Day 12: Travel Day Hue to Hoi An

No pictures, check out the link in the post!


Another day of driving, this time Hoi An, a beach town just south of Danang. I bring along like 15 crepes (which is my new favorite food). The ride is actually shorter than planned and very beautiful. We didn’t have a chance to make reservations and drove directly to the Resort – the Victoria Hoi An Beach Resort. Even though we don’t have a reservation, we show up and try to get a sweet deal. I got them from $130 a night down to some sort of deal “reserved exclusively for Vietnam residents and foreign workers.” For 2 nights it was 99 per person (so, basically $100 a night), plus free hand massages, a free candlelight dinner, VAT, Service Charge and breakfast. Oh and this place has a private beach out onto the ocean. Words or my photography can not fully express how awesome this place is, so I’ve attached a link to look at: http://www.victoriahotels-asia.com/txt/pictgal.php?scat=hoi_an

As amazing as it is, we don’t have time to hang out there today, because we have to head immediately to town to shop and get suits made.
Hoi An is a beach town that is also a great place for custom clothing. We start off with a fantastic meal of western food (I had something similar to a corned beef on rye), then decide to take in some sites. Hoi An has a punch card system. You buy a punch card and you can visit one each of a different type of site (museum, assembly hall, historical house). The first place we want to visit (the trade ceramics museum) has mysteriously closed early (at like 2 pm). The next place we visit is actually pretty cool. An assembly hall that has more a basis in Chinese architecture. So, I am not any sort of architectural scholar and really I don’t have much to base this on, but based on all the architecture I’ve seen in Vietnam and China and then seeing this place today, I think I really enjoy the Chinese architecture better. Its ornate, but seems more purposeful, rather than cluttered. I also bought some incense for the prosperity god. Mostly because I like incense. The next place we went was ridiculous. It was a “historical house.” At first it seemed cool. We came in and sat down and were give our own personal tour guide who spoke about the house. Then took us back to wear they worship/respect their ancestors and had us toss two coins for good luck. Then she took us to the backroom, where there all sorts of pottery was sitting in glass cases, but…also laying out were souvenir replicas of the good luck coins. All she did is ask us if we wanted to buy them. We said no and looked disinterested, so she took us to the next room, which was a full on gift shop. She must have picked up every piece in the room to ask if we wanted it. We said no to everything and she finally looked around and saw a pair of chopsticks and said, “chopsticks, you want chopsticks?” We all said no and then tried to get out as soon as possible. Then we head to the suit store. We get fitted for suits and shirts. I started off with just one suit and one shirt…although I was eyeing more. We had to come back later in the evening for our second fitting. When we got back, we feel pretty good about the suits and we all go nuts. I bought a black and white pin stripe suit and a bunch of shirts. I also have my eye on a smoking jacket.

Dinner is fantastic, at a restaurant across the street from our lunch place. We also witnessed a westerner getting hit by a moped. The moped stopped and ran into her slightly. She landed on her butt, mostly she was just really shaken up. Dinner was again fantastic. I love eating.