We were very excited that the hotel included breakfast, so far all of the included breakfasts were very good. This one was not! It was the first buffet we encountered. I guess it wasn’t that bad, they had fresh fruit, an egg station, and other stuff like rice and dim sum. After breakfast we decided to rent a moto and got into town to pick up our clothes, and have lunch and then head to the beach.
When we got to the little shop to pick up our pants and my jacket, I tried on my jacket first, it was perfect. I took one look at the pants and I knew they were all wrong. I had wanted the bottom to be very wide but it was just a standard bootcut, and they were ill fitting even though they were suppose to be made for me. I had a little freak out, and said they were all wrong and didn’t want them. Later I commented to Kyle that they looked worse than cheap hootchy pants you could find at a discount store, and I was expecting very nice, perfectly tailored pants. The woman was very accommodating and said they could fix them. So I re-described what I wanted, and Kyle and I left to find lunch. I could come back later and pick up my new pants.
We had lunch at a little restaurant by the river. I tried another one of the local specialties, chau lau, which is a thick rice noodle with slices of pork and fresh leafy veggies on top, it was good but a little plain. Kyle had some sort of spicy squid dish. Then we went back to the hotel to pick up towels, the duvee, and my book and went off to the beach.
Along the way we stopped for Kyle to get some swim shorts. The ones he liked didn’t fit him, but the woman at the shop said she could fix them in 5 mins for him! So we waited and then they were perfect. The beach was very nice, I was approached by a very old woman, with black teeth selling fruit, snacks and trinkets. But I didn’t have any money, as Kyle had to go back to the room to get more. The sand was light in color and the water was clear and warm. We would have stayed there longer, but big black clouds were rolling in and it had started to rain. We packed up and hopped on the moto. Kyle was getting pealted by the rain as we hurried back to the hotel. Once safely inside out room we relaxed, read and watched tv waiting for the rain to stop so we could head into town, pick up my pants and have some dinner. Oh and the pants Kyle had made were perfect as well.
The pants that they remade for me were much better, the back of the pants doesn’t do my ass justice but the rest is nice. Kyle was not feeling well at this point, he seemed to be coming down with that same cold he had in Korea. We drove around for a bit to find a place to eat. We unfortunately ended up at another LP recommended place, which is fine but we try to find places on our own so that we run into less tourists. The food was wonderful here at Cargo. I had a beef and spinach dish with garlic and steamed rice. Kyle had a chicken pizza that had bananas on it, which was also very good. I had some red wine. It was quite unfortunate that Kyle was not feeling well because I was in a very good mood. We got dessert to take back to our hotel and away we went on our moto in true Asian style, I was sitting behind Kyle holding on to all sorts of packages.
On the way back we were stopped by a police man, he told us we weren’t aloud to drive motos on that road, but there were all sorts of them parked on the side, so he made Kyle walk it to the end of the street, and then it took him over 10 tries to get it started again! UGH
Back at the hotel we had our desserts in our little silk bathrobes and then Kyle went to sleep. I stayed up a read for a bit, but then it was off to sleep for me too.
Oh side note- This day we decided to meet up with Erika and Robin in a couple of days in Hanoi and go on the Halong Bay cruise with them. This means we are heading north sooner than we would have but it was worth it to spend more time with our new found friends. We tried to book a sleeper train to Hanoi, but it was sold out so we had ot book a flight again. Oh well, it was only $64 per person.
