Advertisement
Published: November 20th 2010
Edit Blog Post
We have successfully begun our journey 'up north and after leaving Hoi An yesterday - the land of tailored clothes we are now in Hue. One long bus ride away from Hanoi..but only one.
Leaving Go Vap Orphanage was probably one of the hardest things in our journey so far. Unfortunately i was will for a couple of days..(i suspect due to one of the children coughing in my face, i immediately felt coldy that evening..but who am i to speculate 😉 ) So we were cheated of a few extra days with the beautiful children who we'd become very attached to. We would've loved to have stayed longer, though unfortunately HCMC being so expensive and traffic so bad it was getting very costly to be there for the 2 weeks we had hoped so we cut our stay short by a week.
Our last day was,tragically bitter-sweet as we arrived prepared to leave but not quite prepared for what we were to be greeted with - one of the children who was very poorly had died and was being wheeled out of the van just as we walked in. Completely unprepared and never having seen something like that
Tailored
Flat Stanley in a tailoring shop..(jimi wouldnt let me upload the pic of him in his suit :P) before left a horrid feeling in my stomach and took quite a bit trying to forget. We said our goodbyes to Smiley Nhut, Gorgeous Huang who was born with half a brain - but was so playful you wouldnt have a clue, baby ling who was a baby baby and just quite happy to be cuddled which was fine by me 😊 and everyone else and left HCMC for Hoi An the next day.
The hotel we booked on hostelworld for our stay in Hoi An was AMAZING, for only 12 squids a night we had a massive room,buffet breakfast,swimming pool and bikes to borrow :D PLUS a free shuttle bus to and from the town centre with a driver that opened and closed the door for you, i felt like royalty hehe. We soaked that up for a couple of days whilst we bimbled around Hoi An- the tailoring capital of Vietnam.
Apart from buying cool clothes for my travels, i dont remember the last time i brought myself clothes. Im not one for fashion and never have been, but my god, when we walked around Hoi An did i get excited! Tailor-made clothes for ridiculously cheap!
Same Same
Hue. But could be HCMC,da lat, danang or anywhere really Id decided that it'd be nice to get a dress made for Emmas' wedding if i dont stay out here longer..hopefully i wont have put too much weight on and itll still fit :O (always a problem with being made clothes and then traveling the tastes of asia for the next 5 months!)
With this in mind i went in a few shops and found some lush designs for soo cheap. I left Hoi An having brought 1 pair of 'going out' shorts,finished with silk, 1 tailor made winter coat (which i didnt need but for 19 pounds who could say no) 1 dress for wedding and 1 suit dress for potential interviews at home if and when i decide to get serious. all for 50 english pounds! BARGAIN!
Jimi also left with more than what he intended, after being pressured in one shop and being fitted for a suit we spent 2 days avoiding the tailor who kept ringing our hotel..we thought we'd got the last laugh..until we walked downstairs one day-after avoiding several phonecalls from reception- to find that they were waiting in the lobby and wanted jimi to try on the suit she had made
Light
our new hotel (i was too embarrassed to upload a pic of lovely room in a mess) for him :O
In fairness, he looked great..a suit that doesnt make him look like a child in his dads suit..one that actually fits is lovely. so he came out with one suit for Emmas' wedding and an extra one for luck 😉 ha. one tailormade cashmere wool suit including waistcoat and tailormade shoes..just 85 squids..no one can sniff at that price!😉
We decided to ship our purchases back home, there was no way it was fitting in either of our bags..so tracy watch out for a very large box in the post in the next coming months..and jimi specifically demands no peeking! 😉
It seemed that shopping was the only thing to do in Hoi An, esp as,over night, the river had flooded most of the town had made some sights un-go-able so after bike riding around casually for a day, which was great fun, we brought a couple of good quality fake books and got on our crappy hanh cafe bus, where the locals who appear to have no personal hygiene and snottily sneeze everywhere then decide to empty their nostrils in the middle of the bus by blowing each one out and rubbing the remains on the seat in front of them. i was not impressed. Just kept thinking thank god my dad wasnt on the bus, because he wouldn't have been as subtle as i was (just sitting sniffing my tiger balm).
Im still baffled by Vietnamese cleanliness, coughing in peoples faces, gobbing and urinating publically and in close vicinity of people too..and yet, they will wear masks while sitting on a 4 hour bus journey or in the airport waiting for the plane. Very very bizarre.
Hue, looking at the window looks much of the 'same same' as the rest of the other places we have been. However its renowned for being the cultural,spiritual and intellectual hub of Vietnam. We got a pretty shoddy guest house last night where we didnt trust the bedsheets so slept in our own and there was a strange chemically smell that was giving jimi a headache so this morning we promptly left and checked into another hotel. which..yes it is a 5 star hotel and significantly more than what we were paying..we only came in here for a laugh last night after dinner and eyeing up the building saying 'hm that looks expensive..shall we pop in and ask to see the room for a laugh?' so we did..and giggling was shown around the 5 star complex, swimming pool, balcony, private computer in the room etcetc. they told us the price,which we were expecting to be alot higher..and unfortunately, jimi looked at me like he does when he wants a dominoes for the 2nd night in a row and doesnt want to tell me and temptation for luxuary set in...
Me being me bargained them down so for 25 squid we are staying in a ridiculously luxuarious hotel...just for a laugh. and to chill out and relax for a day or two without fretting about what we re doing next etc. Jimi and I being us, have managed to systematically destroy the tidiness of the room within the first 15 minutes.
Going on a city tour in a couple of days, loads of tombs,pagodas and a huge 'purple forbidden city' which sounds rather intriguing. Then off to Hanoi. In the hope that the woman that we have just handed our passports over to will actually get our visa extended before the current one runs out! ohh the joys of traveling! But i wouldnt have it any other way :D Absolutely LOVING this now we've got into the swing of it.
Love to everyone back home xxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.077s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0459s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb