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Published: November 4th 2009
Its been a few days since my last blog and I have been struggling to get some downtime where I am not completely exhausted to write the blog... In Hoi An despite my best intentions I think we spent more time IN tailor shops than out of them and definitely had our shares of hits and misses.... Before leaving the train in Danang we had met a couple from Melbourne, Rose and Kurt who were on their honeymoon... as we left the train we ran into them and decided to split the costs of a taxi to Hoi An.. being the expert I am at bartering, I managed to get everyone to stick to their guns and our $18USD taxi ended up at $12USD...
Once in Hoi An we checked in to Cua Dai Hotel and were excited to see our room... it was a two level room with beds on bottom level and lounge on the top level overlooking a balcony with direct access out to the backyard and pool area. This hotel had been in the recent typhoon and its ground level was over 1 meter underwater... this was evident in some areas, but we accepted that for
what it was... we were so looking forward to being in the one place for more than a day or two...
Foodie Heaven
Both starved we decided to head straight to town and find some food.. we had been recommended a little place called "Bale Well" from other travellers in Halong Bay so decided to check it out.. They specialised in Hoi An region foods so we decided to go for their set menu which was a little bit of everything on the menu (even though the menu only consisted of four things anyway!!) - the lady serving us was soooo lovely and when she gave us the food she stood there showing us how to eat it, making it all up for us, stuffing it in our hands and waiting to see our reactions to her creations... "Good, good?" she would say as we sat there with our mouths full.. all we could do was nod.. and the food was more than good good.. it was excellent...
We had Nem Nuong (Grilled Pork Satay), Banh Xeo (Rice Pancakes), Ram Cuon (Spring Rolls) & Thit Nuong (Grilled Pork). Sooo first we would have a rice
paper with lettuce/mixed herbs, Vietnamese kimchi (cucumbers, carrots pickled), Cucumber, Young Banana, Grilled Pork and a Spring Roll all wrapped together and dipped into a satay/chilli sauce... We then were eating the rice paper with Banh Xeo on top then inside the Banh Xeo we would put the same condiments (lettuce, herbs, kimchi, cucumber, young banana & grilled pork).. again all wrapped up and dipped in the satay chilli sauce... It was so good. We washed it down with a couple of Larue beers and the total bill was 110,000 dong ($7) for BOTH of us!
Completely full we decided to walk around the town centre for a look... we then decided to visit a few tailors and get a feel for how much it might cost us to buy some clothing... (or have it made rather)... we first went into Yaly which is the most expensive and apparently the best tailor in town.. but we both felt like they werent interested in helping us.. I asked one girl about pricing a top similar to what was on display and despite asking her several times she wasnt willing to give me a straight answer.... FAIL... so we moved on
to the next...
The 2nd shop we entered we bought a few things. I had bought a top from home that I wanted copied and McKay ordered a dress and a couple of tops... By the end of our experience here over the coming days we hated the lady running it and the workmanship on my top left alot to be desired. McKays tops ended up really good so I ordered one too.. and McKays dress ended up ok but not exactly what she had asked for... I had wanted boning in my top but when I went back for my fitting there was no boning and she gave a half-assed excuse that they didnt have the same type of boning as my country therefore they couldnt do it! Whatever! This company was called Quoc Huy of 39 Tran Phu St and we both would not recommend them. We found them to be lazy and appeared to cut corners whereever they could.. My top in the end wasnt even double stitched and I had another tailor tidy up all the loose threads that were hanging off it!
After ordering tops here, we then ended up at a tiny
little store just around the corner called Bi Chau. The address was 6 Tran Quy Cap St and the lady we dealt with was called Bi. She was fantastic and got our measurements exact the first time around for some skirts. My dresses I had made only needed one small adjustment. In total McKay ordered 6 skirts and I ordered 4 skirts and 2 dresses (all casual summer wear).. We would both recommend her for casual wear without hesitation.
We were all tailored out after that and decided to get a Vietnamese coffee (which we are both addicted to) so we headed to Cargo Club for coffee and dessert... Once satisfied we headed back to the hotel and had a quick swim before heading out for dinner. We ended up going to another recommended place called Cafe 43 which was located out of the town centre down an alleyway... Once again the food was amazing.. we tried Hoi An's famous 'White Rose' which is a small steamed dumpling.. we werent too fussed on it but it was still nice... we also had stuffed squid (which was my 2nd favourite food in all of Vietnam), Fried Wontons (McKays favourite) and
Meeting the locals
Hoi An Motorbike Adventure Toursteamed pork in Banana leaves... washed down with 6 bia hois! Grand total of bill $11 - seriously!!!!
