After our Ha Long Bay cruise, we returned to Hanoi, glad to be back at May de Ville. We spent one last night enjoying the flatscreen after searching out dessert in the bustling city. We must have walked for over half an hour looking for a cafe that served brownies. After trying about 6 places we finally found Highlands Coffee that had what we were looking for. It was not the best brownie I've had, but it definitely satisfied our chocolate cravings. The next day we lounged in the hotel's common room, caught up on all the True Blood episodes we missed and waited for our flight to Da Nang.
Hoi An
Night 1
We arrived at the Da Nang airport around 9:30pm and for the first time we could not find any travel agenecy or tourist info booth to help us out. We decided that taking a cab to Hoi An seemed to be our only option even though we had the feeling we were being ripped off. A cabbie who spoke English ushered us into his taxi and promised to take us wherever we wanted to go. We found out this was not the case when we told him the hotel we wanted to go to and instead he insisted on dropping us off at the closest hotel he could find in Hoi An. This didn't turn out to be the worst thing ever, even though we ended up paying almost double for the cab than we should have. The hotel receptionist was very sweet and gave us advice on where to shop, not to carry our money in our pockets and to ignore any women who kindly called us dear and invited us into their shops. We quickly learned how to navigate the small city thanks to her advice. We went out for a late dinner of Pho and then called it an early night (seems to be the trend in Vietnam, where everything closes around 12).
Day 1
We woke up early and headed to the tailors so that Katie could get the clothes that she had been dreaming of tailor made to her liking. When we got to the shop I couldn't help thinking that I could use a tailor made trench coat, so they fitted me as well. After an hour of choosing clothes and fabrics and finally deciding on the styles we wanted, I ordered a knee-length classic beige trench, and Katie ordered an off-grey one, along with a silk blouse and a silk camisole. We were instructed to return the next day for fitting. We wandered around the small town of Hoi An, choosing souvenir gifts for our friends and family back home (we decided we could finally afford to carry extra stuff around now that we only had a week and a half left of our trip). We lunched on fresh spring rolls and Pho and enjoyed strolling around the small town. For dinner we tried the local specialty of grilled sea food, and White Rose, a shrimp stuffed rice paper dish. We ended up at a Japaense light festival and for good luck I bought a candle-lit red lantern and set it afloat in the river. We wandered on and stopped at a bar that had happy hour until 10pm and had a few 50 cent beers. My first headache of the trip hit, and we headed back to the hotel so I could grab some Advil. We ended up watching the last of our downloaded True Blood episodes and fell asleep.
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| Lighting a Japanese lantern for goodluck |
Day 2
We slept in (after learning how loud or hotel was we wore earplugs to bed) until 11:00am and then had a quick breakfast before heading back to the tailor's. My jacket fit perfectly, but Katie's items needed a bit more tailoring. We were told that everything would be ready for pick-up the next day. We decided that today was a good a day as any to check out the beach. We took a taxi to the beach that cost about 3$, paid 1$ to rent a chair for the day and finally lay down to relax and read our books. Hoi An is such a small town and after walking around for a few hours we figured that we had seen all it had to offer and did not feel guilty about going to the beach. We read for a few hours under a cloudy sky and then just as the rain hit we headed to the nearest restaurant to have lunch. We ordered fresh grilled calamari (according to the menu "calamary") and then taxied back to town. The rain had ruined any hopes of us getting a tan anyway. We showered and walked to a small cooking school called Gioan for our first lessons in Vietnamese cooking. We made pumpkin soup, fresh spring rolls with shrimp, Pho (noodle soup with beef) and aubergine in a clay pot. Everything was amazing and suprisingly simple to make. We decided that the best way to end the meal was by heading out for some icecream. I ordered one scoop of mango and one scoop of cookie and couldn't have been happier. Katie and I made out way back to the small bar Treats, had a few more 50 cent beers, I lost twice in two games of pool and then called it quits. Around 9:00pm we walked over to Tam Tam Cafe and met up with our friend Fishman and his girlfriend Andrea (clearly they have been following us around on this trip) and we had a few more beers and chatted about our trips. Once the atmosphere at Tam Tams died down we had a few more drinks at Dive Bar and at 1am we got kicked out. We said goodbye to Fish and Andrea and made our way home. On the street that runs through the market rats were running back on forth across our path. When one got too close to me and knocked over a crate I bolted and Katie followed suit. We ran through the street screaming and laughing until we safely arrived at our hotel. Rats are just one thing you cannot get used to no matter when you are in the world.
