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Alright, so here goes. We're really behind and I want to fill you guys in on what we've been up to.
So Hoi An first.
We arrived in Hoi An tired and hungry, so we wound up in our hotel and then off for a brief tour of the city streets. Note** As we've been going further south through Vietnam, it seems that the people have been getting a lot friendlier and the streets a lot less busy, which is a great change from our traffic shock in Hanoi.** Anyways, we tried our best to hurry through the long- winded tour of the city, only because we'd been starved. Our tour guide, Huong, brought us to a fancy looking place with well-dressed people. The meals were o.k. but not worth the nearly 7 dollars we spent (each) on the meals, let alone the drinks. That, on Vietnam terms, is a ridiculously expensive meal.
now that we had food in us...
We were going to check out the infamous tailors of Hoi An city. We pretty much spent the whole entire rest of the day looking for clothes that stand out to us in tailors' windows, and finally settled on the most expensive-- but best quality tailors in town. I (Ben) got fitted for a suit jacket that they were asking only $35 USD for (I tried to haggle, but they wouldn't budge), and a dress shirt that's dark with stripes. All together, for a custom-tailored jacket and shirt, it came to $55 USD, which is probably the cheapest I'll get stuff of this quality tailored until I come back to Hoi An. They told me to come back the next day at 4 pm...
Later that night, we went with the younger part of the group to find some cheap food. We wound up on the other side of the river which we were walking along all that day, and decided to try our luck at REALLY cheap food, and CRAZY cheap beer (it was less than 30 cents CAD/glass). It was basically home brew stuff which tasted like water and a slight hint of something that could be beer, but probably not. It was atrocious, to say the least.
At the hotel the following morning, we took part in the breakfast extravaganza! It was an all-you-can eat buffet of really good (and ubiquitous) food! Still, this stands as the best breakfast we've had the whole trip (it was especially good because of the beer nightmare we had the night before!). Oh, I almost forgot to mention the extremely obnoxious music that was blaring at SIX IN THE MORNING at the hotel, which just happened to be a wedding, we later found out. It's crazy... apparently when people are about to get married, they consult a fortune teller to see what time they're going to have the wedding, and if they don't have it at the predicted time of day, the marriage will forever have bad luck (which is something NO newly-weds want). This tradition is definitely not traveler-friendly by any means.
So it was bicycle tour day!!
We rented bikes (which came to about a dollar/bike) and followed along our tour guide through rice paddies and more run-down parts of town to meet a real live family who did real things. Our family built boats, which was pretty sweet. We saw how they make the boats with minimal tools (and all-local wood), basically creating these awesome boats with pure elbow grease. After the brief showing of the job site, we were taken back to the house of the boat-man's family. He had a bunch of kids (4 to be exact), all who were really cool (but didn't really speak any English, so communication was made difficult). The grandmother, who was in pristine condition for her age of 84, served us a 7-up type drink, and it was tasty.
After we said our goodbyes to the extremely nice family (and gave them a few presents), we headed back to cruise around the city for a few more hours. We found another tailors and Erin got a dress made, and I got some pants made as well. We pretty much lazed around for the rest of the day, biking along the streets and checking out local shops and markets, which was definitely a good way to spend a hot afternoon. That evening I went to try on my jacket and shirt (both which fit like a dream-boat), and they said they needed to do a bit more to it (add buttons, remove chalk marks, etc..), which was fine. Later on, I went to play some billiards with Huong and we went to a local place, where only Vietnamese people go. I decided to try it, and was surprised to find that only one group of people were playing north American-style pool. Everyone was playing a way different game with only 3 balls on the board, and no pockets to speak of. I forget what it's called, but the point is to knock one ball (the cue) into the other 2 in one shot to get one point, and more hits to get more points.
I'll have to check for the name of it, but it was way more fun than regular pool.
The next morning, Erin and I picked up our other stuff, and got a couple more shirts made, then it was time to get on the bus and head to the next spot.
But wait a second...
The night before I definitely had my camera in the hotel room and the next morning, it was nowhere to be found. Uh-oh. This is no good. I broke my other camera just a week and a half before this, and bought a new one specifically for this trip, and now it's M.I.A.
And it was true, my camera was nowhere to be found. I have since filled in an insurance claim, and I hope that my home insurance will cover some/all of the cost, because my camera has been stolen (along with 3 2GB memory cards-- one which had ALL the pictures from the tour thus far).
At any rate, we still had to leave Hoi An that morning, and one camera was not going to stop the whole tour group, so off we went.
Erin will write about her birthday in Nha Trang, so I'll sign off for now, and I hope I haven't scared you off with the length of my post!
Ben!
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Sounds like a dream!! I am insanely jealous, but not too jealous because I am abroad as well..... I love hearing about all the juicy details, even spending an afternoon biking, it all makes me feel like I'm there with you guys! Shame about the camera though! I hope it's sorted out... Somehow... Good luck with that! Looks like y'alls are having a blast! Carry on! (Y'alls?!)