Hoi An - land of a thousand tailors

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This is Jason:

So I know we're just a little bit behind on this blog, so I'll attempt to catch up. After Halong Bay we went back to Hanoi (which both Cyn and I agree totally sucks). We had breakfast with "Adam's Brother" (that's what Adam told us to call him) and then jumped on a plane to central vietnam and historic Hoi An town. Hoi An rocked. Its much smaller and much less crazy than Hanoi (although we still had to dodge motorcycles when crossing the street), which was a really welcome change. It was a little hot, but we had so much fun we really didn't mind. We stayed in the Hop Yen guesthouse, which had the sweetest english speaking employees for only $10 per night. The first thing we did in Hoi An is, of course, shop! Hoi An has about 500 tailor shops, all of whom make dirt cheap custom clothing over night. You go in, pick the material and cut, get measured, and then pick up your cloths THE NEXT DAY! Crazy. If you don't like the way they fit, you can tell them to adjust it. Cyn had one dress adjusted 3 times. We also had custom shoes made (they actually made a drawing of our stinky feet). Total damage for Hoi An:

8 dress shirts
2 pairs of jeans
1 pair of dress shoes
1 flip flop
1 pair of heels
1 dress
=$160

All this shoping took a lot a while. In between we took cooking classes, which included a tour of the local market and instructions on how to make fresh rice paper (pretty cool, but I would never actually do it myself...although the spring rolls do taste a lot better with the fresh rice paper). We also went to Cham Island where we stayed the night in a tent on the beach. That was awesome. In the middle of the night Cyn said that the tent was too stuffy and that we should just sleep on the beach. The mosquitos were very greatful for that idea! We eventually moved back into the tent. All that said, it was totally amazing to wake up on a completely deserted beach!

Oh and the food in Hoi An was to die for. Incredible. The only negative thing I can say about our time here is that we got a little beat up. It was very hot, both of us got sunburned, I cut my foot on a rock and I got eaten alive by mosquitos, but it was all totally worth it.

We're now off to Singapore for 15 hours or so and then we move on to Indonesia to see Cynthia's family. I'm a little nervous, but it should be fun.

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