Completely stuffed from dinner, we called it a night and headed back to the hotel... it was 11.30pm and we had an early tour in the morning...
Things that go creepy crawly in the night!
About 2 minutes into us settling into our beds, McKay says to me "Can you hear that ?!" ... I was like "hear what?!" .. she then goes "Come here"... I jump over onto her bed and I heard it... there was this sound of like something 'eating' coming from the bed head... the bedhead was about 12 foot long going along the length of the wall and both our beds were against it... we were both like "WTF is that?!"
I started to imagine the worst thinking we possibly had a bed bug infestation so got the laptop out and started googling bedbugs.. meanwhile McKay is sitting there in horror staring at the bedhead.... we didnt know whether to laugh or cry... she then starts tapping at the bedhead while going "wtf.... this thing is about to crumble"... she left
to get the Manager while I started googling alternatives like 'termites'... the Manager arrived and put his ear near the board... looking confused he stuck his finger thru a soft part of the wood.. only to see these bugs spill out... confirmation by google and we had termites!
We were so grossed out by the whole thing... we hadnt had a great start with the hotel... our phone in the room wasnt working, wifi internet wasnt working, there was peeling paint and mould around from the recent floods (this by itself we were thinking was okay considering they were a meter under water a month ago) but the termites was the icing on the cake for us both... Two staff members decided they would try take the headboard off the wall for us to solve the problem.. and proceeded to take it off while all our clothes and stuff were nearby... we moved out stuff and as they took it off we could see extensive damage to the headboard AND the wall from the termites, really bad mould issues from the water (clearly they hadnt moved the bedhead during the floods) and to top it off a massive cockroach
ran out heading for our bags... Not happy at all..
They finally put us in another ground floor standard room (nothing like we ordered) and we were disgusted to see really bad mould in the bathroom and up the walls... heaps of mosquitos and our beds felt damp when we got in them... we were so mad!
The next morning we woke up, got in contact with Mark from Hoi An Motorbike Adventures who we had a tour with that day and organised that we would pack our bags, check out, leave our bags at his office while on the tour and his assistant would organise us another hotel while we were out.... he was soooo fantastic.. we cant thank him enough for his help... We quickly had breakfast, packed our bags and waited to be picked up... When we checked out the lady at reception was really good about it, even offering to get us a taxi and didnt seem at all surprised that we were leaving.. I guess they may be used to disgruntled customers at the moment...
The hotel has so much potential but clearly the owner has issues with putting enough money and
Local life in the country
Hoi An Motorbike Adventure Tour time into it, to maintain a certain level of cleanliness. We were so disappointed but it was a new day and we had more exciting adventures ahead!
Motorbike Mishaps
At 8am we were picked up to go on our motorbike tour around Hoi An - the tour was called "Mountains and Delta Explorer"... Run by an Aussie guy Mark and his wife Simone (
Hoi An Motorbike Adventures ) you can choose to either ride a bike yourself or have a driver... McKay went for option A (me thinking AWESOME for my blog) and I opted for a driver since I couldnt ride a motorbike to save myself... At the workshop we were given helmets and quick safety instructions before setting off on what turned out to be our BEST day in Vietnam so far. We were on the tour with another couple from the UK and Mark was my driver... We quickly rode out of Hoi An and explored the countryside and small villages that surround the region...
It was one of the most amazing experiences... we didnt see another foreigner the whole day.. and felt like celebrities.. every little village we rode through kids would come from every
direction waving and saying "hello" and some getting close enough to 'high five' you! At one point we stopped in a small village to put ponchos on as it was raining slightly and we had villagers approach us trying to speak Vietnamese to us.. and the kids wanting us to take their photo... it was so much fun.. we stopped off mid morning at a roadside cafe where we had Vietnamese coffee and fruit. We also got to visit a few war sites left over from the Vietnam war...we saw countless water buffalo in rice paddies and cooling themselves in the water...also had a few points where the road was completely blocked by cows and/or the cows ran beside or in front of us as we tried to avoid hitting them!
