Hoi An, Hue

It's hard to escape Hoi An without getting anything tailored. Apparently the town (which is only small) has over 500 tailor shops. The proprietors accost you mercilessly as you walk down the street past their shopfronts. It is so hard to choose one - they all look much the same but you live in fear of choosing one that's going to give you dodgy seams and polyester instead of silk.

In the end, I visited about 4 places. The first place quoted me US$80 for each dress that I wanted. I enđed up getting all three dơne for that price. Hoi An is like a shopping paradise - I could easily have gotten so much more made. One thing I found though is that it is much easier to get something copied than get something made from a picture. The items that I had copied turned out exactly as I wanted - the one that I had made from a picture also turned out well but not exactly how I had in mind (I guess I shouldn't expect them to be mind readers!).

All in all I was really happy with how everything turned out - I only wish that I could have afforded to get so much more made! Paul showed extreme resistance to temptation and only bought a couple of silk ties. Debbie ended up getting a suit and some business shirts made along with a traditional Vietnamese outfit.

Hoi An itself is a very lovely atmospheric town. There are heaps of old buildings and narrow cobbled streets. Along the waterfront you can sit upstairs in any one of these old houses and eat and drink under the fans while you watch the river glide by. While we were there there was some festival being held (Buddha's birthday perhaps?) and on the Friday evening there was a lantern parade through the town. All the shops and restaurants turned off their lights and the lanterns and floats which were lit up from inside paraded through the darkened cobbled streets. We ate by candlelight at a cheap food stall near the market and watched the parade pass by. They also set adrift heaps of lanterns on the river which was very pretty (if environmentally insensitive).

There is actually a fair bit to do in Hoi An but it was hard to get to it all between fittings at the tailor! One of the most memorable things though is the food. We made sure to fit in tonnes of the local specialties such as banh xeo (a type of pancake served with rice paper and salad that you roll up and dip into a sauce), cao lau (a type of fresh noodles served with pork and fresh salad) and white rose (steamed shrimp in rice paper).

After Hoi An, we all headed to Hue on the bus. The bus ride to Hue was beautiful. We passed by pretty beaches and then away from the coast and past lakes surrounded by rice fields and bamboo huts. All around there were mountains rising up from nowhere. The lakes were so clear and the sky was cool and overcast. I felt like shouting to the bus driver "Let me off, I'm sure I can find a spare bamboo hut that I can live in so I must never ever leave this place!"

Paul and I arrived in Hue in the afternoon (Angus and Debbie having arived in the morning as they had only one day before they had to catch a flight back to HCM City). As it was their last night with us we went out to one of the degustation type meals for which Hue is famous. It was interesting, with all the garnishes elaborately carved and the dessert cake shaped and coloured to resemble fruit. The only downside to our arrival in Hue was when Paul stumbled getting out of the bus and strained his ankle, which promptly puffed up to half it's size âgain and meant that he has had to limp everywhere for a few days now.

The next morning Angus and Debbie were supposed to leave early to catch their Jetstar flight back to HCM City. Imagine our surprise when Angus woke us up knocking on our door at 10.00am saying that their flight had been cancelled! They had arrived at the airport to find their flight cancelled without warning and had to come back to the hotel. Angus đeciđed to stay one more night as his flight back to Australia đid not leave from HCM City until 3.00pm the next day and he could get on a Vietnam Airlines flight from Hue to HCM City first thing in the morning.

On the other hand, Debbie's flight from HCM City to Perth left at about 8.00am the next morning. She had returned to the hotel where the helpful lady on the counter had jumped onto her motorbike and raced down to the train station to buy a ticket from Hue to HCM City on the overnight train leaving at 10.00am (all 24 hours of it!). Poor Debbie - we hope she made her flight. We haven't heard anything to the contrary so we can only hope she got there in time!

As for us, we are starting to run out of time on our 30 day visa. Paul has headed off today on a 12 hour tour of the DMZ (de-militarised zone) while I am trying to save money and make up for my extravagence in Hoi An by having a quite day in town. We will have to suffer through another 12 hour bus ride tomorrow as we head to Hanoi.