Back to Blogging!

Hey folks...ya we know...it's been a while. For some reason we wern't able to access our blog in Hoi An. So now that we're back at it, we'll give you two posts at once...or the "double deuce" in the words of Nirks. So make sure you read both.

After leaving Saigon, we went way up the coast to Hoi An. It's a neat little town on the central coast. We weren't exactly sure what we'd be doing there, but we'd heard it was a charmer. We thought maybe we'd hit the beach and try to catch a wave or two, but the rain and the cool weather put a damper on our plans. We had three days to kill, and ended up having to problems passing the time.

We spent a lot of time strolling the streets of the old town. Hoi An has a much slower pace than the other cities we've been to in Vietnam, and while walking around though the old buildings it's not hard to picture how the town would have been 100 yrs ago or so.
We'd also heard that Hoi An was a great place to get some customs duds made, and it turned our that there were no shortage of places to do just that. Basically there are dozens and dozens of custom tailors in town. All you've got to do is decide on a shop, and then pick something out of a magazine, or have them copy something that you like and they'll make it. Really they'll make anything...the quality of the work, and the quality of they're namebrand copying is really good. As you may have guessed Erin had a tough time deciding what to get made. Our obvious concern was how will we carry all the new clothes; but with Craig flying home in a few weeks we were able to send some stuff home with him. So Erin didn't really try to hard to restrain...and I can't blame her. I'm certain you'll think I'm exagerating, but for the price of a single dress at home, she was able to get 2 dresses, 2 shirts, a pair of shorts, and 4 pairs of leather shoes. It sounds nuts...but I said "if there's anything you need for the next 10 yrs...get it here. Craig and I had way more self control. I simply got a jacket made and Craig got a 3 piece cashmere wool suit made for $80. He's normally a pretty studly guy, but when the young lady who was helping us at the tailors saw him in his new threads she was very quick to ask him his age and marital status. Satisfied with the answer, she replied with, "you be boyfriend with me"...needless to say Craig is still in Hoi An. :)

The other thing that made the town so great was the food. There were a few local specialties that we had the priviledge to try. We had Cao Lau (noodles, greens, bean sprouts, pork, and fried pieces of wonton in a tasty broth), Fried Wontons, White Rose (big steamed rice noodles filled with shrimp and pork...better than it sounds) and Fresh Beer (or Presh Beer as a sign said). Fresh Beer is just some homemade beer that was not too bad but pretty watery...you could get a glass for under 25 cents.

cao lau in the market

not sure if you learned how to cook fido or not

it's widely known that you have to go to Canada to get milk in a bag...well here you can get any drink in a bag; even lemonade.

Since we had a bit of rain and cool weather we were kept away from the near by beach. We pretty much just spent our time wandering the the streets, playing cards, and getting our bodies measured. Erin and I caught a few good 8pm movies on the tube, but with the jet lag Craig was sawing logs by 8:15 everynight; perhaps he needed to get his rest so he could run away from all the single ladies!