Ahoy, Hoi An!

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This is Elana, signing in again:

My last post about today ended with me being angry about the towels. After I blogged about this, we headed into town for our first fittings. Our first stop was Bibi, for Mike's shirts. The wine-coloured one was perfect, but the pink-and-white-striped one was big in the back and needed altering. Then we went to Yaly, more than half an hour early. Mike tried his suit and said that he felt like The Incredible Hulk, since he had no movement in it whatsoever. I missed this probably hilarious sight though, because I was too busy being hoisted into my dress. Several tailors were enlisted to help get me into it! The skirt part of the dress was fine, but a bit loose around the waist, but the top was a disaster. It was too tight, and did absolutely nothing for me. It was nothing like what I'd shown them I wanted. They kept saying that they were only able to do it similar to the design I requested, but this was not similar. We left Yaly with them having to make lots of changes, to my dress at least. Mike's problem was a relatively simple one to solve.

We headed back to the hotel on the shuttle bus, and decided to pick up our train tickets. Well, that was the plan, but the lady (ha, how do they like it!) was in her OTHER office. But this turned out to be excellent news because she arranged for some of her guys to pick us up... on motorbikes! Wahey! They arrived, and both Mike and I were a little apprehensive, because neither of us had ridden motorbikes before, but also super excited. I had wanted to ride on a moto since we got to Vietnam, and now was my chance to sample it, completely free! Mike got on his bike and his driver whizzed off without me and my driver. I was wearing what looked like a horseriding helmet. It didn't even vaguely fit! So I hung on to the bike for dear life for the first minute or so, especially when we went down a dirt-track road much like the fun road by Gaby's house. But then I relaxed a bit, and was able to enjoy it more, although I have to say, it was still a little scary because the Vietnamese drive like crazy people, just barging into streams of traffic without a second glance.
We got to the other office, and I met Mike's booking lady, Ms Anh. She was really nice, with a very firm handshake, and she gave us our train tickets (with a little story about the hassle the train company had put her through) and also booked our bus tickets for our onward journey from Hoi An to Hue (apparently we hadn't learnt from our excursion to Phnom Penh!).
And then it was back on the bikes for the ride back to the hotel. This time I was on the back of booking lady's bike, which was much more roomy than the other bike. Mike and I could both have fit, but his guy had jumped the gun again. Plus, I had almost caused a catastrophe getting onto her bike. She wasn't ready, and my (considerable) weight was unexpected, so the bike leaned precariously and she almost fell off before we'd even begun! But the bike ride itself was good. Mike and I were both much more confident on the bikes. We both said we might even like to learn to ride ourselves (so, parents, get ready to talk us out of it when we get home. Padre, if you just get Mike to feel your broken collarbone, I'm sure that will be sufficient to dissuade him!).

Back at the hotel, much faffing went on. Mike was on the computers, doing various things (but still not blogging). I watched a film (Aliens in the Attic - actually not all that bad). And then we got ready to go out. By this time, it was POURING in Hoi An. And I mean pouring. We got umbrellas again, and prepared to go out in the deluge. We had to go to Bibi to pick up Mike's shirts and tie, and we dripped massively all over their floor. It was hugely wet. Then we walked to Mango Rooms (well, the rain was so heavy that "we waded to Mango Rooms" would be a more accurate statement; the water was up to Mike's mid-calf. I almost drowned). We were sopping wet despite the umbrellas, right up to our waists. This caused problems, because the red colouring from the seat cushion rubbed off on my tie-dye shirt dress AND my new white lace playsuit. Even soaking them didn't shift the stains. My playsuit will have to be bleached. I don't know about the shirt 😞

Our food was good though. Mike had a really nice cocktail made of kumquat juice and tequila, and I had a berry-flavoured one. I prefered Mike's, which was just as well, because it was quite strong and he couldn't finish it on his own, so I got to help lots XD. We shared a vegetable tempura, and then Mike had seared tuna, whilst I had a meal called "La Cubana"; little cubes of beef with noodles and green beans. I think Mike enjoyed the meal more than I did.

Then we went to the Hoi An Patisserie in the ground floor of Cargo Club, next door. I got a chocolate tart (when I say chocolate, I mean it; it was LOADED with the stuff - YUM!) and Mike got a chocolate brownie cheesecake. We ate these in the room after having just caught the last shuttle-bus back to the hotel. We would have made it to the bus in plenty of time, except I had lost our room key, and we needed to search for it (to no avail, unfortunately). Back in the room, the desserts were DELISH (so much so that Mike bought another cake from there the next day). We watched the England vs Wales match. Well, Mike watched it; I did watch the first half, but was super tired, and so slept right through the 2nd half and through the night.

So, after a disastrous start, our first full day in Hoi An did pick up, what with the absolutely divine cakes and the enormously exhilarating motorbike rides. But I still hate the hotel. And its staff.

Sayonara, loyal subjects,
Elana
xx

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