Hoi An

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Finsihed the bike tour yesterday, arriving in Hoi An. The last few days on the bikes were, as fantastic as the beginning of the trip. We spent the last 2 days on the historic Ho Chi Min trail, which was absolutley beautiful. The road winds around the mountains and you feel really really small riding along on the bikes next to the mountains. Throughout the trail was jungle and watching the mist rising out of the trees was like jumping into the TV when your watching the discovery channel. We stopped at some more minority villages along the trail, on Sunday one of the villages had the day off, the Vietnamese work so hard, 6 or 7 days a week, and only Sundays off school. Either way they were all sitting around in one of the houses drinking a wine from a big pot through a long straw. They invited us in and we had some, it was a bit like diluted vingegary cider, drinkerble but not the best. We started pretending to drink it but they realised what we were doing and our guide told us to stop doing that and just drink it!! It was a shame as we've almost perfected the art of finishing food we don't want, often they give you bananas here and I really cannot stand to eat them, me and Helen are experts at her eating them both whilst it looks like I'm eating mine.

The people in the village were really friendly, we were practically in Laos and they were speaking the Laos language. The oldest man there, possibly the chief, we never found out, was in the Viet Cong and told us (via the translator) stories of the war. He was a bit of a charecter and started singing about the war as well.

On the last night we were driving through the jungle and a proper tropical storm started, we stopped in a village waiting for it to pass. There were a lot of teenagers in the village who kept looking at us and giggling (I don't blame them we did look a bit smelly). Whilst we were putting on many layers of waterproofs (which did nothing to stop the rain) they were looking at our cameras and mp3 player which they found very amusing. These people aren't totally cut off, they do have electricity and TVs inside their traditional houses, but mp3 players haven't made it this far yet!

On the 2nd to last night of the trip I fell in the shower (it's taken me this long to convince the people back home that I didn't fall of the bike) and broke a rib. Made the last 2 days on the bike pretty painful but I kept popping painkillers and the views were the best distraction they could've been. It's made it pretty impossible to lift my backpack, which sort of is one of the key elements of backpacking, but oh well. I'm sure Helen won't mind carrying both (ha!).

So Hoi An, a wonderful city, relitivley untouched by the war so the houses are older than you find in most of Vietnamese cities. It's quite touristy but also nice and quiet, most people go to the beach during the day but since lying in the sun doesn't appeal with a broken rib, we've been wondering around the town and it's been quite quiet.

Hoi An is known as the cultural centre of Vietnam and is famous for handmade clothes. Every other shop is a tailors so we decided to go and get some clothes made, partly just for the experience!! It's really cheap considering they are handmade to measure ($25US for a nice dress, $20 for trousers at the more expensive shops). The tailors are so talented, we went into the store and they have loads of magazines, you then choose what you want, but can pretty much make it up from your head and they'll create it for you. 2 girls came in whilst we were there with a tear out from a magazine from back home and had a copy of a designer dress made. They also copy clothes that you bring in and make perfectly fitting jeans (every girls dream!).

We had the fitting today, I've brought 2 dresses and a pair of trousers, and you can be as fussy as you like over the smallest detail, so they fit perfectly. A lot of people come here to have beautiful coats and suits made and all of it is done so well, I'm quite glad I don't have more money or I think I'd have brought an entirely new wardrobe. They also have shops that make leather shoes to order, Helen's just gone to get some sandals made and people get copies of fashionable shoes and pretty much any type of shoe you can imagine made. It'll be interesting to see how long these clothes last, but looking at one of the dresses and trousers that have already been finished, I think they're pretty good quality.

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