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Published: August 4th 2009
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After a sleepless night on the overnight train mostly due to the fact my legs were burnt and as red as a tomato combined with the sudden stopping of the train every 2 hours (I seriously thought we were derailing every time) we finally made it to the beautiful town of Hoi An, which quickly became my favourite town in Vietnam. After a long nap in a hotel bed (yay!) we wandered around the streets of Old Town. It’s so beautiful, the houses themselves look like they belong in the French countryside, only the excessive Chinese lanterns and Vietnamese signs advertising ‘Fresh Beer’ remind you that this is actually Asia! Every second store is a tailor, as tailoring is Hoi An’s biggest attraction. Everyone in our group had something made; beautiful long gowns, suits for work and weddings, party dresses, and I just had a pair of 3/4 pants made, which ended up looking like grey mens above-the-knee shorts! Oh well. Apart from my misadventure, the other outfits looked amazing! One girl took in a photo of a dress that Cameron Diaz wore to an awards ceremony and had it created to fit her perfectly! Another had a shiny gold cropped
leather jacket made (why???), but we’re not going to talk about that little disaster. Hannah and I were quickly sucked in to the oldest trick in the ‘rip of Westerner’ book, when 2 Vietnamese ladies came up to us, gave us their baskets of goods and conical hats and had us pose for photos. Quicker than you can say ‘goddamit’ they held out their hands asking for money. 5000 dong later we learnt our lesson!
After a pedicure to fix my manky backpacker feet, I took myself and my newly bright pink toenails for a bicycle ride around the town, and into the countryside to see the rice paddies and general rural life. It was terrifying cycling in Vietnam, I can’t believe I didn’t get hurt once, not only did I have to remember to bike on the right hand side of the road, but it didn’t help when scooters who were meant to be on the left lane instead drove the wrong way up my lane! (wow... did that make sense?) A man nearly did hit me, he was driving his scooter with 3 massive pot plants, one on each side of him, and the biggest plant sitting
in between his legs covering his entire face, and I guess it was hard for him to see me when he’s peering at the road between the branches and leaves of the plant!
That night we enrolled in Vietnamese Cooking Class! We made Fried Spring Rolls, Papaya Salad, Sweet and Sour Chicken Soup and Fish in Banana Leaf. It was such a fun night, our cooking teacher had us in stitches with her constant Kath and Kim jokes! It’s not every day that you’re in South East Asia and a small Vietnamese lady screams at you to “look at moi!!”
The third day was mostly spent by the beach as it was so beautiful and peaceful there, I could have stayed for weeks! I had lunch with the 2 Australian ladies, and they splurged on a massive feast of kilos of crab and massive King Prawns (biggest prawns I have ever seen!) Considering I am cheap (and maybe a bit of a tight ass) I bought the cheapest thing on the menu, Cao Lau, a local speciality of beef thick noodles. So good! Mel and Kath let me try their seafood, and I re-established the fact that I
do hate prawns, but crab is so good! Why had I never had it before?
We left Hoi An for Hue and I was in such a bad mood all day, it was only a 4 hour drive but we consistently kept stopping for no apparent reason (though our guide said it was for us to get coffee, even though nobody wanted any), and the obligatory stop to a marble statue making factory that no one cared about! I felt a bit bad for the owners, we all just walked in and walked straight back out, we were so desperate to get to our hotel. Bad travellers we are! I kept getting mocked by the way I pronounced the city. It’s pronounced hoow-aye, but I would always say hoo-ooo-eee, sung the same way as Ooh Wee by Ghostface Killah but no one got the joke. I even added the la-la-la-la after saying it, and I was still met with blank confused faces. Oh well.
Carolyn and I took a small boat across the river to get to the local markets. We were the only passengers on the family owned boat and shortly after leaving the shore the grandmother
came out with an 18 month old baby and forced the kid to hold out it’s hand and beg us for money. We were in so much shock over it, we couldn’t believe that the poor baby was being taught to beg from such a young age. The markets themselves were pretty cool, they were slowly starting to close up when we got there, but it was great to see the local part of it, with all the random meats that had been sitting out and uncovered all day, and the multitude of fruit that was beginning to rot! We took a cyclo back home which was so exciting! I had wanted to ride one since seeing them in Cambodia for the first time. It’s nothing really amazing, it’s just the fact that it resembles a bike pushing a wheelchair. Seriously, it doesn’t take much to get me excited!
Later on that night, Kate came up with the most hilarious statement of the whole trip, one we didn’t let her live down.
“Hey look there’s the Colonel! Oh no, that’s that Ho Chi Minh guy!”
We got home and flicked between the Wimbledon final and CNN news
on the Michael Jackson death. We were in stitches when CNN were showing the stories of when news of his death broke out and one reporter said, “This is something that won’t happen again in my lifetime, Michael Jackson will only die once.” How embarrassing CNN.
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