March 8 Nam, Hoi An +++

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March 8th
Hoi An is a really cool town. Its very touristy but it has a historic feel to it and there are tons of shops. So i spent the day touring around checking out temples, old houses, some gov meeting places and did some shopping. There are tons of tailors here so i got shirt made $8 to wear on the beach, sun protection. I wanted to get a pin strip suit but A. i didn't want to have to carry it home or send it home and B. i have no real need for a suit. I just think they look sick. In the afternoon i caught a local music performance. They were all very talented. The instruments and the singers sounded beautiful. Dinner at night was amazing it was some sort of open faced fried wanton it was absolutely delicious. Ever meal i had in Hoi An was at least 2 at a time and at least 4 times a day. Josh was right about the food there it was awesome.

March 9th
Today i was having my cooking class to hopefully learn how to make some of these delicious meals. At breaky i of course had 2 dishes at about $1 each and so delicious it was hard to pas up. Everything is rice or noodles too so you never really get full.
so the start of our cooking class the woman walked us around the market and was pointing out all the herbs, fruits, meats, fish ect. She told us about the duck embryos and these bet nuts women chew that apparently has the effect of cigarettes or something similar. However, it turns their teeth horribly black. After our market walk we took a boat ferry to the restaurant for the course. The chef shows us one meal then stepped us through making rice paper for spring rolls and some other small dishes. Then we each made a clay pot dish which we got to eat later for lunch. He also showed us how to make tomato roses and fans out of cucumbers. It was pretty fun hopefully ill be able to make some good stuff when i get home. After the cooking course we headed back to town. Where i tried the beat stuff that women chew on. I think the woman rapped a tiny bit of detergent in a leave and handed that to me with the beat and told me to chew them together which i did. It was pretty terrible. Your meant to spit it out but i swallowed it once. Im pretty sure that is why i got a headache about 20 mins later or maybe that was the cigarette "high" haha. After that i decided to try the Duck Embryo, After watching a few women put them down with easy i sat down at this woman's plastic table and she handed me one. As i was mustering up the courage one woman said something to the cook so she took it back and mashed it up for me so i couldn't really make anything out. The first bite was retched really chewy but would break part as well. It was hard to choke down but i managed. Every bite after that got better. The rest of it was more mushy, what i was expecting. I dont know what piece that first bit was. It really wanst that bad and i found myself scrapping the bowl at the end. After my duck experience i rested a bit then went out and had my 2 dinners for the night.

March 10th
Today i did a tour of My Son ruins. They were ruins of ancient Champa civilization. I opted for the sunrise tour again. There tends to be way fewer tourists and the shadows at sunrise make for great viewing and photos. It was a pretty mystical place. Even though there were bomb holes right next to some of them they still managed to stand. Although, apparently many of them were destroyed in the war. I also opted for the boat ride back which meant i had to wait about 4 hrs there for the larger tour group to come to meet up with them to take the boat back. I sat in the ruins for a long time reading and writing in my journal. Pretty nice place to relax and get inspired. Finally, the tour came and we were off. The boat looked like a old navy boat the ride was decent. We stopped off a small island where there was alot of hand made wood crafts from boats to furniture to little souvenirs. It was pretty neat.
When we got back to town i rented a bike and biked to Caui Dai beach. The southern most point of china beach. Were Soldiers would go for RnR during the war. When i got near the beach there was a parking place and they wanted me to stop and pay to park but i kept riding. I found a fence cover with bush that belonged to a nice hotel but there was a path to the beach. So i locked up there and walked up. There was a farmer on this grassy patch grazing a bunch of cows which he later led to the beach and walked them on the beach somewhere. There was a little surf so i went for a lil body surf. The bar was really shallow so the waves although small were really dumping on the bank. The coolest thing was when i was when i was just standing there drying. I noticed the sand was the closest i have ever seen to LBI sand. It was awesome and the weather was like a late fall day on the island. I felt for a second i was on the island. Then relativity set back in i was in Nam and got really excited. It also made me think of one time when my father had said to me " No matter how old you are when you are at the beach you resort back to child hood" As i was playing in the sand in my late teen years. The beach is a truly magically place. When i biked back to town i grabbed some (2) dinners then headed off to bed.

March 11
Today i headed to Danag. The main land to the norther more popular/famous part of China beach. I had read in the book that tourist are notoriously over charged on local buses and to check the price before hand and to not give in. So i did just that. The woman tried charging me 20,000 dong and i knew it was 10,000 dong. She was very persistent saying things like yesterday was 10 today is 20 or 10 for me and 10 for my bag. it was ridiculous i got really mad and started cursing at her and she finally gave up. Its terrible they just try and make some money off touristy just because we aren't from here they try and take advantage of us. Its not just buses its everything food clothing anything. There's local prices then tourists prices its terrible. Any way finally made it to Danang got a hotel and settled in. Then i headed for the real China beach but its a few k away. so as i was bargaining with one motor taxi this local guy rolls up on a bigger, real bike and starts promoting his Easy Rider Tour. I had been thinking about it the past weeks and figured if there was rafting or bungy jumping i would have dropped $ on them so why not drop on this and see what its like. Nam (the local EAsy rider guide) took me to a restaurant and we talked about it. He was older and spoke good English. I was still a bit back and forth but i told him a big selling point would be if we could eat some crazy local foods, snake, dog, cat geko, ect. He said yea defiantly well try and find it. So i said F it lets do it. So i planed a 3 day tour with him starting tomorrow. He dropped me off a the beach where i walked around a while and just chilled out. Before heading back to my hotel area grabbing some local street sandwiches and some supplies for the next three days. I went home and prepared for this journey.

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