Hoi An was the epitome of a beautiful, quaint, charming, romantic little old city. The "Old City" area is off limits to any motor vehicles, so everyone is walking or riding a pedal bike, which gives it a far more relaxed feel than the hustle and bustle elsewhere in Vietnam. The streets are lined with scattered restaurants between the million of tailor shops displaying dresses, coats, pants, shorts, skirts, tops, suits, shoes...you name it, they make it. I was only there for 2 days, but now I see exactly why everyone told me to plan on at least 4 days there - once you arrive it's too captivating to leave!
I arrived on a night bus from Hue at around 7am Saturday morning and explored the streets for a few hours until my room was ready for check in. I decided to get an "Old City Sightseeing Tour Ticket" and plan my own walking tour so I could wander the streets at my own pace and see the things that interested me. The ticket got my admissions into 1 old house, 1 museum, 1 assembly hall, the handicrafts workshop, and a traditional performance. I have to say I wasn't that impressed by the house, museum, or assembly hall, but it made me realize my lack of appreciation for things that carry a great deal of historical significance merely in there existance....to me they all just looked like big old buildings, but I know I shouldn't be quite so cynical. The handicrafts workshop was incredible...3 stories of people working on embroidery, lantern making, carvings, etc. Every time I see it, I'm still so shocked at the amount of labor and time that goes into the making of each hand made item! The music performance was wonderful and included several scenes of dancing, tai chi type movement, and theater.
In the afternoon, after a wonderful lunch on the riverfront and a visit to Reaching Out, a fair trade shop for disabled workers, I was too exhausted to keep walking around and forced myself to go take a quick nap. I've found it very hard to nap, sleep in late, or go to bed early while traveling....I hate to think I might be missing something! Once the sun set, the entire town was lit by lanterns, which was particularly elegant along the riverside. I wanted to eat on the river, so I found a great place that had a set menu (for $5) that included all of the Hoi An specialties....Cau Lau (noodle and pork dish), Vegetable spring rolls, grilled fish (literally the whole fish grilled with head, skin, and bones!), Fried Wontons, and Iced Flan for dessert).
The next day, I had signed myself up for a cooking class at Red Bridge School through Hai Cafe, as I'd been told it was a Hoi An "must do." Turned out to be one of the best things of the whole trip!! It was just me and two ladies from Australia who were very pleasant company, and we began with a tour of the local veggie, fruit, herb, fish, and meat markets to learn about the ingredients we'd be using. We took a boat ride down the river to the cooking school, and proceeded to make the tastiest food under the direction of our hilarious instructor/chef. We made seafood salad in a pineapple, fresh spring rolls, ban xeo (vietnamese pancake with shrimp), and eggplant in a claypot. We also learned to make rice paper from grains of rice, which involves strapping a piece of cotton cloth to the top of a pot of boiling water and pouring a milky paste on to the cotton before lifting if off with a bamboo stick...very odd but pretty easy actually.
I decided when I first got here that I wasn't going to get into the tailor-made stuff even though the streets are covered with shops and I thought it was a cool idea to have stuff made just for you... but too expensive and not necessary I decided. On my way to cooking class (on a bike I had rented for the day for $1),I saw a cute coat in one of the stores. So I stopped in "just to look" and I now have a brand new winter coat and semi-formal dress made just for me! haha. If you're thinking "Lindsey, you live in Texas and you didn't even finish your application to Boston College," don't mention it...you'll only make me sound and feel stupid :) Even though I probably got pressured into the "tailor" scene, it was a lot of fun, I love the things I got, they were pretty cheap, and really...when's the next time I'll ever had anything made for me?
Meanwhile, while I was waiting for one of the fittings, I thought - hmmm, i have a bike and no where to go. So I asked a girl in a hotel what I could do with a bike and about 2 or 3 hours....she gave me a map and told me how to ride to the beach. So I did! But when I got there I realized I didn't have a swimsuit or towel with me and I was sunburned and didn't feel like being by a beach. So I walked around for all of 2 minutes, got back on my bike, and rode the hour back home. At dinner that night at a street food market place, I met some girls from Austria and one from Switzerland, and spend the evening at "Salsa Club" with them, although we never heard a single Salsa song!!!!
