Hoi An

Hoi An

The chicken bus dropped us off a little ways out of town. The motor bike guys said is was 4 km but since we are super fit, we managed to walk to the middle of town in 10 minutes. Amazing how those 4 km just ticked by.

Ok ok. Sarcasm aside, Hoi An immediately proved to be ruined by tourism. We went to probably 7 or 8 hotels and it was the same story: rooms started at $12 and included AC, hot water, and a pool. Yes, all of the hotels had pools- this is not usually the case. A motorbike driver told us about a place for $8. I have adopted a new policy which includes Never following a motorbike driver to any tourist destination including hotels. Walking up to a hotel with one of those guys is just shooting yourself in the foot. This guy wouldn't leave us alone though so we noted where the hotel was, went and had lunch, and then went back.. After some light negotiation, we got a room for $8. Success.

Hoi An is known for tailor-made clothing. There are hundreds of stores. It is impossible to stand on the side walk for more than 30 seconds without someone coming up to you and trying to get you to have clothing made at their shop. In the end, it proved to be too much of a daunting task. I didn't have enough prior knowledge and I didn't´have enough motivation to become a tailor made clothing expert.

Instead, we did some relaxing. The beach in Hoi An was actually pretty nice. The people selling coconuts, etc. Were only marginally obnoxious. The water was cool enough to be refreshing and overall the beach was clean and uncrowded. Much better than the reports I had heard from Nha Trang. In true Vietnamese style, at both of the beaches, people tried to wave us into parking lots for our bicycles. One guy looked pretty official with a baton and a whistle but we had previously been advised that paying for parking was a scam and not necessary.

Biking away from tourist towns seems to be my favorite activity these days. From a main road, we turned down a dirt/ grass path which cut between uber green rice fields. Riding on this stretch amidst palm trees, green grass, blue skies, and cows just hanging out evoked the 'I love this life' feeling that has been happening less frequently in the past few weeks.

I often have that happy feeling when I feel like I am in a part of the country that is just that country-not a production for tourists. I also have that feeling with interesting meal experiences not only because of the food but because of the opportunity to have 'normal' transactions with locals.

While I disagree with the many people who claim that Hoi An has amazing food, I would say that the food is the best part of Hoi An. It is also the last place we were getting somewhat reasonable prices: fresh beer for 4000dong and 2 coffees (+ 2 teas) for 10000 dong. We found a 'vegetable' lady down an alley who hooked up huge piles of veggies + rice + watermelon for 20,000dong each. Sweet sweet vegetables....

One night while on the prowl for dinner with another American couple, we passed by a local restaurant which looked interesting. After some pointing, gesturing, and conversing with a slightly intoxicated vietnamese customer, we successfully ordered a few plates of grilled chicken and okra which we wrapped up in mustard leaves and lettuce with cucumbers. There were 3 dipping sauces to choose from: soy sauce, a sweet chili sauce rendition, and some other totally unidentifiable sauce which turned out to be amazing. Thanks to our new friend, we were feasting like the locals. Sweet sweet success. The icing on the cake was when we observed the elderly woman taking money tallying up another customer's tab with an abacus. We stared in disbelief, then laughed, then stared in disbelief again. Only in Vietnam.