Xmas Day & Fittings - Hoi An (part five)
Trip Start
Dec 02, 2008
1
28
37
Trip End
Jan 03, 2009
Hoi An,
Vietnam
Friday, December 26, 2008
After a particularly nice phone call, we got ourselves ready for breakfast and went downstairs to look at the Xmas tree and what do you know? Santa came to Hoi An last night for two good little children! Just a couple of small pressies but they loved them anyway (especially Ophelia... and the attention of course).
We headed out to breakfast in the Ancient Town - a breakfast banquet fit for an emperor! Cereal, fruit, yoghurt, omelettes, baguettes, croissant, juice, coffee... tremendous way to start the day! And all for less than $14 AUD. And you know what? IT WAS EXCELLENT! (that's two meals in a row - quite a feat in Vietnam)
After breakfast, Kythera went to get her shirt fitted one more time... it still wasn't right (come back again this afternoon, they said)... Ahh, the perils of making your own design
Breakfast!
. We then headed back to the hotel to get ourselves ready for OUR christmas present! The kids were being looked after by the hotel staff (at a price) and we got on motorbikes to take us to a day spa for a two hour treatment each!! We each had a Hot Stone Massage and Aromatic Sea Salt Scrub. Absolutely awesome and our skin is softer than velvet (Ziggy Marley?)... after two hours without the kids, we remembered how awesome it is to have time on our own, and heading back to them was not number one on our list of things to do. But we did. With maybe a little more patience thanks to our relaxing morning!
Upon our return, we asked for the hotel to arrange to send some of our stuff back to Melbourne (we're running out of room in our bags). 4kgs (lifejackets, shoes and a winter coat) sent Sea Mail (see you in three months, lifejackets!) - $50 AUD. Australia Post should get in on this scam! The post office people came to our hotel complete with (used) cardboard box, sealed up our stuff, got us to write our address and phone number, took our money and left. Thanks, efficient Vietnamese Post! (we hope!)
After picking the kids up from the hotel, we walked back up the outskirts of Hoi An to find somewhere new to eat for lunch. We picked out the Coco Cafe which turned out to be one of the friendliest establishments we've found in Vietnam. They asked (!) before picking up the kids and taking them away and giving them yoghurt and egg and mandarin and noodles and rice and taking Ophelia to the toilet
Ophelia and Daddy enjoy a big xmas breakfast
. We enjoyed a meal of Pho Ga (Chicken Noodle Soup) for me, Hoi An Chicken Rice for Kythera (apparently fantastic, she hasn't stopped talking about it... oh yes she has) and a shared tangy tomato soup which was gastroriffic (that means good, right?). It started raining again and we wandered about aimlessly for a little while before heading back to the tailor shop to pick up Kythera's shirt. Close enough! Finally we could leave that place behind and we headed into the market to pick up some presents for y'all. We then found somewhere for dinner (a small baguette and fries each... not much to write home to, so I won't... again) and walked back to our hotel.
On the way back, we decided to get some money out of our Mastercard account for tomorrow's activities. I went up to the ATM. "Insert Card" it said, I did so. Everything fine so far. "English or Vietnamese?" Not willing to push my Viet-reading abilities further, I picked English. "Enter your PIN". I'm not telling you that part. "Withdrawal?" Yep. "2,000,000 VND?" Fine. "20,000 VND charge for taking money out?" Okie dokes. "Transaction processing..." waiting, waiting, and then it comes up with a blank screen, except for the word: "Impossible." It was like something out of a Douglas Adams novel. Impossible? No. Unlikely? Maybe. Deadset No? Not even a chance here. Just... Impossible. (see photo)
A group of people came up to our room to fix the kids' bed (killed by me last night) and we put the kids to bed. We then did some research on the Internet, packed our bags, I gave Kythera a 20 minute back tickle and we fell asleep.
Back to Danang tomorrow to catch a flight to Saigon before heading to the Mekong Delta (we think!). Bye bye to Hoi An... we'll miss this place.
