Hue, and Hoi An (land of a thousand tailors!)

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Michael:

29th Oct 2011

Hue (Hway) after getting off a very bumpy train ride we walked 30mins in the rain to our hotel. we had breakfast and checked in. on the way we were stopped by a seller shouting "BUY SOMETING" (he was only selling lighters) when we said no thank you he shouted WHY NOT!!! to which i replied i dont smoke then he sapped me on my back and shouted GOOD FOR YOU! BAD FOR ME and walked off laughing. After a relax in our room we booked a tour to visit the royal tombs (which are only accesable by boat) for the following day. today we decided to head out to the imperial palace which was heavily destroyed by the USA . The palace that was left was nice and looked a little like the forbidden city but smaller and had more greenery. agter avoiding touts on the way out we went to the citadel before heading back to a pub, after a couple of drinks we set off for some food and again had to say no to the millions of people selling crap (meaning sun glasses and paintings) on the streets. the resturant we chose served up some amazing food but every now and again we seen a giant rats running in and out of the kitchen. after our food we went off in search of arsenal vs chelsea and all pubs seemed to be showing the man utd game which was dull and rubbish and eneded 1-0 to utd. Before the arsenal game started all hope of watching it was lost until i remembered that we had sports channels in our room!! so i rushed back from the bar to check outr TV and it was on so i ran and grabbed katie. beers from the shop and you will be glad to know that we got back to our room-after climbing 10million stairs) and only misses one minute of the game. Also Arsenal won 5-3 a great day all round!!!!



Katie:

30th Oct 2011 the boat trip!

We were picked up from our hotel at 8am and walked down to a tourist office and told to wait (becoming a bit of a theme with tours!) then 30 minutes later someone came and asked us to folow. We walked for 10 minutes and then arrived to our "dragon boat!" Our tour guide was a young man who was very polite and seemed to be quite enhusiastic, definitely a good sign! We sailed along the river for a while with the rain pouring down outside. Our first stop was a temple which was average but thw tour guide gave us lots of good nformation and this helped a lot. After this we saw a couple of royal tombs which were a bit more impressive and then we ot our free lunch, couple of bowls of rice and a bowl of veg, between 8 of us! So, really full after the meal we went to another tomb and got a bus to the final tomb again the tour guide was very interesting and told us more about the Buddhist practice in Vietnam and the history of the tombs. After this we were taken shopping at a small shop. Katie managed to buy herself a bag after some very confusing haggling. A lady approached us initially and said 6 dollars, then we managed to get it down to a bit cheaper. Then the lady we were talking to wandered off as we were getting the money out and another lady walked over and said "8 dollars!" we laughed and explained the price we had reached with the other woman. She looked very annoyed but agreed to the price and then scowled at the other lady. Feeling a little guilty that we may have started world war 3 we quickly escaped to the bus with the bag!

That evening we went out and enjoyed watching bar staff and resturant staff putting up Halloween decorations and then went for another very tasty meal (loving Vietnamese food). We were once again joined by lots of geckos at dinner. At one point a huge rat ran up the wall right next to our table, pretty much stroking Michael's ear with it's tail. We both jumped out of our skin, but carried on eating anyway, after all we're getting kind of used to it now!!



31st October

Another early start to get our bus to Hoi An a small town with a beach famous for making silk dresses and suits. We were informed that there were over 600 "tailor shops" by our hotel owner. We didn't believe him until after we took the 30 minute walk to town and had already passed probably about half of that number. All the shopkeppers/tailors want you to buy something at their shop. "You look in my shop lady" became a phrase we couldn't escape. Hoi An was a nice little place though and we enjoyed wandering around the cobbled streets and eating more yummy Vietnamese food. We were also pretty excited to see that our hotel had a small pool!

1st November

November already! Time is flying by. Up early for a trip to My Son which is the site of Champa Temple ruins, largely destroyed by "evil" Americans during the "American REsistance" war (Vietnam war). We enjoyed(?) a rather strange buffet breakfast at the hotel which included penne pasta, potatoes, fruit, stirfry, stale bread and butter on ice...oh and of course tea(?) and coffee(?) with the usual condensed milk (we are still not fans of this and we both miss fresh milk!) It was raining and hard - not looking good for our hopes of going to the pool after our day trip. The rain continued throughout the day and it was very very heavy. Our tour guide told us"the floods were here last week but they have gone now" Looking out of the bus window we were not convinced! The tour guide was very enthusiastic about the Champa ruins which was nice...at first! He told us several times on the way that they were much older than Angkor Wat - we're starting to sense a theme with tour guides here - everything in Vietnam is better/older/stronger etc The ruins were quite good to see and although it continued to rain very hard we didn't drown. Michael bought himself another fetching poncho, having rippeanother one (think he hadripped about 3 already by this point!) Our tour guide explained to us that no-one knew how the Champa peple had made the bricks to build the temples and that these couldn't be damaged (except by American bombs that is!) He showed us numerous examples of how the original bricks had no moss growing on them or damage to them but that bricks used in restoratin did have dmage. He also explained that one original brick had been sent all the way to Milan for vigorous testig and still they do not know how they were made and how they were stuck together, there is no visible cement...it remains a mystery!! Joking aside it was quite impressive really.

