Tailor Made Hoi An

Just had a massive photo loading session... so here is a quick illustrated story...

The fishing vessel laying out its net

14 January 2008
The first rainy day of the trip, the whole town is wrapped in plastic ponchos and the like and im dry and inside watching it all unravel, soon ill need to go for a food run though.
Hoi An - Vietnam

We have been in thsi little silk haven for a few days now, so I figured it would be time for an update. Hoi An is notorious to be the tailor city of Vietnam... you can have ANYTHING made here, anything at all! So the place is swarming with tourists, the place has an excellent vibe! Its not just a shopping and clothing district though, oh no, there is more! beneath the shops and glamour there is also the notorious china beach... which is where the story starts.

Oh, I would really like to make this an illustrated story like the other ones, but the PC that I am using doesn't like my camera, so wont let me upload them. I guess the photos will have to wait and ill try be as descript as I can. For those eagerly awaiting iaki's professional photographs that he promised, i appologise. I guess it can be narrowed down to lack of dedication, shame, or laziness. You take your pick. maybe a comment or two of motivation wil break the young apprentice photographer out of his shell, and get him to share.

Anyway, that aside, back to Hoi An. We arrived here after a 4 hour bus ride from the demilitarised town of Hue, (Pronounced Hhoi). A pleasant ride for sure, excellent views and combined with some good reading it flew by. Once we arrived in the small town of Hoi An, we were driven around in circles for a while (I still don't know why they do this) before we eventually stopped outside the associated hotel. The four of us together with the other passengers were dumped and left to fight of the mob of touts looking for a place to stay. We started to enquire at the various hotels, and even found one with a pool! iakis eyes opened almost as wide as Nora's and I almost felt sorry for the poor guy when we were informed that the hotel was full. No matter, unscaled we carried on our search and turned down a room in the neighbouring hotel. Now more buses arrived and inflation suddenly took its toll. Since there were now three times as many people needing a room, suddenly all room prices skyrocketed, and we were forced to a back alley. Not a bad place, far from it, but not as cool as the ones on the main road. We learn not to be picky anymore and not let greed get the better of us... see we are becoming better people everyday.

We got the room, showered, got the map and went out onto the streets. The first stop was the market, a place of tailors, silk merchandise, wooden arts and food. After we had some good food (iaki may beg to differ here as he somewhat struggled with the spice of his beef curry. So much in fact that he cursed under his breath every time the small flames stopped escaping his mouth - he did finish it though, so respect to him) we bought a bottle of superior rum, well that's what the bottle said anyway and went out in search of a party. Where this search took us was a small bar called King Kong.... a place where there were two Aussies playing pool, free drinks and over the whole span of the night saw about 15 people. We had an excellent time. very chilled, and i guess that the Hoi An rum aided the entertainment factor somewhat. Nora however, didnt get to Dance, sorry Nora. The night trailed when a certain someone wormed his way behind the bar and relieved the barman of his DJ duties. iaki was on fire, at least from the look on his face he was, others may like to call it a party anticlimax. This is where Daniel started the chant which scarred me in my DJ days.... DJ Shit, DJ Shit... lucky for Iaki it never caught on to much, Lucky. After he played hotel California to try and juice up the party vibe, we had to drag him out and call it a night, don't get me wrong though, it was an excellent night.

A groggy morning forced us to do what made the most sense... A beach day! The first beach day of the trip, and it was excellent! Upon arrival at the small secluded palm lined coast we were greeted by overjoyed restaurant hostesses. We had a swim and relaxed. Oh so good! Now all of us have a tan, no more European skins. Nora took it one step too far, and figured that she didn't need any sunscreen, or in her defense was too lazy to get any, which resulted in her complexion now looking somewhat... bright. A great meal of grilled fish, prawns and clams made the beach day even better and ended our afternoon of leisure. Not feeling as energetic as the night before we called it a night early, as Iaki and I were expected at the beach by 7 to go fishing with the locals.

