8. HOI AN, FIRST CUSTOMER OF THE DAY

Hi friends. We have had some help from our friends at Blogsy regarding our photo uploading problem and .... We are back in business. Photos are in blog 7 and 8 ...

FIRST CUSTOMER OF THE DAY; Every shop and stall we walk by has a smiling face peering out at us; "hullo, hullo, where you from?, you help me?, you come in my store, you buy something from me?". Disabled men on home made hand propelled tricycles encourage us to buy an English language newspaper. I even bought one, how could you say no. Alexandra feels the need to explain why she does not want a particular trinket but that never works. As we have no intention of buying something from everyone, something we do not want and cannot possibly carry on our backs to Cambodia and back, and we will lose our mind if we try to explain our position to every raincoat seller in town, we find the best solution is a warm smile, make less eye contact and play deaf... Even that trick never works... The line we really don't like and you hear it from every every vendor in this country at any time of the day is; "first customer of the day, lucky, very lucky, I give you goo discount...". Luckily we do not believe in luck. One of our favorite expressions is "same, same but different"



What is happening in the rest of the world?

THE WET SEASON; Much of the time we are wet. In the north it was hot, so we were wet. Here in the centre of Vietnam it's wet season so we are often wet.

Yellow flowers for Buddha

On the move in old Hoi An

A very clean town

 

THE TWEED SEASON; Hoi An is famous for Tailor made clothing. On our second day here we set out to find select one of 600 stores so that we could have some 3 piece-suits made. Tweed, just the thing for the tropics. Eventually we settled on a bustling store that was more expensive but seemed to be the best quality, Kimmys Tailors. 2 or 3 fittings later we were very happy with the results and ready to post the goods home. There's no way I'm carrying that stuff to Cambodia. Anyway, the money we saved by having just one check-in bag on the plane would cover the postage... So it's all good.... All good that is except for the shoe making... Don't mention the war. As successful as the suits were, the shoes were a fiasco.... NOT HAPPY JAN. There are good quality shoe shops at 2 or 3 times the price) but it was too late for us. Any way, you win some, you lose some. We will be placing good reviews on Trip Advisor for KIMMY'S and loud and clear "buyer beware" warnings against HAPPY SOLES!

Anna and the kings new clothes

Little green riding hoods fitting, great footwear...

 

THE COOKING LESSON; Alex had prebooked a half day excursion, a guided tour through Hoi An Central Market

All local produce

Sorry about that sharky

Chicken anyone?

No thanx, I prefer beef or whatever that is

The skipper (on the left) and Gilligan, what could possibly go wrong???



The Red Bridge cooking class

Not a bad little spot

In a large open-sided thatch roof pavillion we enjoyed Vietnamese cooking lessons with a group of about 25 Australian tourists. The chef demonstrated how to make deep-fried spring rolls starting with making the rice paper... Then it was our turn. Amazingly it was not too hard, with a little tuition along the way. We also made Hoi An pancakes, eggplant in clay pot dish and food decoration lesson. "if you do bad job, you get bad lunch, to bad for you". Well, surprisingly lunch was not too bad at all.

The chef shows us how to make the rice paper for the spring rolls...

And make them we did...

And we made Hoi An pancakes

An eggplant in a clay pot

And the pizza of resistance, Vietnamese food decoration lesson... May need a little more practice on that one.

MAD DOGS; It takes a while but slowly we modify our schedule to be more like the locals. Rather than trudging about in the midday sun, the locals, not all but a goodly percentage, shut shop, leave school or work and go home for a snooze in the middle of the day for a few hours. When practical, we have learned to do the same.



And why shouldn't he take a nap?

 

MY SON; 4:45 am and we were waiting outside our hotel for a tour of My Son (pronounced me sun). A collection of 4th to 14 century Hindu temple ruins dedicated to the god of war, Shiva. These baked clay brick buildings covered in elaborate carving were once the centre of the universe for the Cham civilization, people from India. When you worship a demon, it's no surprise that sex worship is also involved. Over the years the worship was blended with Buddhism until the whole show collapsed. There are still small communities of Cham people in south Vietnam. On the journey home, because i was asking questions about religion, the guides asked me if I was catholic?. Well... When I explained that JWs were Christians that unlike other denominations, preferred to go to prison than go and drop bombs, napalm or Agent Orange on Vietnamese people, his eyes lit up. "if everyone did that, there would be no war". We love talking to humble open minded people.

Dogs rule OK

 

MONEY PROBLEMS; Later that same day we rented bikes for $1 and took a ride around town before heading off into the countryside, past the rice paddies and water buffalo to An Bang beach.

Handle-bar-cam

There's a lot to be said fo cycling in a flat country

An Bang beach

Will she go in???

Just imagine you have eaten a nice meal at an open air restaurant and are reclining on the chase lounge under a thatch roof sipping a bear and watching the waves when you realised... oh oh... we do not have the $300,000 (actually thats Vietnamese Dong) needed to pay the bill and we are miles away from an ATM... What to do??? Looks like we will be washing up for a very long time... Luckily they are so reasonable about accepting aussie dollars.

Traditional fishing boats still in use

WOULD YOU BELIEVE... MISSED IT BY THAT MUCH"; Our last day in Hoi An was a relaxed affair. Our train from Danang to Saigon was not until 10:45pm so we decided to sleep in (well Alex slept in, I wrote a blog) and check out of the hotel at 11am. We lounged around, did some shopping, even had a massage... At 8:30pm we hopped in a taxi to Danang train station. That's when we realised... Well the taxi driver realised... Our train was 10:45AM... Not Pm!!! Oh no. The train ticket "is broken" he explained. This lovely cheerful man took us to the airport and we just managed to buy tickets for the following morning before they closed the airport. So guess where we are now.... Yep it's 5:30AM Wednesday morning at Danang airport. We spent the night at a nearby $12 hotel.".

If you need a taxi driver who will go above and beyond the call, call Mr Dung on 0914 057 256 (don't be put off by his name), he showed us "extra ordinary loving kindness". Thanx Mr Dung, we love you.

That's it for now, we are in Cambodia

Love-you-bye

Lloydnalex