Next Stop: Hue City
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
A beach, a $2 dinner, and a $15 bottle of aftersun lotion....Nha Trang
Is a blog post without pictures really even worth it? Questionable...I know! I got all my pictures dumped onto CD's the other day, but now the computer I'm using doesn't have a CD drive! My goal for the next few days will be to find a really nice internet cafe and get some pictures up :)
So I finished my time at the orphanage and set off to start travelling up the coast of Vietnam! My first stop was Nha Trang, to see the 'beachy' side of the country. The only bus I could get left Saigon at 7:30am, so unfortunately traveling took up a good part of the first day (we didn't arrive until around 6pm!). I got checked into my hotel and it was great - two of the walls were sliding doors to a huge balcony overlooking the ocean- not a bad start! I was a bit exhausted from the all day bus trip, so I was planning on grabbing a quick dinner and heading to bed, but a $2 USD pedicure offer got the best of me and delayed my bedtime by a while. The pedicure was actually quite entertaining...there was a single hard bench which i sat on and shared with another lady getting a pedicure, then the lady doing my pedi sat on the floor with her legs crossed in front of me, and I had literally 5 colors to chose from (although it made my "pick out your color" decision pretty simple!). Anyways, the pedicure looked fine and my toes were a beautiful bright red - ready for the beach!
The next day began with and Island Tour with Boat Trip #4 Company. I was wondering who would ever call their company "#4" as opposed to "#1" but it was explained ot us that the owner's name is Bon which translates to 4 (which raises another question of who names their child "four," but that's beside the point I suppose). At the first island, we had free snorkling, but like most group tours, there weren't enough snorkels for everyone. I was sitting with the "elderly crowd" who didn't want to go snorkeling, when I hear "Hey Texas! Get in the water!" from our guide. I explained to him (who self-proclaimed his name to be Monkey Boy) that I didn't have a snorkel....he ran off and came back with a new set of goggles and snorkel! He let me borrow his personal one, which I thought was pretty nice, despite the thought of sharing a mouthpeice with a guy who wants to be called Monkey. I think that when people figure out that I have no friends here, they take pity on me. Haha. Actually, I made friends on the boat with a young Sweedish couple and a some Vietnamese-American girls who went to BU and were visiting family back in Vietnam. But back to snorkeling...I jumped into the surprisingly cold water and looked down, anxious to see the bright and beautiful corals and fish we'd been told about. I'll keep from complaining and leave it at this - the grayish brown rocks at the bottom of the ocean sure were interesting :) And it must have been nap time for all the fish....
At the next island, we had a great family style lunch on the boat with seafood, veggies, noodles, rice, and a huge assortment of friuts (the Vietnamese girls explained all the unfamiliar fruits to me and made me try at least a bite of each). My favorite new one translates literally to "woman's milk" and is kind of like a creamy apple. We had a kareoke performance by some of the staff on the boat, had a floating wine bar in the middle of the ocean, visited an outdoor aquarium, and enjoyed the day in the sun! In fact, at one island, there was nothing planned but a 2 hour break, so the Sweedish couple and I went to sit on the roof of the boat. Too bad I sat in the exact same position with my back to the sun during the hottest part of the day without enough sunscreen on. Live and learn....
That evening, I walked to Dam Market and enjoyed a cheap dinner on the streets. For some reason, all the street vendor stalls have the tiniest little stools that you have to sit on, so I imagine you burn off all the calories you eat by having to stay squatted for the whole hour or so. The way it's set up really looks like a kids tea party! At least I'm pretty short - the poor guyI ate with was really tall and looked a lot more miserable than me! I've been looking for a certain size and color bracelet and finally found the right one in the market! They make them so they don't actually fit over your hand, but with enough of this goop and water they use (along with some pain and buising), they fit it on. BUT, that means it's stuck on me until it breaks off, which Hang told me can take up to a few years. (Ironically, 2 days after I got this put on, my Brazil bracelet broke off....changing of the gaurds I guess! (wow that was cheesy)). After dinner it was time to head to Sinh Cafe for my night bus to Hoi An! Let's just say that 11 hours on a sleeper bus with pleather seats is not the most comfortable idea with a blistering sunburn!
