London doesn't get any Rain!!!

  Hoi An, England, Vietnam
Wednesday, October 29, 2008

While in Northern Wales, we were given wise advice in "There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing!" In Hoi An that certainly seems to hold true. Unfortunately for us the choice in clothing was left to one outfit due to a small bottle of Nescafe Gold!

Our trip to Hoi An started very pleasantly in a fairly empty squashed bus, that collected more passengers and a

Scooter gets added

scooter along the way! This has now added to our interesting transport companions (on the way to Vietnam we managed to share our space with a packet of frogs and eels - shortly for the dinner pot - and a coup of chickens which kept being moved around the vehicle and finally being unceremoniously attached to the roof as their poultry odour was less than pleasant!)  The voyage only improved though as our travelling companions tried engaging with us, even though only 1 spoke some English. They kindly included us in their lunch-plans. We were served 8 different dishes, mostly of unknown foods to be shared communally, all very tasty. As the Saki got passed around our good South African upbringing took charge and we duly accepted. 2 and 4 shots down respectively, we continued on the road somewhat tipsy and full. We had kept hearing stories about Vietnamese scamming foreigners and over charging. This encounter proved to be the opposite with us in the end being charged less than we were quoted!

Underwater Streets

After a 6 hour bus-trip we were deposited in Danang to catch another local bus to Hoi An in pouring rain. The bus-conducter saw his chance and managed to extract 3 times the bus charge from us, proving the guide-books to be not completely paranoid. Once in Hoi An, we dodged touts, protectively tried to keep our bags dry and wandered the beautiful streets in search of a hotel.

Later that evening we opened our clothes bag to find that Kirsty's precious bottle of coffee (Kirsty's one fear was caffeine withdrawal) had opened and sucked as much moisture as possible to create a lovely sticky mess on all our clothes. The night was then spent rinsing all the major coffee we could from our clothes, redeeming what we could before getting all our clothes washed the next day.  

We woke the next morning with sound of the rain pelting down. In our only remaining clothes we decided to brave the streets in search of the sights. As it was disgusting out, we wandered to various coffee establishments soaking up the atmosphere literally, and then over the river to An Hoi and into the shelter of a local hairdresser advertising hair removal. While Mike dozed Kirsty experienced the odd sensation of a woman plucking the hairs out her lower legs using a cotton thread. Waxing still rules!

A new type of Wax

For supper we went to a neighbourhood establishment with the monsoon rain still pouring. As described in Forrest Gump we just wanted someone to 'turn off the tap'.