Hanoi to Hoi An

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Signing back in. Its the evening of my 3rd night in Hoi An. I take off tommorow for Nhatrang. Over the past 2 weeks I have definitly become more and more accustomed to all new things around me and the sights sounds and smells. Being in Hoi An is sort of bittersweet. I am back on the tourist trail for sure. I think this town has had the highest concentration of tourists of any place I have been to yet. Also, no one flys straight to Hoi An so eveyone here is in the middle of their trip so they are a little bit more tired and not as open to being friendly or talking as many of the people I met in Hanoi.

Its amazing how many people I have met from everywhere on the planet here. Also, a great number of people are traveling for very long time. I met a French couple who are one month into their 8 month trip. I met an American man here who is 28 and worked for Nasa and is burnt out and traveling for 4 months. So many people here because its still not a huge tourist trap and its so cheap here.

I met a man from Denmark last night though that is doing studies on the impact of tourism in Vietnam and it was interesting what he said. He said that its projected that the number of tourists coming here would increase by 8 to 10 fold in the next 5 to 10 years. He said to enjoy what I am seeing and doing here now since when all that occurs everything here will be completly different.

Hoi An is a nice place. Its a small town on a beach and a large river passing through it. The older portion of town where the tailor shops and other shops are is so varied in its architecture. Its obvious that there is much influence from everywhere, Europe, China, Japan. There are many trees lining the streets and none of the buildings are really tall. Its just got a good feel to it. There are so many tailor shops everywhere.

When I checked into the hotel I saw a suit a man had made at one of the shops. It was very nice and everything about it looked really high quality. I got the name of the shop from them and the first day in Hoi An just went straight there. I hate shopping and I did not want to browse 300 tailor shops to try to find one I liked. I wanted to get several suits made but started with one so I could see how it was going to turn out. I picked a nice cashmere/wool blend and was fitted. They measure everything. I went back about 4 hours later and tried on the suit. They made a note on everything and fixed it. I went ahead and splurged and picked a grey one, blue one and a light tan colored suit. It was $70 USD per suit and I am going to have them shipped home to the states. I purchased a blazer about 6 months ago at JC Penny's for about $100 so I am pretty happy with a tailor made $ 70 suit.

One thing I can say for sure is I am so glad to have done the Motorcycle tour first as now I am practically living on a scooter. Its $5 per day to rent one and I have been going everywhere on it. Markets, sidewalks, driving right into restaurants. I tell you for certain that scootering around everywhere is the way to go. I will be doing it everywhere from now on for sure.

The weather here has been rain everyday. Sometimes torrential rain. The river through town is flooding and some of the streets are covered. The beach is really nice. The way its set up is its free to go to the beach but I have found the best thing to do is to just use one of the little local restaurant type places that are every 50 feet along the beach. For example today I drove to one and they let me park for free. They then put a nice cushion on the lounge chairs under bamboo umbrellas down on the beach. I ordered a beer and some fresh shrimp spring rolls. They bring it all down to your chair and serve you. All of that for $3. Its decadent. Its so worth it.

The weather has been overcast and raining but its been nice having it cooler and its so enjoyable to sit and face the ocean while you watch the waves coming in. I spent several hours each day just doing that and reading my book.

Off to Nhatrang tommorrow for more beach time. I splurged on a really nice hotel there for 3 nights so will be interesting to see if its worth it or not. I will let you know as I continue to follow the same path as every other tourist in Vietnam. I am trying to figure a way to get off the beaten path again but maybe in Cambodia it will be more likely as I am trying to time my visit to make the meetings and meet the local brothers and sisters there. I hope I get it all worked out on the timing.

Signing off for now.

Dave

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Photos

Street in Hoi An.
This is the French Couple who are traveling for 8 months

Comments

[ken blurton]

Nice blog Dave! Can't wait to read your next installment.

[Janice]

Tailor shop loses money!
I think you did great getting custom made suits(who gets those?)for the price you did. I think they lost some money though on you with you being bigger than their average customer. They probably enjoyed the change. Keep shopping, you never know when you can get back there to get something you missed!