As planned, we were at the mist ridden beach at the crack of dawn and were met, as promised, by a middle aged man wanting to take us on his round basket boat. His name was Rai. The fishing boats that they use, are used for net fishing. Their design baffled me somewhat as the thing is round in shape and rounded at the bottom, has one teak ore and is made of bamboo and resin. We took it out into the calm ocean and Rai started the rowing. A motion not for the queasy, its sorta an up, down, left, right, left, up, down, right motion. Once accustomed to the bouncing we started to deploy the 1000 meters of net! Yep, 1000 meters, these guys dont mess around. The morning was perfect, with the sun rising over the clouds and tens of little boats appearing all around us. Once the whole net was deployed with Rai machining away at the teak, we stopped and waited a while. Then it was time to pull in the net. All the way back to shore. In the ned we caught one small little fish, some crabs and two eel like snake things with mean teeth. A good morning for shure. We scootered back to the hotel to find daniel and Nora still soundly asleep in the room. Much to the excitement of Iaki, as this was the first day that he was up before them, which started a chain of quirky comments. very entertaining!

Once the whole team was assembled we headed out to marble mountain, a place right near Da Nang, where marble carving is the name of the game. I felt lik ei was in Greece, and so did Iaki. The place just had gigantic marble lions, tigers, modern statues and dolphins. Very impressive! We climbed the last standing mountain that hasn't been turned into lions yet, and marvelled at the massive temples and caves that were spread across the various levels of the mountain. After the culture, we scootered away, searching for the infamous China beach. We came to the unanimous conclusion, that China beach is a myth, and we went for the next best thing. The beach just outside of Hoi An, where everybody else goes. A grande day!

But before we called it a day completely we paid yet another visit to the evening market. This is where Iaki bought a freshly cut Durian. Just as some background, a Durian is also referred to as a stink fruit. It sorta looks like a Jack Fruit, but stinks. A lot. So the nice lady at the fruit stand cut it up, put it into an easy to carry box and sent us on our way trailing a smell that somewhat resembles sun warmed and breeding garbage. During the walk home Iaki decided that it would be better to eat it on the way, as eating the grotesque smelling fruit in the room didnt roll so well with Nora, or the rest of us for that matter. So Iaki took the first seed. Then Nora, myself and daniel followed. It definitely tastes better than it smells, but to describe the taste/smell from my first impression: It dries your mouth completely and then replaces the saliva with something that very closely respembles the smell of the juice that collects at the bottom of a garbage bin that has been breeding in the sun shining through your kitchen window for a few days. A fruit that I am happy to have tasted, but won't rush to try agian. iaki managed to pawn the remaining fruit of to some unsuspecting pedestrains and ensured that the smell didnt creep into our room.

This evening we are heading out to Nha Trang, spending another night on the ever comfortable bus. Due to arrive in Nha tang by 05:30 tomorrow. Oh and the rain seems to have stopped and the sun is starting to show presence... guess its breakfast time.

written by

ourindochina on January 13, 2008 from Hoi An, Vietnam

from the travel blog: The Indo China Adventure (incl Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia)

Send a Compliment

by the beard of zeus - it smells like a turd wrapped in a baby's diper! haha. sounds like a crazy fruit. i assume that you guys hang around in the markets where you see and experience these fruits? do they sell funny meat there aswell?

hey iak - give us a pic or two to see how you are coming along! cheers

written by walter on January 14, 2008

EAT SOMETHING BRO!!!!!! :-) Did you remember your de-worming tablets Iak? You gents look lik eyou are having a blast. I am a little jealous!!!! The weather in like a baby's bottom...Wet and Windy!!! Enjoy the rest of the trip...

Quote of the year "I cant believe you told that lady boy that I like her man, thats not cool!! thats not what friends do to each other man. not cool!" :-)

Bless you guys

Craig

written by Craig on January 16, 2008

Hi boys - haven't heard from you for a whole week!I know you are having the greatest time , but we do have certain expectations of you!!!!
If it wasn't for your blog, I wouldn't have a clue what Daniel and Noa are up to and besides learning all the facts of your trip I tremendously enjoy your humour.So carry on the good work - I only have two more weeks of detailed accounts.....
From D's mom

written by Marianne Weiss on January 22, 2008

comment on this...