For lunch we stopped at a random cafe in the middle of nowhere and had a soup dish called Mi Quan with Ban Cha (toasted rice paper). It was so yummy. The toilet outback was a little scary though.. I was busting and just locked the door as a massive spider started moving near the door.... I couldnt get out of there fast enough and decided holding out
was the next best thing! I dont know how McKay managed to pee in there...
Whoopsie!
Mid afternoon we stopped for a bum break as our butts were all getting quite sore (we were over the 100km mark) .. as we got back on the bikes Mark says "I have a surprise for you".... about 5 minutes later we go over the crest of a hill past some village people before going down a small steep wooden ramp on to the dodgiest bridge you have ever seen on your life... All i could hear behind me was McKay going "You have got to be friggin joking me" ... I turned and was trying to take a photo of her as she came onto the bridge when I heard her scream and Mark swear... He stopped the bike and as I looked back I saw McKay going over the top of her handlebars before landing on top of her bike... the next thing you heard was the accellerator revving as she had landed on it... By this stage I was hysterically laughing and taking photos, McKay was on her ass in front of the bike laughing and
Mark was running back trying to pick up the bike... I looked up and the whole village of people were standing on the river bank laughing and watching...
I am still not sure how she managed to NOT land herself or the bike in the water... the bridge was lucky to be two foot wide and she came soooo close to the edge... I even managed to somehow get an action shot of her going over... Very funny stuff... so now she has a cut and more bruising on top of her bruising she has from her two stair falls! I cant take this girl anywhere!
I must say thought I was super impressed with how tough she is.. she was back on the bike within a minute and off again... at one stage we had to cross a river on a ferry where everyone had to drive the bikes on to the ferry.. and the ferry was just moved slowly alongside the wharf and you all drove on one by one.. so everyone lined up.. very neat!
Over the course of the day we went through all types of terrains.. lots of muddy tracks (as Mark
Meeting the locals
Hoi An Motorbike Adventure Tour thought it was funny to watch McKay try to navigate through thick mud with the tires spinning out and the bike slipping from underneath her), long country roads, small alley ways, even a few tiny markets... McKay even managed to clean up someones pet duck prior to her accident, though the others said she only clipped it... it was honestly the best day of our trip.. and if anyone is coming to Hoi An this is a MUST DO on your list. it was so far off the beaten tourist trail and an once in a lifetime experience...by the end of the day we were exhausted, covered in mud and (one of us) bleeding but it was fantastic!
By the time we made it back to Hoi An, Mark's assistant had us booked in at the Southern Hotel and Villas for the same price we were paying at Cua Dai and exhausted we caught a taxi to our new home for the next three days! A huge thankyou to Mark and his staff for everything they did for us, from giving us a wonderful day out to helping us out with accommodation.. they even managed to get us a
transfer to the airport for 150,000 dong (half the price our hotel were asking)
More Tailors
Being the 31st October not only was it Halloween but it was the Full Moon Festival in Hoi An ("Legendary Night")... every full moon they celebrate by shutting off all electricity in the main part of town and only allowing pedestrian access... the whole place is lit up by coloured Chinese lanterns and has a wonderful atmosphere... we decided to head in for a look...
Our hotel had a free shuttle bus service which dropped you at a tailor shop that they recommend... great concept... and especially since this place turned out to be an amazing tailor and cheap! I ended up buying one top and 3 dresses and McKay purchased 4 dresses.. It was called Southern Silk and was located at 682 Hai Ba Trang An. It is also known as Phuong Nam Silk... the first two dresses McKay bought were spot on first time around and needed no adjustments. The second time around (when I also purchased some stuff) we needed a 2nd lot of adjustments but everything was great!
We headed into town from there
and had a look around... we were both craving western food so ended up eating at Good Morning Vietnam which is an Italian Restaurant run by an Italian Chef.. the food was spot on and the wine good but it ended up being one of the most expensive meals we have had at over 600,000 dong for both of us ($40)
Exhausted from a massive day we headed back to the (termite-free!) hotel and passed out.... Day 3 & 4 are on their way but its bia hoi time for me! There are 4 pages of photos so I apologise in advance!!
Love to all
Reet and McKay xxx
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kristina
non-member comment
cool bananas
your motorbike trip looked like a blast! the food pix were sure delicious looking. sure do like the prices! what is the beer like? hope mckay doesn't hurt herself anymore! good luck getting the coconut and coffee back into oz.