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| Hoi An Beach |
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| Cooking our way through Asia |
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| Fresh spring roll with shrimp |
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| Beef Noodle Soup - Pho |
Day 3
We had breakfast at Tam Tam Gardens (eggs for me, spring rolls for Katie) and then went in search of some icecream. We were disappointed to find out that our favorite icecream shop was closed for the day, so once again we headed to the beach. Our last day in Hoi An was a repeat of the previous day and after a few hours of reading on the beach we headed to the same restaurant in time to miss the rain. We stayed on the beach as long as we could and then got a cab to the airport. Finally we were free of the street vendors asking us if we wanted to buy peaunuts (no we ddin't want them five minutes ago and we don't want them now), people who were trying to offer us a one hour boat ride or a motorcycle ("very cheap, one hour, cheap cheap"). We now await our flight to Ho Chi Minh City where we will spend the day and catch our flight on the 3rd to Bali (sooo excited to surf and dive!).
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| Local Market, Hoi An |
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| Banana Cakes - Street Vendor, Hoi An |
Ho Chi Minh City
Night 1
We checked into our hotel late last night, and for the first time were displeased with the bed situation. This was not a double bed, I don't care what they called it. Katie and I dropped off our stuff and then went to the closest noodle place for Pho. I didn't eat (I was full and turned off food after eating a chicken sandwich before our flight and after seeing Katie spit hers out due to the slightly overlookable fact that it had multiple black hairs inside) but according to Katie it was the best Pho of the trip. We walked backed to our hotel which was located in some winding back alley (this was not the easiest task, all the hotels close down early and literally look like closed garage doors). We rang the bell and were let in after a few minutes. We climbed the three flights of stairs to our room and hit the hay. This was definitely one of the worst sleeps of the trip considerign the fact that the two of us could barely squeeze into the bed.
Day 1
We woke up at 7am and headed downtairs for breakfast. We were served eggs, fresh bananas, citrus juice and coffee, then waited in the lobby for our tour group to come and get us. We were going to see the Cu Chi tunnels where the Viet Cong fought the Americans in the Vietnam war. Our tour group leader was a war veteran who fought with the Americans against the communist Viet Congs. He told us stories from his past and gave us a short history lesson on the Vietnam war while we were driving the two hours to the tunnels. The war has greatly impacted his country and he told us of the day Bill Clinton lifted the trade embargo in the 1990's. He was so very happy to have regained alliance with the US. He said within a few hours of the embargo being lifted, Pepsi reentered the country for the first time in 20 years. We walked through the Cu Chi tunnel grounds and were shown booby traps used by the Viet Congs to trap American soldiers. We learned how peasants lived in the tunnels, some 10 meters underground, during the day and came out at night to farm so that they could have enough food to eat. It was a real lesson in Vietnam history for Katie and I and we really enjoyed it. For more info check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%E1%BB%A7_Chi_tunnels.
After our day in the tunnels and personally climbing into them (they were only two and a half feet high and went three floors underground) we headed back to Saigon City. We stopped at a government project for handicapped people (people affected by gas during the war and children born with deformities) where everyone worked together to make crafts and beautful souvenirs. This was an attempt by the Vietnamese government to clean up the streets of Saigon (they didn't want the implications of the war so visible to tourists) and to give these people a purpose to their life and a means to earn a living.
Back in the city we grabbed some lunch (fresh spring rolls, pineapple seafood with rice and a Saigon beer) and wandered the city streets. We wanted one last taste of everything Vietnamese so we sampeld Pho, brightly colored donoughts and gelato (yes, the last two are not-so-Vietnamese) and tomorrow we'll try to finish off by tasting the famous White Rose one last time. Tomorrow we head to the airport in the morning and catch our flight to Bali. From there we'll check out the Gili islands as well.
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| Trap to catch enemy tracking dogs |
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| In the underground tunnels at Cu Chi |
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