More Hanging Out in Hoi An

  Hoi An, Vietnam
Thursday, May 13, 2004

Our second day in Hoi An consisted of more relaxation. We picked up our orders and coming out of one of the shops, a woman offered us pedicures. My feet were in terrible shape-my toenail polish was chipping even before we got here and the women around would town would not stop offering me pedicures, so I figured I'd get one just to shut them up. Besides, I'd never had a pedicure before. Mai brought us back to her little stall in the market and proceded to give both of us pedicures. Don't know that I'm a huge fan of pedicures, but at least my toenail polish isn't chipping any more. While working with our feet, Mai mentioned she also gave 50 minute massages for five bucks. Donna couldn't resist, so I left to wander the market while Donna enjoyed her massage.





The market, like any other local market in South East Asia, sells all sorts of fruits and vegetables along with less perishable products such as pots, buckets, and pans. Wandering Hoi An, I felt perfectly safe, in spite of my carrying upwards of 2 million Dong in Donna and my money belts. As I walked through the market for the third or fourth time (yes, I was lost) wearing my green pants and blue silk screened T-shirt, I realized that to them, I looked like a backpacker: young, blonde hair, blue eyes. Backpackers aren't worth robbing, and there are very few Vietnamese who would rob a foreigner anyway. I am a firm believer in the inherent goodness of people, and the citizens of Vietnam have certainly proven themselves good people.

Walking through the market, I also felt a new sense of adventure, or something like it. This was the first time I have really been alone while travelling, except for a short stint outside the Rex in Saigon when I had thought it best to walk to the front of the building outside rather than wander the halls hopelessly for another twenty minutes. While I have been travelling since the age of six, it has always been with the protective shield of my parents. Well, I'm "grown up" now, time to get used to the idea of wandering the world sans parental guidance.





I returned to Mai's cubicle, I guess you could call it. It was a little room off the main market-honestly, it looked a little like a place a...lady of the night, we'll say, would take someone. No matter, Donna's massage was finishing up (she raved about it for the rest of the day) and we headed down to the Banana Split Cafe to send e-mails among other things. The Banana Split Cafe is located near the market on the street nearest the river and deals in most anything a traveller could need. The owner who runs the internet portion of the cafe, bought us plane tickets to Hanoi, found us scooters back to the hotel, and arranged for cars to take us to My Son tomorrow and Da Nang to catch our flight. When you ask him to if he can do something, he always responds with "Why not?" Great guy, I hope business goes well for him.



We returned to the hotel for an afternoon swim and came back into town for dinner. We checked out the Tam Tam Cafe, popular drinking spot with the backpackers. Donna had a good pasta dish, and I discovered I don't like eggplant. After dinner we checked out this really cool Japanese bridge in town. It has a temple inside the bridge. It's been there for ages, an interesting thing to check out. Heading back towards the center of town, we stopped in a little shop selling all sorts of souvenirs. The Carpenters were playing on the radio (they love the Carpenters here) and the shop keeper was singing along. Donna joined her and they sang songs for quite a while, using chopsticks as microphones. The girl's name was Quyen (Queen) and she had dropped out of school when she was 15 (she's now 22) to get off her family's farm and work at this shop. Sure beats working in rice fields all day, and gives you some perspective. We wound up buying the chopsticks (we had to buy something after all of that) and returned to the hotel for the night.