Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh

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I am writing yesterday's blog sat on a vietjet aeroplane somewhere between Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City. I'd like to set the scene if I may... A boy of about 18months is sat on his mothers knee next to me. His hobbies include kicking me in the legs and waving around a wet wipe his mother used to wipe his nose making sure to rub it on my arm with every wave. Behind Eireann is a boy of about 5, his hobbies include kicking the back of Eireann's seat and shouting loudly. The elderly man in front's claim to fame is that his phone went off as we were taking off and he couldn't work out how to answer it. All in all it makes Ryanair look like a high class organisation with pure luxury throughout. I wouldn't be surprised if a goat walked down the isle.
Sorry there haven't been daily blogs but the website wouldn't allow me to post from my phone and the computers in the lobby were in Vietnamese settings so they would turn various letter combinations into the Vietnamese symbol for that sound. So yesterday! Our last day in Hoi An. It was very sunny, hot and as it hasn't rained for a few days, very humid. We went for our second fitting at 11am and everything was almost perfect. There were still a few things that needed doing and for someReason taking in the waist of my coat has reduced the arm length by about 5inches. They were so so lovely though and called the tailor to come to the shop so he could see exactly how it fitted and so he could make it perfect. We had another wander to the market and I took some pictures and we found some lovely polished marble rings which we bought at a stall. Eireann is like a woman possessed when it comes to haggling. The money is in such huge denominations that no matter how low the shop owners go she still feels like she is being over charged. (The child next to me just hit me in the face!!) This means that we always get a pretty decent deal. I am improving but I am definitely no Robinson when it comes to the haggle. Still, I am improving (I think) After lunch and our third fitting at the tailor we headed down to the beach for a bit of a relax and hopefully a bit of a breeze. We settled our selves on loungers and started to read. Within about 30 minutes the whole beach was FULL. There were hundreds of Vietnamese teenagers. Each one had a camera and/or camera phone and were just taking pictures of each other in various duck face poses. Our tropical paradise was no more so we packed up our towels and went to pick up our wonderful handmade clothes. We walked a long way looking for somewhere authentic to eat. It's been a bit of a struggle in Hoi An as its aimed at tourists and gap year kids with hangovers and the little street stalls are not at all vegetarian friendly. We ended up somewhere which promised good Vietnamese food - opened the menu and the first page was pizza. We ate and called it a night so we could go back to our hotel and pack. On our way back we passed our tailors. They were closing up for the night and when they saw us they gave us big hugs. The owner (a quite stern looking middle aged lady gave me a right squeeze. They were so lovely in that shop! Trung (our motorbike man) had offered to take us to the airport (Eireann has just been pinched by the child behind) We told him our flight details and he picked us up at 5:30 this morning (we asked for 6:15 but figured he knew best!) We told the hotel we would be checking out about 15 minutes later than we were but when we went down stairs the security man was asleep on a sofa and the receptionist was in pyjamas asleep on a blow up bed behind the reception desk. Trung was telling us that he is thinking of starting doing a family taxi business to help his brother who is currently out of work. He might need to upgrade his car to one with door handles though. We promised another good review on trip advisor for his new business and were on our way! Right time to land! - for some unknown reason the landing was done to the soundtrack of gangnam style in full on repeat... It goes nicely with the 16 screaming children in our immediate vicinity!

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