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Published: February 24th 2007
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Hoi An: Motor Bikes and Clothes
A Day for Exploring 2/18/2007 For our second full day in Hoi An we decided to set off on our own via the easiest and most readily available form of transportation in Vietnam, motor bikes. The cost for four hours of motor bike rental, one for each of us, came to a whopping $10. Unlike the last rental scenario these bikes came fully gassed up and ready to ride.
We started by heading toward the beach which was one kilometer east of our hotel. Vietnam’s beaches are long and filled with white sand. This area is just south of China Beach which was a major destination for R&R for the U.S. military men serving in the Vietnam War (referred to as the American War by the Vietnamese).
We headed south after we ran into the beach and quickly found ourselves in the middle of nowhere with nothing but deserted beach to our left and a few small Vietnamese houses to our right. At one point we stopped and walked to the beach just to say that we had seen a beach in Vietnam. We stumbled
across a man who was in the process of scattering money in celebration of Tet. Unlike the people in Hanoi who burn money in celebration of Tet, here it seems they sacrifice their money via the ocean. By destroying money, one creates luck and wealth for the new year. Most people chose to burn fake money, like Vietnamese monopoly money, but the wealthier people actually burn the real thing. Interesting huh?
After our quick stop at the Pacific we decided to head north towards Da Nang. While we knew from our drive in that Da Nang was a good distance away we had seen some interesting neighborhoods and a grave yard that I wanted to stop and see. After about twenty minutes of steadily moving north we grew tired of the monotony that is the Hoi An/Da Nang suburbs. Every building is built out of concrete and colored the same light blue color. Unlike the states, it appears that most of these small houses have very little furniture in them and are completely concrete inside from floor to ceiling. We guess that this has to do with keeping bugs our of the house, but it probably also has to
do with a lack of disposable cash that one would need to add carpet and dry wall.
Either way, we turned around and stopped at the grave yard that I spoke of earlier. These graveyards, at first glance, reminded Kel and I of ones we had seen in New Orleans where the graves are all above ground. In some cases people had concrete mausoleums but in other cases they had a grave stone marking a round pile of dirt. We walked around the grave yard for about twenty minutes until we were startled by a bull who was wandering around eating grass. He seemed a little upset that we were invading his territory but was unable to get to us do to the plethora of cactuses that stood in his way. As we exited rather rapidly he did his best to find a way to get to us but, thankfully, never succeeded.
Our final stop for the day was the opposite side of Hoi An. We traveled through town and kept going west following the river. We ended up back in some neighborhoods that bordered the water and stopped to walk along the river. To the west of
Hoi An the river broadens to form a beautiful delta. The neighborhood, in contrast to the river, was run down and poor. Its pretty sad to see the state that some of the people outside of town live in. As a tourist it can be easy to forget that the glitz and glamour you see in resorts and hotels is not necessarily the true Vietnam. Getting out of town really opens one’s eyes about the status of the average Vietnamese person.
The rest of our day was spent relaxing at the pool and reading, which is pretty dull for you readers but much enjoyed. It can be very tiring to travel this much and the periods of rest and relaxation are what keeps us sane!
Our Clothes are Ready and My Stomach Virus Returns After dinner time I started to feel pretty bad. Once again all the signs and symptoms were back, I was back to feeling like I’d been run over by a freight train. Thankfully this time I wasn’t quite as sick but I still had the stomach cramping and problem keeping food in my system.
I managed to sleep through the
night and make it to the clothes fitting the next morning.
2/19/2007 Mee and Van started with Kel’s clothes. She tried on her casual clothes and her new skirt. Everything looked amazing. A few things needed to be corrected but nothing major. Next came my suits. This is where things got kinda funny. Mee and Van both seemed to have a lot of interest in me and it really showed when I got to trying on my clothes. As I put on my new charcoal gray pin stripe suit and blue dress shirt, Mee says to Kel, “He looks like James Bond . . . face of Tom Cruise, body of James Bond.” HAHAHAHA! They were incredibly nice but I think a little too complimentary. Unfortunately we didn’t bring the camera so you’ll have to use your imagination about the clothes. (Kel note - while the James Bond description was a tad rosy, Mike did look hot in his new suits. There’s something very attractive about a man in a well made suit . . . nice!)
After the fitting we headed back to the hotel. I was feeling pretty bad again and had to lay down. I
spent the remained of the day in bed (or the bathroom) and Kel eventually went back to get the clothes after they had been finalized.
The next morning I was closer to normal which was great. We took our flight back to Bangkok, had no problems at the airport and made it back to Jack and Diane’s. We have been spending our time in Bangkok trying to figure out our next steps. Keep your eyes peeled for some great pictures to come. Our next stop is Siem Reap, the home of Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is the largest temple complex in South East Asia and incredibly famous. Hopefully the pics will be great.
Hope you are all well. We miss you and love the fact that you read what we write. If you get bored at work send us an email…mail from home is always appreciated!!
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Bruce / Daddy
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Mike and Kel, In looking at the picture of the ‘mad bull’ I was glad for two things. Number one, he wasn’t feeling more aggressive; number two, you guys weren’t wearing red shirts. It looks like if he had chosen to do so, he could have tested your matadorial abilities.