Being in Nha Trang with the ocean breeze and calm atmosphere was a much needed change from the bustling city of Saigon, but at some point, a beach is a beach and I was excited to move on to new cities and see more of Vietnam! 11 long hours later, I arrived in Hoi An.... (post coming soon)
So I finished my time at the orphanage and set off to start travelling up the coast of Vietnam! My first stop was Nha Trang, to see the 'beachy' side of the country. The only bus I could get left Saigon at 7:30am, so unfortunately traveling took up a good part of the first day (we didn't arrive until around 6pm!). I got checked into my hotel and it was great - two of the walls were sliding doors to a huge balcony overlooking the ocean- not a bad start! I was a bit exhausted from the all day bus trip, so I was planning on grabbing a quick dinner and heading to bed, but a $2 USD pedicure offer got the best of me and delayed my bedtime by a while. The pedicure was actually quite entertaining...there was a single hard bench which i sat on and shared with another lady getting a pedicure, then the lady doing my pedi sat on the floor with her legs crossed in front of me, and I had literally 5 colors to chose from (although it made my "pick out your color" decision pretty simple!). Anyways, the pedicure looked fine and my toes were a beautiful bright red - ready for the beach!
The next day began with and Island Tour with Boat Trip #4 Company. I was wondering who would ever call their company "#4" as opposed to "#1" but it was explained ot us that the owner's name is Bon which translates to 4 (which raises another question of who names their child "four," but that's beside the point I suppose). At the first island, we had free snorkling, but like most group tours, there weren't enough snorkels for everyone. I was sitting with the "elderly crowd" who didn't want to go snorkeling, when I hear "Hey Texas! Get in the water!" from our guide. I explained to him (who self-proclaimed his name to be Monkey Boy) that I didn't have a snorkel....he ran off and came back with a new set of goggles and snorkel! He let me borrow his personal one, which I thought was pretty nice, despite the thought of sharing a mouthpeice with a guy who wants to be called Monkey. I think that when people figure out that I have no friends here, they take pity on me. Haha. Actually, I made friends on the boat with a young Sweedish couple and a some Vietnamese-American girls who went to BU and were visiting family back in Vietnam. But back to snorkeling...I jumped into the surprisingly cold water and looked down, anxious to see the bright and beautiful corals and fish we'd been told about. I'll keep from complaining and leave it at this - the grayish brown rocks at the bottom of the ocean sure were interesting :) And it must have been nap time for all the fish....
At the next island, we had a great family style lunch on the boat with seafood, veggies, noodles, rice, and a huge assortment of friuts (the Vietnamese girls explained all the unfamiliar fruits to me and made me try at least a bite of each). My favorite new one translates literally to "woman's milk" and is kind of like a creamy apple. We had a kareoke performance by some of the staff on the boat, had a floating wine bar in the middle of the ocean, visited an outdoor aquarium, and enjoyed the day in the sun! In fact, at one island, there was nothing planned but a 2 hour break, so the Sweedish couple and I went to sit on the roof of the boat. Too bad I sat in the exact same position with my back to the sun during the hottest part of the day without enough sunscreen on. Live and learn....
That evening, I walked to Dam Market and enjoyed a cheap dinner on the streets. For some reason, all the street vendor stalls have the tiniest little stools that you have to sit on, so I imagine you burn off all the calories you eat by having to stay squatted for the whole hour or so. The way it's set up really looks like a kids tea party! At least I'm pretty short - the poor guyI ate with was really tall and looked a lot more miserable than me! I've been looking for a certain size and color bracelet and finally found the right one in the market! They make them so they don't actually fit over your hand, but with enough of this goop and water they use (along with some pain and buising), they fit it on. BUT, that means it's stuck on me until it breaks off, which Hang told me can take up to a few years. (Ironically, 2 days after I got this put on, my Brazil bracelet broke off....changing of the gaurds I guess! (wow that was cheesy)). After dinner it was time to head to Sinh Cafe for my night bus to Hoi An! Let's just say that 11 hours on a sleeper bus with pleather seats is not the most comfortable idea with a blistering sunburn!
Being in Nha Trang with the ocean breeze and calm atmosphere was a much needed change from the bustling city of Saigon, but at some point, a beach is a beach and I was excited to move on to new cities and see more of Vietnam! 11 long hours later, I arrived in Hoi An.... (post coming soon)
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