Blogs from Hoi An, Quảng Nam, South Central Coast, Vietnam, Asia - page 136

So we were a little unprepared for this city. Hoi An is a quaint beach town that has its streets lined by tailor after tailor. You are able to have anything made out of ANY material, ANY style, to fit your EXACT body!! This is anyone's paradise. But it is also a giant black hole. We lost all concept of space, time, and money. We had to get out asap after a few days of major damage. It is embarrassing, yes, but we did not even venture out of the downtown to see ANY of the surrounding sites (like this cool waterfall; but we have seen those before! right?) or even the beach. Sad. We know. However, note to the wise: if you plan on visiting Hoi An... bring your favorite pants, bikini, etc. so you ... read more

After a 13 hour life-harrowing bus ride from Nha Trang we stumbled into our hotel rooms and fell like timber onto the beds. Oh, sweet sleep! Not one of us had slept more than two hours of the journey and we were bone tired and weary. Not only were the bus seats uncomfortable, but we had witnessed our lives flash before our eyes enough times to keep us awake all night. Our driver had us on the edge of our seats by driving on the wrong side of the road about for 80% of the trip. Awake only by cans of Red-bull energy drinks, he swerved erratically around motorbikes and other buses and used his ear-piercing horn at a rate of once or twice per minute. As we unfolded ourselves from the seats upon arrival, we ... read more

Hey folks, hope you're all well and enjoyed your bank holiday weekend... I wrote a HUGE blog entry the other day but when I came to save it... it all went a bit 'Pete Tong', grrrr, so will probably only have time to fill you in on half the stuff I've been up to.. and can fill you in on the rest later on... hopefully! Keep your comments coming, thank you so much to everyone who's keeping in touch! Here we go folks... I hope you're sitting comfortably! Saturday 27th August Joined the girls at their hotel at about 10am this morning, and all jumped on the back of motorbikes destined for Cau Dai beach, which was approx 5km outside of Hoi An. When we arrived, you could have said that we had the place to ... read more

Hoi An was pretty nice, its just a small place a really old city full of tailor shops and cool architecture. Andy got a luch suuit tailor made for abou 27 pounds, he looks ver handsome in it. I got a skirt a top which i dont like and a posh coat, all for about the same. It was fun going shopping but hard to buy something before seeing it if you know what i mean. We also got some shoes which were rubbish mine broke yesterday after wearing them once!! I only paid a fiver or something for them though so never mind. In the evening we met up with some people we keep bumping into along the way. Ended up getting extremely drunk, going back to there hotel which was in the middle of ... read more

(part two, feb 21st) ....we then continued down the road to find the family that was maintaining the tomb. wow! another epic experience!! we pulled into (follow me here) my mother's cousin's house. her grandfather's brother's son's house. the entire family was there!! it just happened to be the anniversary of the cousin's mother's death. the older relatives were dressed in ceremonial gowns and head wraps. they were honoring her with a huge feast, lit incense and bowing and prayers and burning of money. they burn (fake) paper money, furniture, and clothing. the buddhists of this province believe that there are two worlds that coexist. this living world and the after world. when one dies, she passes into the after world but needs all the comforts that she had from the living world. so the survivors ... read more