Back at the hotel we did some research on the best "tailor" in Hoi An and settled for a place called Bibo! The rain had stopped so we headed into town to get a dress made (obvioulsy for me not Michael). The lady was very nice - although I'm not sure she needed to measure my boobs for quite as lng as she did, or as many times as she did!! I chose a style from a Next catalogue (yep that's right, Next!) and then chose the material. Left her to make the dress and arranged a fitting for the next day before walking to the riverside. It was now chucking it down and we were getting soaked through. Michael's new [ponchop was ripped and so he traded it for a blue, slightly stronger model! We stopped at a cafe for some shelter and booked a cooking class there then sat and watched people getting soaked outside in the rain!



2nd November

We woke up to a completely different sight-glorious sunshine! So after another bizzarre breakfast we hired some bikes and went for a dress fitting (more booby "measuring!") Then we took a l;ovely bike ride to the beach, past the river and rice fields with buffalos, palm trees and the usual sight of women in conical hats.

When we were nearly at the beach we heard a lot of loud banging and whistling. After a few seconds we realised that the noise was coming from a man at the side of the road ahead of us. He was blowing a whistle hard enough to burst a blood vessel and banging on a sign with a big baton and waving at us. As we got closer we saw that the sign informed us that we needed to leave our bikes there before going to the beach. We stopped to let some traffic past so that we could cross the road and get into the bike area and he began to blow his whistle ven louder and bang the sign so hard it nearly fell over. He continued to do this until we had put our stands on our bikes and got our tickets....issues!! We then strolled to the beach which had lots of bikes next to it on it!! The beach was lovely and the sea was pretty warm, definitely warmer than British seas! The waves were pretty massive and gave us a good pounding. Michael tried to run in the sea and was taken out cartoon style by a huge wave! It was really nice to chill out there for a while - gosh this backpacking is really hard work! We went and picked up my dress - which I was really pleased with, well worth 20 quid. That evening Michael finally gave into my pleas for an Indian curry - it was vrey mediocre - I should not have nagged so much!



3rd November

Another sunny day so another day at the beach! Spent some time talking to one of the ladies who were selling jewellery there. She explained how she worked for a boss and that she got a small commission for everything bought from her...so if she sold nothing she got nothing. She also explained a bit mor about how people make their living in Vietnam and about wages etc. Basically they earn not a lot.

That night we went to a cooking xlass which was a bit more like a cooking demonstration but was still fun. When I said something was "yum yum" he sternly told us all that we should not say this. He then explained that this meant "horny" in Vietnamese....whoops!!! We thoroughly enjoyed the food anyway and it really was yum yum! Afterwards we headed to a pub on our bikes but weren't all that sure about going in - trying to stick to our budget. The ma at the door spotted our indecision quickly and beckined us in. Michale explained "we don't have much money" to which he replied "but it's happy hour"!" we were sold! He agreed to look after our bikes out front. Afterwards on the way out he said aggressively "you pay $5 now, I looked after bikes" Michael laughed and he sad "no you must pay, now, not joking!" Luckily he was joking-off to the hotel we rode and we had a race with a small boy....the boy beat us both...how embarrassing!



4th November

RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN...all day and ridiculously hard, limiting our options a lot! Very quiet day. We tried to walk out but it was pretty pointless, oh and my umbrella broke so we just stayed put. That night we got an overnight sleeper bus to Nha Trang. Sleeper is not really the right word for these buses- but I suppose it is a snappier title than "bumpy, painful, loud with bus driver blowing horn every 2 minutes" bus! We were at the back on top as we had been told that these were longer and would have m,ore room for Michael, who at 6ft4 is obviously quite a bit taller than your average Vietnamese. I ended up in a seat which was at the end of the aisle, the seats can be pushed back to be more or less flat. However mine kep popping up everytime we went over a bump (so every 10 seconds or so!) and nearly throwing me down the length of the bus. Luckily I could move to a seat next to me and to be honest we have heard of some much worse journey's than this so we can't really complain!

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