Sipping “jaag-op, reg-op” Vietnamese coffee
sweetened with condensed milk while we wait for our next bus north to Hue
(pronounced “hoi” which is pretty much what all the hawking and spitting sounds
like by the locals!). Yesterday, after an early morning swim on a beach that
could have been plucked right out of SA, we decided we hadn’t quite had enough
of Hoi An just yet and decided to stay another night.
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| Cau Dai Beach |
Our first day in this genteel, French and Chinese influenced town was an incredible mix of roaming the narrow streets of Old Town
(a Unesco World Heritage Site complete with ancient teak stained houses),
watching old fisherman and woman in pyjama-like outfits and conical hats float
down the Thu Bon River, and viewing all the local craft: silk lanterns,
paintings, marble beads and, of course, tailors. Hoi An is the best place in Vietnam to get affordable custom made
clothing, an option we did our best to resist until we met Mamma Emma…
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| Chinese teak temple doors..."happy long life!" |
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| Japanese covered bridge |
Walking down the street, on the way to the
river, we were cheerfully stopped by a short little lady with a smile as wide
as her hat. After a small purchase of some Vietnamese coffee and a hat of our
own, she pulled out her tailors’ recommendation book along with pictures of
previous outfits. Before we knew it, we were in her family’s shop picking material
with 5 other family members, most of them Mamma Emma’s daughters-in-law. (And
this in spite of warnings about the tape measure “wondering” into some
rather privates places!) All said and done we left the shop with one suit and
one dress ordered and strict instructions to be back for a final fitting at 5pm. This was around 1pm!! Not possible you say? I kid you
not, we walked out of that shop in just over 4 hours with a perfectly tailored
suit and silk dress that fitted better than any item we could have bought in a
shop. Amazing!!
Added to this purchase was the personal
experience of meeting Emma’s family and little grandchildren, one of them with
Cerebral Palsy. It was fascinating to see a different culture’s attitude toward
this difficult life-long disability as well as hear about the family’s access
to specialized health care, like physiotherapy. If our money had to go
anywhere, I’m glad it went here.
We spent the rest of the day wondering around
town with ladies chasing us down the street to sell us things and Pete
bargaining until they dropped to a 5th of the original
price (I swear the man was born to do this!). After a delicious meal in a
riverside café we caught a small boat trip up the river and set two water
lanterns free. Watching the twinkling lights reflect off the water and
listening to our squatting boatman paddle us upstream will be one of the
highlights of this entire trip.
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| Drinking a beer watching the world float by |
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| Floating lanterns |
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| Locally made silk lanterns by night |
Early the next day found us at the beach for
the swim that convinced us to stay a 3rd night. Following this Pete
decided to have a “Bar Ber Clean Ear” experience. Let’s just say that he got
what it said on the label…and then some!! I’m still not quite sure what they
did to him, but by the instruments of torture on display I can only imagine it
wasn’t very pleasant. Squeaky clean, we spent the rest of the day reading and
swimming on the beach while fending off vendors plying their wares on the sand.
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| Vietnam's very own Sweeney Todd! |
Our 3rd and last day brings us to
now. Another early morning swim beginning the last day of our 1st
full month on the road! The experiences remain amazing, but we’re starting to
look forward to unpacking our suitcases for longer than a few days now. Just a
few more stops before we do… J
Lots of love to all and see you soon!
xx
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| Easy riders...the best way to get around Vietnam |
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| Museum of Cham Sculpture in Danang |
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| Emperor Who? |
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| Another ele |
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