Hoi An- not to be confused with Hanoi (the capital city of Vietnam) was
the cleanest and cutest town we'd ventured to since we arrive some 10
days ago.
The sleeper bus to get there was eventful. In fact at around the 10 hour
mark we hit something and the bus window just below me got completely
smashed. Literally. Glass flying everywhere. Without even asking if
anyone was ok- the bus driver hopped out of the bus, taped the massive
window up, and we were on our way.
This did cause some delays, and our 12 hour bus ride turned into a 16-18
hour one. When your bum is that numb though there isn't much difference
between 12 and 18.
Needless to say, we made it to Hoi An in one piece, and from the get go
the city was treating us well. We checked into our, budget, hotel which
ended up being our nicest one yet! It was super clean, and big, and we
even had our own little balcony.
I was particularly excited for Hoi An, because this is the city were
tailor shops monopoly the streets, and you can get really nice hand made
clothing for really reasonable prices.
After a quick bite to eat, Steve and I explored the city and found a
cute little shop where after we either designed or picked some clothing
out, we got measured up.
The girl who did our measuring was super cute. She spoke relatively good
english and she was joking around with us the whole time. Steve and I
were kind of being goofs as well, and I think that make her like us a
little more.
We ended up getting way more stuff then we needed... And after only one
night, we went back to get fitted and everything looked awesome. Steve
got a suit made, and he's never looked so 'sharp'. We were so happy with
all our stuff. It was an awesome experience.
We couldn't get over the girl and her sister though. When I say they were cute- I really mean it!
They even took us on their motorbikes to a hidden away vegetarian restaurant which ended up being really awesome. Yummy!
All in all Hoi An was a really nice town. There were noticeably more tourists here- but it was easy to see why.
We also came at a pretty neat time because there was a festival of lights going on.
Right through the middle of the town is a river. And there's a really
cool bridge that allows you to cross from one side to the other.
When night time came the bridge lit up with lights and beautiful lanterns were lit by every home and shop around.
Plus water lanterns were lit and released to float down the river. It
was a picturesque to say the least, and photos couldn't do it justice.
Steve and I walked the streets and watched the lights for hours. We even got to visit the night market which was fun.
The one thing we found funny, but sad at the same time, was this one
incident during our dinner. A girl my age came up to our table and asked
if we wanted to buy any jewelry or snacks from her. Usually we just say
'no thanks' and the walk to the next table... But for some reason this
girl would not leave us alone!
Her bag was like Marry Poppin's bag...She kept pulling never ended
amounts of things out it, hoping we would be interested by something.
She was at our table for nearly 20 minutes begging us to buy these 8
dollar charms, when I finally gave her a blunt ' no I don't want to buy
anything'.
She turned to me and said:
'Hey lady' open your heart... Open your wallet. You can buy. You will buy'.
Here Steve and I had thought that after 'open your heart' she would say some insightful thing... Nope!
When she finally realized I was being serious, she turned to Steve and said 'don't you buy your lady nice things? Be a man.'
Steve laughed and with a no she finally left.
I must say that she was an entertaining sales women though.
We had stayed up far past our bedtime and we were super tired. We fell asleep immediately.
The next morning we were taking a bus to Hue which was only about 4-5 hours away.
This would be a cake walk in comparison to the day long rides we had grown accustom to.
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