Thursday 11-10-07
Had to get a bus off the train to get to Hoi An and on the way we past people doing early morning yoga on the beach, beautiful setting for it. Lovely surprise at hotel - it had a pool (woo!), pool table and bar. After a catnap Hung took us on a walking tour of the town. Hoi An is reknowned for its shopping - a plethora of shops that tailor-make clothes or shoes for the unwary tourist; i say unwary cos it can be bloomin addictive! I'm not a shopper, i hate shopping, and i ended up with 4 pairs of shoes, 2 dresses and 2 tops - oops!!! Very restrained compared to most of the others though, see photo of Jenny with her double bed covered and surrounded by her purchases, she had to send 3 boxes home!! Apart from all the shops and the people ushering you inside every one, calls of missy missy, you like? Hoi An has some lovely sights. There're some Chinese-style temples and a Japanese bridge, colourful fishing boats on the river, etc. All in all an attractive town and not too busy, I really liked it, far more than Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi. Becky and I had a chilled evening, too tired to go shopping the first day, not wise on no sleep, one needs a clear head for these things, choosing styles, fabrics etc., getting fitted - a tricky business. :-) So we hung out in the pool, got take-away and watched some Sex and the City.
Friday 12/10/07
Becky got fitted for some traditional tops and dress, then we headed into the town centre and accidentally stopped in a shoe shop where she ordered some funky boots and shoes and i got sucked into the whole thing too with my first pair of shoes (just in case they don't do my size in NZ ya know!). In the evening we had a cooking lesson which was great fun. We learned to make spring rolls, grilled fish in banana leaves, deep fried wontons, and my favourite: fried squid with lemon grass, garlic and chilli - absolutely delicious! We all prepared the ingredients and i got to do some of the actual cooking cos Becky volunteered me as someone who's a dab hand at using chopsticks. Loved it. Then we corrupted Hayley and Valentina and encouraged them to order shoes and clothes on the way back.
Saturday 13/10/07
Becky and i took a tour to the Myson Holyland - built in the 4th Century, not entirely sure by whom or why...our guide was a lil tricky to understand. After being initially endearing (a greeting of 'hello darlings') he went down in our esteem - people ended up shouting at him cos he disappeared and we ended up waiting for him for ages. Anyway the scenery was lovely, all jungley and the ruins were attractive and impressive. The guide kept talking about the 'sticky' - the meaning escaped me for a while but eventually we gathered it meant the 'concrete' they used to stick the bricks together. An unknown substance unfortunately cos people've destroyed bits of it at various times, most recently the Americans who bombed it in the war cos the VC were hiding out there. The fact that no one knows what the sticky is means they can't reconstruct it. Then we saw some dancing girls and men (wearing tinsel, hilarious!), not sure what that was about either...the music started out traditional but ended up as a bizarre take on europop, most odd. There was also a giant penis - who knows!
