friends from the Australian Embassy are coming over and it's just not like America when you plan a menu. I have to make several contingency plans depending on what I can find at the store. Things happen to be worse right now because the outlying areas of Hanoi are completely flooded! So, nothing fresh from the countryside is coming in. I noticed this on Saturday morning as the selection in the alley market next to our house was really picked over. I extra-bleached everything when I came home : )

So, I just drove for 2 hours through flooded streets trying to get to the "Costco-type" stores of Hanoi. There are two. I went to "Metro" first only to find the parking lot was a lake, literally. There were about 5 people wading through the water that was up to the top of their legs. Crazy!

So I headed off to "Big C" only to find that my one-way road was flooded and there was only one way to get through...drive. Today I am very grateful that we have a SUV. I got to Big C only to find that their parking lot was a lake too, and the road that leads back to my house was totally closed off. I finally found another street to take me home, which was fine except for one part had the deepest water I've ever driven through. I pulled over to watch other brave SUVs drive through it. I also saw many turn around to find an alternate route. After watching a truck stall in the middle of the water, I made sure a few more SUVs made it through before going myself.

I am happy to say that I'm home, I'm dry and I was able to go to 2 small grocery stores and our local alley way to get enough ingredients to pull a somewhat okay dinner together for tonight. Want to come? We're having carrot soup, homemade pasta with creamy tomato sauce, and steamed zuccini for our veggie. The zuccini was plan D, but it looked fresh, so I guess we can be glad for that. Random thought, but let me say that the first thing I am buying when I get back to America is a bag of frozen chicken breasts at Costco! Oh the joy of that!