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Published: April 13th 2010
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Shoes!
Enough to send any woman into a spin Catching the night bus to Hoi An proved to be something we'd rather not try again. While it looked rather impressive, the double decker reclining seats were not easy to sleep on, and more to the point, the road was so bumpy that we spent half the time jolting up and down. There was also the mobile phones that would go off every other minute, the volume of the ringtones more suitable for a busy street than an enclosed bus. By this point, I had become convinced that Vietnamese people could sleep anywhere. A daytime siesta is commonplace, with most workplaces closing, some officially and some unofficially, between 11.30 and 1.30. During this time, if you walked into a shop, you would be greeted by a shop attendant happily snoozing away on the counter. Or perhaps walk down the street and someone would be sleeping on their motorbike, back on the seat and feet up on the handlebars. When one guy got on our sleeping bus at 11.30 pm with a portable TV Nick suggested, using charades style sign language, that he could use some headphones. He gave Nick a dumb look and kept watching. We both discussed that as Vietnamese
Twee shop front
isn't it just so cute? sleep through anything, watching a portable TV or not putting your phone on silent really wasn't such a problem (at least not for everyone except ourselves). We were highly surprised when another guy was woken up by the TV, and said to Mr. TV “Hey...noisy!” and pointed at the tellie. Mr TV obediently turned off his TV and went to sleep. TV or no TV though, we still barely slept, so our first day in Hoi An was spent recovering from the night bus.
Hoi An is totally twee. The laneways are cobbled, the streets are lit by lanterns, and all the shops seem to have this rustic feel that almost feels contrived.....although it is lovely, and am I am pretty sure they don't purposefully distress the exterior walls after painting 'for effect'. Most of all though, there are tailors EVERYWHERE. Every second shop is a tailor, and every other shop is either a shoe shop, travel agent, or gift shop. The highlight though, was meeting up with Birgit and Lukas again, our Austrian friends who we had met in Sihanoukville. They have been staying in Hoi An and were expecting us.
Saturday night in Hoi An was
Earth Hour
Kiddies with paper lanterns Earth Hour, where the lights are turned off for one hour to conserve energy and contemplate the environment and the effects of global warming. This also happened to coincide with the anniversary of 35 years of communism in Hoi An. Walking the streets that morning, it would not seem that the town was preparing for Earth Hour. Cable ladders were being installed to accommodate extra electrical cables. Light were being rigged up, and a stage had been constructed. It seemed the town had planned to make up for all the saved electricity by powering on high wattage lights for the rest of the evening, presumably for the anniversary celebrations. We mused at the irony.
That night the five of us went to town for dinner. Nick had spotted a place for desert and he was not going to let us forget about it! After dinner, we wandered down and ordered the special, 'soft centred chocolate cake with home made passionfruit ice-cream', and it was AMAZING. We all congratulated Nick on his good spotting. Then, mid-desert the lights went out. The lanterns in the restaurant were lit, and Phoebe and Lukas lit the candles in their paper lanterns. We sat
Spring Rolls
guess which one exploded? in the restaurant continuing to eat amongst the lanterns and candlelight, looking out to the river where large groups of children walked past with their lanterns, singing songs and then releasing the lanterns onto the river. It was truly a magical sight to behold.
With tummies full of delicious desert we walked to the river and organised for a lady to take us down the river on her row boat. She was highly excited at the prospect of making a bit of extra cash and screeched at the top of her voice trying to organise us all onto the boat so that it wouldn't topple over. Suddenly we had turned into a spectacle and attracted quite a few onlookers, who I am sure were secretly hoping that the boat would capsize. But the old lady knew what she was doing and we were off! Our onlookers waved laughed and waved goodbye. We held onto the boat and discussed possible outcomes along the lines of “it's ok, there's not a strong current, we could all swim the riverbank if necessary”, and “at least there's no nasties in this river”. We set our minds to making sure we were as still
Cooking Class
we were all very diligent students as possible, and Phoebe and Lukas set their lanterns down on the river and made a wish. After we arrived safely back we gave the lady a tip for her hard work and she screeched again, and personally thanked each one of us with a huge, toothless grin and a handshake.
The following day we did a cooking course. We made papaya salad, spring rolls, lemongrass fish (I made an eggplant dish), and fried rice. We have now learnt the secret to good Asian food: lot's of sugar!! It's that simple. Lukas made a good effort with his spring roll and completely overstuffed it. This was met with much amusement from our cook, and later all of us when it exploded while being deep fried. As we got to eat everything we made, we finally left four hours later with very full tummies indeed.
By the time we had got to Hoi An, we had been in Vietnam for three weeks. Communism had made itself felt in more ways than just anniversary celebrations. For starters (and most devastating for me), access to facebook was banned, I supposed for some anti-communism sentiment. There was a definite element of control that we felt in so many ways. In some respects, an economic anti-competitive spirit (in government run/regulated businesses) which disappointingly led to staff being lazy and service being slack. Attempting to discuss this with any locals led to textbook answers or blank stares, which is understandable, given the repercussions should you criticise the government in any way. We continued to feel this throughout our time in Vietnam, and it was starting to make an impression.
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christine giles
non-member comment
vietnam
Hi. another test in endurance. Where are u off to now? I have begun striking a garden for u fuschias + geraniums. In a year they will be lovely plants.Love AC