Our budget went through the roof!!!

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  Hoi An, Vietnam
Monday, June 23, 2008

Hey Hey!

So after writing the last blog, we went walking around town to look at tailor's boutique.  There are about 200 tailors in town and they make EVERYTHING, from shoes to bathing suits passing by winter jackets, suits, underwear...etc.  We ended up taking one of the first tailor that we saw because we don't really know anything about clothes.  So we got inside and started looking at catalogues.  They are normal clothes catalogue that you would receive at home and then you point out what you want and choose your fabric, they take your measurement and hop you go! And this is when things got out of control!!! Things are so cheap here that you keep telling one more piece one more.  So Sean and I each spent about 400$ in clothes and 100$ in shoes ( me a little more).  But be reassured, we have a LOT of things for that amount of money.  To name them all:
Sean has 2 full suits, one sport jacket, one long business jacket, 6-7 ties, i think 9 button up shirts (long sleeve and hsort sleeves), one pair of casual pants, one pair of jeans, one casual long shirt, a pair of flip flops, a pair of casual shoes, and a pair of fancy shoes, one robe and I'm sure I am forgetting some stuff.  I got 4 dresses ( one fancy, one business, one stylish and one that can be turned into a shirt as well), une full suit (skirt, pants, jacket) with 2 button up shirts, one polo, 3 shirts that are kinda casual, one robe and night gown made of silk, 2 pairs of jeans, a winter jacket (business style), 2 pair of high heels, one pair of flats, and one pair of sandals.  Everything is made to our measurents and high quality (or so we think!).    It is also crazy because we ordered all of that at about 2 pm on Saturday, and they told us to go for fittings the next day.  They assured us that they had a big family!!!

So after, we went to walk around town and came back to our hotel before dinner because we have a pool and it is so hot here!  The whole city is getting cleaned up because Miss Universe contest is coming here before going to Nha Trang, so everybody is so excited!!  We then went for dinner and tasted the local specialities! It was awesome, sean and I got a 3 course meal for about 2 bucks each. 

Yesterday morning, we went to My Son.  A religious site taht was built in the 4 th century.  Unfortunately, many tmeples wrere destroyed due to the bombings during the Vietnam WAr.  The sites were interesting ( we had a guide) but it was really hot, 39 degrees, and compared to the Angkor Wat temples...it's not quite that impressive.  We really like the tour tho because we met lots of nice people !  We went back to the city by slow boat with a meal served on it.  After we got back into town, we went back to the tailor and shoe store and had our second fitting.  Trying on clothes in 40 degree weather is not ideal!! Most things fitted perfectly and what didn't would get altered by 8 pm that night.  So we went back to hotel to cool down in our A/C room and then went back to that good cheap restaurant before going back to shoe and tailor to have our final fitting!!
Today, we wanted to take the early bus to Hue and then take the late night bus tonight for Hanoi but the early morning bus is fulL!!  This is quite upsetting because the bus company guaranteed us room on the bus at all times!! but we are not quite surprised either from what we have experienced before!  She booked us on teh 1h30 bus and assured us we could catch the late night bus for Hanoi.  The only thing that sucks is that it means we will have to do 16h bus straight but oh well, we gotta keep moving!  So we booked a cooking lesson for this morning and we will go back to the tailor to ship our clothes back home.  Mom I will send to our address because I will take the slow shipping (12 weeks) and Frank is staying home all summer if it arrives early!!  So for our cooking menu lesson, we chose to cook wonton soup, spicy chicken wiht fried rice and wok sauted shrimps with veggies.  Should be delicious as every meal we've had so far in Vietnam!!

WE will give you more news once we arrive in Hanoi after a long bus route :( (not looking forward to it!)

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