Hoi An: Shopping Mecca

Hello!



From Hue we took a bus to Hoi An, this took about three hours during which Julia and I managed to buy two bracelets to add to our growing collection (we need one from every place we have visited). When we got to Hoi An, Groud rushed us to a restaurant as we'd missed lunch and she felt really guilty about it. She took us to what became our favourite restaurant, it was called Cargo...and the food is indescribable compared to what we have had to put up with. The best thing was that the food was basically free so we ended up ordering three course meals everytime we ate there, which was every single day.

Pondering...

Our busdriver not looking where he's going!

Some more pondering

We were dealt the worst room at the hotel...it sort of felt like this was because we were the youngest. It was full of mosquitoes, this was unfortunate for Julia seeing as she is some sort of mosquito magnet! It's hilarious, even when there aren't any around she manages to get bitten, and when they are around she acts like a paranoid freak trying to kill every single one in her vincinity. So we got to work killing mosquitoes in our room whilst watching reruns of Victoria's Secret Fashion Show '06, '07, '08 and '09!! I know, it was pretty amazing and we now aspire to be looking like them by the end of our trip...we'll probably have to cut down on our banquet meals if this is to be acheived....so basically its not going to happen. We love food too much.

Look how incredible this is

Our Hotel

Outside the hotel

Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which means that the buildings can not be knocked down or changed from the original building. This meant that all the houses were from when the Chinese occupied Vietnam. This is rare in Vietnam as everything else old was destroyed in the war, there isn't anything authentic left. We took advantage of this opportunity and went to see a House of Worship, an Assembly Hall, a Japanese Bridge and and Old House. These were all beautiful places and the architecture had been influenced by China, Japan and France. In the house of worship the guide showed us some coins. They were coins from the time when Vietnam had a king, and she told us that they were used for decsision making. One side of the coin is Yin, and the other side is Yang. When you need to make a decsision you are not sure about you throw two coins into a bowl. If they land on opposite Yin and Yang sides then it means that the answer to your question is yes, and that the choice is balanced and will bring you luck. If the coins land on the same sides it means no, as the choice is not balanced. We became enthralled with these coins and bought two each and made them into necklaces. Perfect for us seeing as we're both incapable at making decsisions.

Old House

Japanese Bridge

Julia looking lovely in her new shoes

Some women rowing


A cute old man

Some lanterns

Out on the town

Hoi An is also famous for its immense amounts of tailoring shops. This means clothes and shoes at bargain prices!! YAAAY! They practically give things to you for free, inspired by all the runway shows and an Elle magazine we had recently read, we splurged. It became impossible to walk down a street without buying anything, so we ended up buying two pairs of shoes (each), three dresses, two rings, a pair of earings and two bags all for under $50. We became masters at haggling, and in the end we were kicked out of the shops by the shopkeepers as they knew they couldn't fool us with their rip off tourist prices, we are just too savvy for that sort of thing.

Look how small she is

Hat Stand

A cobbler making Julia's shoes

My new hat

One day, Groud took us on a bike ride to a nearby fishing village, this is so that we could see all the beautiful rice paddys some buffalo and how the people worked. It was really fun and Julia and I had a singalong on the bikes to the great amusement of the rest of the group...which soon turned into annoyance. But thats alright, we didn't mind. At one point we got seperated from the rest of the group, this is because we got attacked and nearly killed by a rogue cockrell. We ended up cycling in circles for half an hour, getting screamed at by some vietnamese fishermen and petting a really cute puppy before Dean (the 40 yr old Californian man) came zooming back to find us. We rejoined with the group and eventually reached a beach, which would have been wonderful if it wasn't cloudy! All in all the day was fun apart from the fact that I managed to burn my eyelids! How this is possible I have no idea, I must have been cycling with my eyes closed for most of the day.

Julia masters the bike

Working in a rice paddy

A man and his buffalo

Bicycles

This woman knows how to farm in style

Fishing Boat

At the beach