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Published: January 9th 2011
Lasse and I decided to change directions on our plans and head south. we are now in a city about mid way point along coast in vietnam and its called Hoi An its a great place if you want to have a handmade suit done within a day or anything else for that matter. you just point to a picture in an old sears catalogue and they make it for you. its so tempting but we just have NO space to carry anything with us at this point. i like to have opportunities to meet local vietnamese but this is not the place as we are just the tourists with $$ here. maybe in smaller places we'll have more success.
as we walk the streets of Hoi an we are constantly approached by quite agressive locals who have businesses along the way selling clothes, small foods (ie. peanuts), and restaurants and wherever we go. this is not unexpected as these people are just doing what they need to do to make aliving and competition for tourist dollars is tough. we've had meals at the hotel we are at and these are your typical american breakfast (eggs, toast, juice, etc) and all you can eat. the bread..we'll its very fresh baked french rolls, baguettes, sweet buns,etc... YUM. the traditional vietnamese breaky consists of noodle soup (think of mr noodle) or rice, chicken..not something i can handle first thing in the day. the food is quite good and we usually eat rice/chicken, stir fry. desserts..i had a banana pancake with icecream (one of those packaged cone icrecreams in the freezer section in stores). the icecream cone wascut into pieces and laid on top of the pancake. well..it was TASTY. i highly recommend you make that dessert sometime. we dont eat salads here and only purified water or bottled. nothing exotice yet..looking for those fried bugs but havent seen them here.
Lasse did a most excellent job bartering for the hotel room from $35 to $22 /night. that's for the two of us breaky included! Hoi An has open wide boulevards, tailor shops and beautiful but dirty river runnning through. little yappy chiwawa's seem to be the prefered pet..and lasse's least favourite dog..hee hee
we are still trying to find two good motorbikes or scooters to rent. we tried to russion minsks (125cc) last night owned by the hotel manager's buddies. they ride like tanks, basic design and heavy and very tough clutch. i had to do put my feet down and brace myself to brake as there was NO brakes! not good for the mountains where we are going! so today we continue to look around and see what we can find.
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Bob & Teresa
non-member comment
Hello from Victoria!
Hi Lasse & Julia, We enjoyed reading your blog, sounds like caos where you are. I would hate all the crowds, noise and pollution, but hopefully you can find some quiter places to visit. Drive safely ane enjoy the trip! Love, Teresa& Bob