Hoi An

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UNFORTUNATELY MY IPOD AND CAMERA MEMORY CARD GOT A VIRUS ON SO THERE WON'T BE ANY PHOTOS ON HERE FOR HOI AN, MUI NE, SAIGON AND THE MEKONG DELTA... NOT UNTIL I GET TO A CAMERA AND APPLE STORE

I originally like Hue for its chilled out vibe when I compared it the rush of Hanoi, but after spending very little time in Hoi An I decided I really didn't like Hue that much after all. This is the most relaxed city (albeit a small city) I have probably ever been to. I was an artistic place, a place for quiet reflection (not everywhere of course) and somewhere to just kick back for a few days... I stayed five! The city is made up of hotels, restaurants, galleries, a few bars and but importantly and the main reason for people come here is the vast amount of inexpensive tailors (I think about 500-ish in total).

My first day however I was not rushing to the shops like the majority of people here, but instead I just walked around and got a feel for this little community (this is my usual first day ritual). I found the people here to be more friendly than my previous encounters, although this is just a generalization. Hoi An is a very small place and I easily walked around it in an hour and in that time I stumbled into the market which to my surprise provided me with a huge contrast... I got hassled like crazy to buy stuff, more so than I have ever been hassle yet. Walking though the food section was easy but when you got a little further you entered the 'tourist section' stalls upon stalls selling items I really didn't need, cheap jewelry, fake clothes, sunglasses and little ornaments were all on hand at what seems to be the every stall... I did actually consider buying some very nice chopsticks but... I don't need them, I can't carry them around with me and they're too heavy to send home... I mentally slapped myself in the face and told myself not to get carried away. I was after all going to send my hard earnt money on clothes.

Still on my first day walking around I bumped into the two I met when returning from Halong Bay (again)... So that night we arranged to go out and eat. That night we thought it would be nice to go and eat down by the river (I don't know why food and huge quantities of water always seem to work well together), as we strolled down the fairly quiet roads we ended up by the Japanese covered bridge... one of the symbols of Hoi An. We decided to explore the other side and to our amazement we were entered into a world of zen-ful like calm. The bridge only being small still transcended us to this completely different place... in all of Hoi An they burn incense on the streets at night but it felt more spiritual on this side, the world moved a fraction slower and so did else here. We soon realised that this road was going nowhere so we turned around... slowly. Once on the other side we found a place to eat while obviously checking menu's along the way... I noticed that food prices were extraordinary high which was another contrast to the cheap accommodation (the cheapest so far).

So eventually I got myself to a tailors... now as there are around 500 of them it could have become very over whelming to say the least, you don't want to pay for some shoddy work but you also do not want to pay much anyway. I had a list of tailors recommended by a web page which was cross examined by suggestions in travel books and I finally made the decision to go to one of the more top end places rather than risk it... after all it would work out to be pretty cheap anyway. From the first look of the place I could see it was nice... it wasn't a small shop with all their work on manikins out the front while the workers there were trying to entice you in. It was prim and proper. I knew it would end up costing me a little more but I was confident that my products would be worth every penny. It took me a few hours to choose the fabric I wanted and I was on a budget so this did make it harder. But what also made it difficult was my luck with the fabrics... there were many I would have chose but regrettably there wasn't enough fabric to make a suit with it. I am also very particular and choosy which didn't help matters. It wasn't till the next day when I eventually made a firm decision... I was originally going to buy one suit but without the help of the sales assistant (she generally insisted I buy more), I though that I wanted to suits... I wasn't going to get a bargain like this again and I wanted a selection of colours. I did haggle the price down for two suits and get a couple of ties thrown in. So now I had my fabrics... a charcoal gray and dark brown... now it was time to choose my inlining. To funk them up a bit I choose a pink for the gray suit and turquoise for the brown... there worked damn well together. Then it was time to get measured up and I had all the usual stuff done, but as this was the first time I had had a tailored suit made, I enjoyed every aspect. I was then to choose the style of my suit and to help she brought over a Next catalog... I was not too happy with this... if I wanted a Next suit I would buy one! Luckily they have the internet at this place so I quickly typed in armani.com and found a nice little plain suit. That was now the end of my session and I was told to come back tomorrow afternoon for a fitting. I really don't know too much about suit and how they're supposed to fit... so I guessed and I gave orders and sent it away, I did this once more the next day... you know, just for effect and decided that I would take it when I tried it on the day after... anyway it seemed to be a damn good fit and I lookded and felt dappa! I spent $300 on two suits and two ties in the end (50%!w(MISSING)ool and 50%!c(MISSING)ashmere) but also got the experience of having my own tailored suit made for me... amazing. I felt very upperclass (well kind of... I was wearing shorts and vest), I was treated extremely well by the staff and I felt my business was appreciated... I just hope in 10 months that the suits still fits well.

Apart from the shopping, chilling out and socializing there isn't a great deal to do in Hoi An ... but there is also a beach which was supposed to be pretty nice but unfortunately my beach luck wasn't there. The days when I was sorting out my suits and shoes it was the most gorgeous weather, but when I had a free day guess what... it rained hard and long!! oh well... my next stop would present me with the opportunity to bath myself it the sun.

Near my last day a couple of people I was chilling out with were going to do a cooking lesson. I was originally going to save my cooking courses until I was in Chiang Mai in Thailand but I thought what the hell, it would be good to do it in a couple of countries to compare cuisines. This turned out to be a bad idea! Not only did the class cost $20 for four hours, but when we got to cooking we didn't even have our own work station. It started off alright... we got shown around the market and were introduced to different herbs, spices and ingredients... shown round the meat and fish section and given a little taster on what the Vietnamese to cook with. But then we were shown back to the restaurant and lined up in front of one set of hobs... yes just one. We were to make crispy pancakes first and the guy made the batter up and we were just supposed to make the pancake with some pork and prawns in there. I wasn't too happy at this and demanded that I made my own batter. I know how to cook and like a good cook I don't like to measure my ingredients and just use my feeling on how much should go in... I also like to improvise and this is what I had to do to keep myself entertained. After watching people make soup and a some vegetable dish (wasn't focusing by now), I was to make a sweet and sour pork... how interesting! So I added my own stuff, more of this, added some fresh chilli... this was a little scary for the other people there as they were basically crap and were not aware of my culinary genius and how easy it really was to cook a meal like this... it tasted good in the end... no surprise there!! all in all this was a big waste of time, I could have cooked this lot very easily by myself... and that money could have kept me in a hotel room for two nights!! Oh well we live and learn... I will definitely be asking more questions about what the class involves next time.

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