Picturesque Tourist Trap
Trip Start
Apr 27, 2006
1
80
110
Trip End
Apr 01, 2008
Hoi An,
Vietnam
Monday, March 10, 2008
200 Year Old House
.Thus, it at also makes it a tourist mecca with gobs of clothing and handicrafts stores. The crafts are actually handmade in factories around the city or right in the store, but nothing that looks like an antique likely is. There are also lots of cafes, restaurants and bars catering to the tourists (because the Vietnamese are in gerneally in bed early and up early). That said, the place was totallyt worth it if only for the food, which was so much better, if not an"epicurian delight" than Saigon and Nha Trang. The specialities are cau lau (pork on noodles in a savoury sauce, white rose (shrimp dumplings), and fried wontons.
The morning I got in (Friday March 7) my room wasn't ready yet since it was 6:00 a.m., so I checked out the market, had a mystery soup for breakfast, and wandered a bit. That was pretty cool - the fishing boats were still offloading their catches, the stands were still full of goods, and there were lots of little old Vietnamese ladies in those conical hats squeezing, feeling, touching and haggling.
I then grabbed some mid-day sleep before starting my evening with "bia hoi" aka "fresh beer." Basically, this is brand spanking new beer from unpressurized kegs, light in color, flavor, and alcohol, but disturbingly cheap at either 3,000 or 4,000 dong per glass, which is equal to $0.18 to 0.25
Chinese Lantern Shop
. The place I found was also giving a Vietnamese cooking class, which was interesting to watch because it included Fire! and intricate carving of cucumber and tomatoes into flower shapes.I didn't have dinner there, though. I went to Cafe Des Amis, an institution owned by Mr. Kim, who proudly told me that he used to be a food taster for generals and party officials during the Vietnam war. He does three (seafood, meat, and vegetarian) five-course set menus a night on a two-week rotation, so I could have eaten there 14 days in a row without getting the same menu, for about $6. I don't know entirely what I had, but it was excellent. I then followed the tourist backpacker crowd on the current bar circuit (from Now & Before to the Tam Tam Cafe) playing pool and shooting the shit.
Not coincidentally (we had planned on meeting), Meredith of the UNDP from Nha Trang arrived the next day and - in the interim - she had learned that she had been accepted to Yale for her masters and wanted to celebrate. We picked what appeared to be the nicest restaurant in town (the Cargo Club) and had another phenomenal meal and a quasi-decent St.Emillon. Of all the people I have met, I hope I stay in touch with her the most - insightful for her age, funny and cynical, anti-PC, and likely to end of as some sort of mover and shaker if only because she will come out of Yale
Congrats to the Yale Admitee
.Then, in what was truly a coincidence, we ran into the Norweigian girl Ertta (sp?) and the Minnesota puker at one of the backpacker bars. Ertta (sp?) was so embarassed it was funny. She said the last thing she recalls is sitting down at a sidewalk pho place with us after putting her friend to bed, having two bites, and then fleeing for her guesthouse. Her embarassment was that she thinks she didn't pay. I didn't remember one way or the other, probably because - even if she didn't pay - the cost to us would have been about a dollar.
Nothing terribly exciting after that. Meredith wasn't feeling well so she went to bed and I did the circuit again. The next morning we tried to have breakfast together, but the waiter only got our drink orders and must not have understood that (by gesturing) I wanted one of what a guy at another table was having. I then had to take a taxi back to Danang to catch a flight (yay!) to:
Hanoi, Vietnam
