Shopaholic takes HoiAn!

Trip Start Aug 28, 2005
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Trip End Dec 10, 2005


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Friday, October 7, 2005

Well, Happy Birthday to me! I am writing this from a rainy day in HoiAn. We have been in HoiAn now for 2 days and all I can say about this place is that it is a shopaholic paradise! Streets are lined with tailors and shoe shops all with staff standing in the door (or sifting the streets) beckening you into their shop to get some clothes or shoes made. I fell to their calling (you all know that i didnt need much of an arm twist to go shopping anyway!) and treated myself to 2 skirts and 1 pair of leather shoes all for the huge amount of US$20!!! Unfortunatly I do not have much more room in my pack and it is getting jolly heavy so I couldnt fit too much in. It is just crazy, you can walk into a shop, choose a garmet picture out of a magazine or draw a picture, get measured up, choose the fabric and go back 2hours later and it is all finished. All to exactly fit you. The shoe shopping was fun, picking the style and then the delima of choosing what colour leathers I wanted. I ended up with a white base shoe with pink, blue and red flowers on it. The first pair of shoes (apart from my ballet shoes) that have ever fitted perfectly my 1/2 sized different feet.
After much talking we finally made it to Karaoke for 2 hours of singing our hearts out. Good times as always and Pies version of Princess Di's England Rose song was just spectacular!
I did manage to get myself away from the shops too! There is a very nice beach only 5km away from the city centre. Yesterday was a mint day so we hired motorbikes and headed out to the beach for a swim. Dan and I also tried heading out to the My Son temples however we left it a little too late and misjudged the distance so got to about 28km from it and had to turn around as they closed up. A bit of a shame we missed it but definatly next time I come here (I have decided that I would love more time in Vietnam again in the future to see things we missed this time around and see more too!). We were going to try again for My Son this afternoon but the rain has set in so a lazyish arvo chilling out on internet and at a cafe.
Worth a mention too is the hotel we are staying in. The Hai Au and it is by far the nicest hotel I think I have ever stayed in all for the grand price of $7 per room and it has a clean swimming pool too!
P.S Mum and Dad - Do not worry, Dan is very sensible driving the motorbike - not at all like the crazy motorbike drivers I was telling you about in Hanoi!
The birthday celebrations are going to have to be put on hold as we are taking an overnight bus leaving soonish down to the beach MueNe. 19-21hours sitting on the bus! I did squeeze in a glass of wine with my pizza for lunch.
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