I can't think of a pun for Hoi An
Trip Start
Feb 25, 2008
1
15
22
Trip End
May 06, 2008
Hoi An,
Vietnam
Saturday, March 22, 2008
then you see this:
Green Fields Hotel- Four quid a night...for the 3 of us.
-free cocktail hour.
-free fruitbasket
-bath
-guarenteed hot water
-free internet
-free all you can eat breakfast
i think, enough has been said. so we arrived, dumped our stuff and went exploring. its on the riverside, a tiny villagey feel, think morrocan esque square buildings, all in a lemon yellow paint. sun beating down.
Hoi An is famous for its tailors, so we were scouting around, knowing full well that we had just emptied our bags, convieniantly you may think, to once again fill them with CLOTHES!! not any old clothes, but TAILORED ONES. on the CHEAPSIES!
found a few good tailors, went and indulged in Banana and Rum cocktails, by the pool. gotta love no Health and Saftey over here. That night was the full moon, and all the locals dressed as wolves and ran around. no just kidding, they turn all the lights out and light everywhere with little lanterns, and its all very pretty.
Set alarm for breakfast. Probably the only time this trip that i havent minded getting up at 7am.
Stuff ourselves and sneak a baguette and some bananas for luncheon and duss out to get measured. Now imagine this. You are a woman, for some this may not be hard to imagine, for others you might as well give up cos you will never understand. anyway, so you are and you have an innate yearning for beautiful, well fitting clothes that make you feel fabulous. well you have now arrived in HEAVEN! Th'oung Tailors (thong,tha'thongthong thong)is where we went, and they measured every little bit of my body, even the measurements that you think useless, like under your bum to your little toe. i joke. but they did an awful lot and then we decided what we wanted made...i looked through books and books of designer collections and catwalk shows and picked out a dress and a jacket. i know. stupid, im in asia, its pushing 40C and i bought a winter coat. ah well.
So, they say come back at 6:30 and we say can we come back at 7 cos 6:30 is right in the middle of free cocktails, so they agree, and we go shopping in the market to celebrate our clothes being made...
Got bcak to the hotel and scared some men off from the poolside as we go for a dip. I discover the timer mode on my camera and we entertain ourselves for a good 45minutes. Then go shower and drink cocktails which we think they weakened when they saw us. We go, quite cheerfully, to our fitting to find our clothes pretty darned perfect, except for han, whom despite taking copious amounts of measurements, they thought had 15cm long arms. and a lot of back flab. which for your information, she doesnt. at the moment. (you should see all the oreos shes getting through!) She might have to buy two seats on the plane home. nah. shes fit,as usual. so a few adjustments are needed and we decide to go back the next morning. Eat at a place where the waitress is younger than us and is very touchy feely. we place bets on how many times she can touch our shoulders and arms and hair before the meal is done. i think it was a rounded 6 each! we gave her a tip. And went to bed. (this place has pink mosquito nets too, aparently i am becoming a worse bedfellow and steal all the covers and take up lots of space and wake up looking nicer than everyone else which makes them grumpy)
Steal more for lunch at breakfast and go for our fitting, all is well and good and we collect our garments. to celebrate holly and i order shorts. and i see a nice fabric and think it should be used so i get a skirt made. As you have guessed, our trip mainly involves retail therapy.
Today, was EASTER!! han had some miny chocolate orange eggs that her mum had given her (THANKS JOAN!! : ) ) which we ate by the pool. they were rather a melty mess, except theyd hardened enough to encorporate the foil in interesting ways, which we then spat at each other because we are such ladies.
Then we drank more cocktails and went for an Indian (Amanjeet, we ate a CURRY!!!) and planned Operation Borrowers.
Next morning, up, at breakfast with my daybag, sit outside away from the beady eyes of the 'table guarders'. The general idea of this operation was to get as much food as possible beacuse were leaving today on a 22hour bus journey and comfort eating is niiiice.
SO we get a bag of pineapple, some sandwiches, boiled eggs, the list goes on....anyway it was successful. Holly and i pick up our shorts and we all walk to the beach. It had rained on our plans to go the previous day and the bus wasnt until 6. It was a 5km walk, which we had been told was 2, or 3..but anyway, we got there and they sold lots of mad, jazzy beach shorts, which i had to be restrained from buying as well as all the other crap that id bought (added about 4kg to mybag). What you wont understand, if you arent still in that female mindset that i told you to be in earlier, is that when something that you vaguely like, costs 13pence, or whatever, poundfifty, its REALLY hard not to get it, just BECAUSE ITS SO BLOODY CHEAP, you might as well.
get to the beach and get sand in my shorts and bag and probably knickers. and all of these beach sellers come up to us trying to sell us oreos, and ritz crackers, and playing cards, and tiger balm and mentos, and stuff that we have! so we tell them and some go away. this one extra toothless one sat down with us and wouldnt leave. 'We have it all' we say, 'YOU LIIIIIEEEE' she replies, so we get all of our stuff out, including a pineapple from our free fruit basket, some travel sweets, postcards, pens, lighters, etcetc, she wasnt very amused and left in a sulk. 'NEXT TIME YOU BUY FROM ME!'
Wander back to the hotel, and board the bus on a trip to hell. no joke, it ended up being 26hours long, with another beepy mental driver. we spent a WHOLE DAY on a bus.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
ps. i tried really hard with my spelling, even though im touch typing, cos mum said i should.
love you mumxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
