Hoi An (Day 2)

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We woke up and it was still pitch black, our body clocks are obviously not yet aligned to the Vietnam timezone. It was a good opportunity to just chill until breakfast opened at 6.30am.

Brad then headed off the gym and I spent some time setting up this blog so that we have something to look back on and also so that the kids can keep track of what we're up to.

We then headed off to the spa for our daily massages (they are included in our package). We were greeted with a welcome tea of some sort which was lovely then were taken to seprate rooms for our massages. It was similar to a hot stone but using these little bags containing stones and was amazing. We both requested hard massages and when I saw the tiny little girls that were doing our massages, I questioned (in my head only) their ability to fulfil our requests but I was proven wrong. Brad also said that he couldn't believe the strength of this little girl. We should have known better as our littlest daughter, Matisse is such a good little masseuse with a deceiving amount of strength. After our massages we were given another tea that tasted like aniseed or something similar, I couldn't drink it but Brad enjoyed it. Anything with aniseed brings back bad memories of too much ouzo or whatever that awful drink is. We were then taken to separate areas again (men one way and women the other) to the steam room and sauna. Unfortunately we were lead in and lead straight past the signs with the instructions and neither of us were told anything. After a going from steam room to sauna and back again a few times, I had had enough and as no one had returned to get me, I showered and decided to leave and told the staff to let Brad know that I had returned to the room. Brad on the other hand was expecting someone to come and get him ( as for everything else that is what happened) so he stayed there.....for ages. I had returned to the room, had a shower, watched some tv and he still wasn't back so I went back there and there he was, waiting for me to come out as the staff hadn't told him that I had left. Brad being Brad thought it was a test of his will to stay there as long as he could. The signs that they had lead us past and didn't allow us to read were very clear about how long to stay in. Brad lost several kilos in sweat in that one sitting. We know better for tomorrow.

We then headed back into the old town which is not far from our hotel. On the way we decided to try some street food. This can be risky for any tourist but obviously riskier for me due to crohn's disease but I want to experience all of it so I have my imodium handy just in case. We found a young guy selling crusty pork rolls and bought 2 fro him, they were delicious and even had crackling on them. The bonus was that it didn't make me sick so I will be visiting him again, oh and the price was equivalent to a couple of dollars each.

We wanted to get some clothes made and went to the tailor recommended by the hotel but the prices were equivalent to what a suit and dresses would cost us in Australia. The oplulence of the shop when compared to others should have been a give away. We left a bit disappointed but decided to go find another tailor. Then remembered my stalker from yesterday, Bing and decided to find her shop. We found it just around the corner from where we were and when she saw me she greeted me with a hug like I was her long lost friend. We then went through the process of showing them pictures and getting measured and being entertained by Brad's humour which somehow translates across the language barriers. When they gave us the price, even their first price was about half the price of the other place. We return tomorrow and hopefully will have some nice new outfits.

We spent some time wandering the streets and markets and bought a few more things. If only the locals would realise that chasing Brad down the street to beg him to buy something and continue to bring the price down, only pisses him off and makes him adamant he won't buy off them.

Then it was back to the hotel to freshen up and get ready for our dinner booking at the hotel (which was also included in our package). Dinner was at 7pm and we had about an hour to kill so we went to the bar downstairs where it happened to be happy hour (2 for the price of 1). Brad ordered the local beer and I ordered a Tea Cosmopolitan (like a normal cosmo but with hibiscus tea apparently). This was a big mistake, it tasted delicious and as most of you know, I am not a big drinker; I drank 4 of them in the space of an hour on an empty stomach.

We then went to the restaurant where we were provided with the set menu for dinner, it was nice and apparently I was funny, though I have a different version of events, I thought I was okay but apparently not. When we got up to leave I definitely realised that I wasn't okay and had had way too much to drink. I got back to our room and had one of those awful nights where I felt very ill and kept waking up with the room spinning. At one point I woke up and knew it would be smart to drink lots of water so I carefully made my way down all the stairs of our loft bedroom and couldn't find any bottled water and tap water is a no-go so I had to drink sparkling from the mini bar -not the easiest thing to skull when you are feeling unwell. Oh well! I think that's it for me on the cocktails or at least I will limit it to 2 next time.

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