Hoi An and just a taste of Hanoi

Hello everyone! Here is the lastest from our last week in Hoi An and beginning of our time in Hanoi.

                            

Hoi An is a riverside, quaint little tourist town, known to ooze with charm and history. 

And I can tell you, it sure doesn't disappoint.   The river is located downtown in Hoi An's old quarter and is  lined with beautiful old french buildings, boats and the smell of freshly baking baguettes..all day long!  You can find delicious little resteraunts serving all types of tasty  Hoi An specialities from its different influences ( french, chinese and japanese..to name a few) one of our favorites being Cao Lao ( which is noodles combined with croutons, bean sprouts and greens, topped with pork slices and crumbled, crispy rice paper with a mild teriyaki sauce..mmm mmm!)  There are also many tailors and souvenir shops and a beautiful Japanese bridge to cross the river. And, at night the town becomes lit up from beautiful silk lanterns.. ohhh the beauty! 

       

                               

Crazy old ladies gave us a boat ride (shaun did all the paddling! haha)

         

View of the French architecture. 

   

 Hoi An is also known as the only vietnamese town along the tourist trail to have escaped destruction from war, which makes it easy to envelope yourself in the retained history alone,   dating back to as many as 2200 years!  We spent a day exploring, learning about the Champa kingdom which reigned Hoi An from the 2nd to 10th century. We went to a local Champa museums where we saw a collection of artifacts from these times.  We also visited a few temples and pagodas and an 'old house' named the Tan Ky House, whose family has lived their for several generations.   We walked the local market sampling all kinds of local treats ( some excellent and some have a definite 'required taste' ) we swear the people that work there do not sleep because we passed the market again at night ( 3am ) and they were all there.. swarming the local fishermen who had just arrived with tomorrows fresh catch of fish. 

Japanese Bridge

Quan Cong Temple

Inside the temple

Chinese Assembly Hall

    

At the local market (note the nice pig tail and hooves!)

      

At the Hoi An History Museum

Shaun and I had decided back home that once we arrived in Hoi An we would get tailor made clothes.  So we spent a few hours checking the different tailors, their quality and what they had to offer. After some time we decided on a place where we both spoiled ourselves and got some beautifully made tailored outfits. Shaun: Three dress pants,  Four tailored dress shirts,  A classy winter jacket and even a pair of dress shoes! Missie: Two gorgeous winter jackets, two tailored dresses, one pair of jeans, two pair of boots, one pair of sandals!  

And speaking of the gorgeous jackets.. I had to do a lot of hard, dirty work to have one of my jackets made.. I even had to go as low as to steal!! hahaha!

What I mean is: During the time Shaun and I were shopping around for a tailor, I tried on this jacket that I fell in love with the very second I put it on. When I dared to ask the price they told me 100 US dollars..YIKES! I knew there would be no way I could afford that..so I sadly continued to look. When we did choose a tailor I tried so hard to explain this coat ( and trying to explain the details of a coat with a language barrier can be just a bit difficult ) so, finally our tailor told me " ok, now you go take picture of jacket. " ...which is no big deal right.. WRONG!

Because the day before I had seen another guy take a picture of a shirt in a store as he walked by, before he knew it the vietnamese tailor was running out of her shop yelling and grabbing at his camera telling him to "DELETE! DELETE!" Now,  you can imagine I was only just a little nervous to go into a high class expensive tailor and take pictures to steal the design of THEIR jacket... but I hopped on our tailors scooter and she parked around the corner and I went into the store ( so nervous ) trying to act casual, walked up to the jacket, snapped a quick photo and RAN! I didn't bother to look back, hopped back on the scooter and away we went.

 

We met some really great friends, Alix and Adam here in Vietnam and had a chance to meet back up with them in Hoi An  where we had a great night on the town and shared some indian food.  We are hoping to see them again in the Philippines around January.  Other then that we are still just having a great time, taking in all that Vietnam has to offer. 

Currently we are in Hanoi and are a few hours away from our trip to Sapa and Halong Bay for one week.  We are both extremely excited about both so you will definitely be hearing about them when we are finished.  Thank you again for keeping up with us.  

Love, 

Missie 

We had one more little adventure in Hoi An that we will definitely remember and it wasn't the fact that we went and saw the ancient ruins that were worked on from the 2nd century all the way to the 12th century (longest development of ruins in southeast asia!) it was the journey getting there and back.  So one night we ( me, missie and a Candian/Sweedish couple) decided that we would get up early and rent our own motor bikes and make our way to the ruins, avoiding the charge of a tour guide, and make the journey with our new acquired super detailed map.  By super detailed I mean a 2inch * 3inch business card with a very, I mean very, vague map on the back.

So we rose bright and early ( 8 am so early!) and negotiated our bikes, for a heaping $3 per day and hit the road.  About ten minutes in we hit a fork in the road, a fork that was not describe on the detailed map and with the locals knowing seriously no english it was a very long and hard journey to the ruins.  I never knew that 45 km can take 2 hours of driving, even when you never get really lost for more then 10 minutes.  But when your looking for the ancient ruins of My Son, it does take that long.  Trying to navigate our way for two hours wasn't even the hard part, the hard part was doing it in freezing cold ( 16 degrees) weather, while its pouring rain, wearing only shorts and a t-shirt and on top of that all having a little disagreement with your girlfriend, thats the tough part!

Who would of thought that you needed to pack a sweater and long warm pants when going to Southeast Asian?  Last time I was in Southeast Asia it was blistering hot and even wearing a t-shirt a night made me sweat and feel like I was going to literally melt as fast as the ice in our whiskey buckets.  But in Vietnam during November its WINTER and its actually cold!  So Missie and I were lacking the warm clothes as we left them at home thinking that a sweater was going to be a thought of the past.  But we were wrong.  And I was wrong when Missie kept saying that we should buy some warm clothes and I would say "AWE were just hitting some bad weather, what are we going to do with the clothes when its hot?"  Clearly I wasn't thinking, cause we just could throw them out if we never needed them!  Anyway long story short Missie and I were freezing, wet and mad because I was a wise traveller thinking that we had to limit our weight in our bag, not thinking that we need to prepare for current conditions.  So the rest of the day was really....down, like the weather and we look at the ruins and enjoyed them but couldn't wait to get home.  

All in all it was a eventful day, we showed the Canadian/Sweedish couple that YES every couple has its moments as we all laughed it off over some..well lots! of local vodka and went and danced the night away ending with a 4 AM bowls of the great Pho soup.

So were now sitting in a restaurant waiting for some food before we take off on the night train to Sapa (which the coldest part in Vietnam as it hugs the northern Vietnam/China border.) But don't worry we bought some sweaters and pants!  Who would have thought buying that sort of stuff in Vietnam!  

Anyhow we have better get going as we have some last minute stuff to do.  We have uploaded the maximum amount of pictures of the blog so when we get back we'll get some of the My Son ruins, which really 'ruin' my day! haha

take care

shaun