If you only do one thing in Hoi An, it has to be getting clothes tailored. There are hundreds of local tailors here and as we wandered down the narrow streets of the old town, Vietnamese men, women and even children tried to coerce us into their shops to look at all the beautiful dresses, jackets, tops and suits.
We had planned to have a lazy couple of days in Hoi An after our busy time trekking and travelling in the North. We had no great shopping plans, and just wanted to see the 'magical and memorable sleepy town'...as the Lonely planet describes it. After a good night's sleep we decided to head into town to look at some of the old buildings along the river, all decorated with chinese style lanterns lining the fronts of the buildings.
Unfortunately, in true monsoon season style, it rained heavily, all morning....all day...and then all night. We headed out into the town anyway to have a look round, despite the rain, and decided that the only thing for it, was to indulge in a bit of shopping. Now imagine the kind of shopping where you just pick clothing designs, pick colours, pick materials and then get everything tailored to your exact measurements, and then you pick your price!! You never even have to try anything on until the next day! Caz and I were in heaven - and we went a little too crazy, picking coats, designing our own blazers (I ended up with some hideous lime green monstrosity - don't ask!!), adapting dresses from the Next catalogue, and all for a fraction of the prices we'd pay in England. It was a tiring, but fun day, and most of the tailors were lovely and very accommodating of all of our (some rather unusual!) requests. One lady in particular had a bit of an unusual fascination with me, and kept pinching and slapping my bum, cuddling me and then insisted on 'helping me into my dress'! She was obviously not used to seeing someone of my shape here!!
After a hard day's shopping, we had a quick meal of the local noodle soup dish, Lau Cao (which is pork, thick noodles, croutons, beansprouts, and somewhat randomly...lettuce! Yum though!) and an early night.
The next morning we decided to indulge in a little 'extreme running'. Not extreme by virtue of the speed, distance or even terrain - more the incessant motorbikes, pushbikes, cyclos, dogs and children constantly in our path and trying their best to run us down!! It was a whole new way to experience Vietnam as we ran through the cobbled streets, the busy food market and along the river. The market posed another challenge entirely, as it is set up for tiny Asian people, which we are not, and we are both about a foot too tall to fit under the roof without constantly crouching!! The market vendors are incessant with their attempts to get us to visit their stalls and one fruit seller even tried to accost me with a conical hat as I ran past - obviously not fast enough! The rain had finally stopped though and it was humid and sticky - not the ideal climate for exercise!
The rest of the day was spent frantically running round the old town trying to remember where we had bought various items of clothing from, have fittings and modifications sorted, and desperately trying to resist the urge to have more clothes made!! Most of the clothes that we ordered were a success - I had one blazer made, not quite to my specifications, and with huge lime green buttons, lime green pockets and for some reason made long enough to reach my knees, it would be more fitting in a circus than as a serious item of clothing! Everything else, a couple of very shiny dresses excluded, were serious bargains, and generally we were pretty chuffed with our purchases!
Next stop was Nha Trang, on the sleeper bus. We packed up our now very many bags, unaware that we were to be transferred to the bus station by motorbike! It was an exciting journey, balanced atop my backback with another rucksack on my back, one on my front and various bags of clothes dangling from my person!!
The sleeper bus was far to bumpy for any sleeping to be going on, and the loud Asian soap operas that blared from the tv ALL NIGHT certainly didn't help matters.
We arrived in Nha Trang tired, but delighted to see bright sunshine, and settled straight in for some early morning sunbathing on the beach. Nha Trang is stunning, though a little like Surfers Paradise in Oz, with towering hotels and skyscrapers just a few metres back from the seafront. There are lots of small islands, just off the coastline, the whole setting is stunning. Unfortunately, I am taking doxycycline as an antimalarial - one of the side effects of which is to cause photosensitivity. I am now (still 5 days later!) lobster red, peeling, crusting and sore! Not fun!
We met Astrid, one of my school friends there, and then had a nice relaxing day. I went to the post office, to ship a rather large parcel of new clothes back to the UK so as not to end up with excess flight baggage, and on the way met a group of locals playing chinese chess who invited me to join them for coffee. I politely declined, but one of them jumped on his bike and followed me, calling 'you from England? Lovely Jubbly - I'm Eddie, Eddie Murphy'!! I couldn't help but stop and laugh, and got chatting to him. He is part of an Easy rider group that does motorcycle tours across Vietnam - something we were interested in doing. I agreed to meet him later on with the others, and went on my way.
The touts and local people here have an uncanny way of knowing where you are at any one time, and Eddie and his gang appeared at a number of times and places throughout the day! Eventually we succumbed and joined them for an ice coffee (a local favourite - strong sweet, cold black coffee - with ice-surprisingly good!). We decided to go for it, despite some reservations...it seemed like a great way to see Vietnam, and I have heard so many good things about the motorcycle tours. In case we had any doubts about Eddie's trustworthiness - he gave me his passport as an insurance policy. Unusual but certainly instilled a certain amount of confidence. We spent the rest of the evening planning for our trip, strolling along the beach, eating roasted yams from a woman in the street, crabs from an old lady on the beach and taking in the sights, sounds and smells of Nha Trang.
The next stop - Easy riding!!
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