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Published: November 26th 2010
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Our guide, Chammy, called the day before and let us know that her grandmother had died and she wanted to start at 11 rather than 8:30 so she could go to the funeral. I was surprised she still wanted to work, but that was a request we could certainly accede to. We took it easy and headed off for Hoi An at 11. On the way Chammy told us her grandmother had 16 children and that since her husband died 20 years ago she lived with Chmmy’s family since her father was the oldest son. The drive through the mountains had spectacular views. At the peak there were outlook posts that were built by the French, the Americans and the Vietnamese. They all appreciated the view but for different reasons. The outposts are mostly in ruin since in a country this poor preserving historic sites is pretty low on the priority list. We stopped for lunch in Danag, which is the third largest city in Vietnam and a commercial city and port. There isn’t much to see. We had lunch at a local noodle shop. When we were served the noodles we were given salad to add to the noodles. After
our guide discretely picked something out of the salad we decided to stick with the noodles. You really don’t want to see the kitchens in these restaurants. In over a week, I’ve never seen a sign in a bathroom that instructs employees to wash their hands before returning to work. (That’s sort of a joke.)
Our hotel is another terry cloth robe quality hotel booked by the travel agent. It’s lovely. Hoi An is a small town that is pretty much exclusively dedicated to shopping and tailoring. When you walk down the street you can NOT make eye contact with a vendor or look at the merchandise without receiving a plaintive sales pitch. “Madame want to buy something from me?” It is very hard for me to hear this over and over and over and not feel bad since I know they really need tourists to buy things from them. This town’s economy appears to be 100% based on tourism. I didn’t bother with the tailors since we are not going to have anything made here. Our guide, Chammy, escorted us to an Assembly Hall, the equivalent of a pagoda, which is dedicated to the holy mother and the midwife.
When a baby is born the family throws a party for the midwife on the baby’s one month and one year. Families make offerings of fruit and flowers when they want something, like a baby (baby is the focus) or they buy large coils of incense that burn for two months. Because we are so with it, we had dinner at Mango Rooms, the hippest restaurant between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City according to Frommer’s. “Fusion” is the word of the day when it comes to food and this restaurant serves Latin/Vietnamese cuisine. A cut from the Buena Vista Social Club was playing when we came in. How hip is that?
Since we have now seen the sights in Hoi An we are lounging around the hotel steeling ourselves to go into the town. Jack wants a couple of t-shirts and I’d like some beads. In one shop, the young woman explained the jewelry was designed by her sister and made by her family. This explained why iti didn’t look like the erchandise you see in each and every other shop. I picked out a necklace and she discounted it from $15 to $14 saying I was her first
customer in 6 days. Jack thinks it’s a sales pitch, I’m still naive enough to believe her. We also found a shop selling merchandise that is produced by disabled people and I was able to buy a couple of gifts at full price. YEAH- I didn’t have to feel guilty for haggling over $.50 that I know they can use far more than I can. We basically spent the majority of the day in our resort cocoon preparing for Saigon which we expect will be even more intense than Hanoi. We are also anticipating that it will get hot once we hit Saigon. So far the temperature has ranged from 65 to 80, with a couple of burst of 85 degree weather when the sun comes out which isn’t often.
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