Make it stop!

The rain that is.

Howdy,

It's Monday evening here in Hoi An.

After i put up my last post, I wandered around Nha Trang for a few hours. I didn't intend to visit there, but I had to wait 5 hours for the bus, so I made the best of it. I walked to the beach and around town a little. That's it.

In the evening I boarded the sleeper bus to Hoi An. Why didn't I listen to Andrew's advice of avoiding sleeper buses? They suck. Even though I think this one caters primarily towards foreign tourists, there's quite a few Vietnamese on board as well. And the bunks are built for Vietnamese people. Every Western male on board, myself included, looked uncomfortably cramped. The beds are super narrow, as there's 3 beds across the bus, with 2 aisles. At least I got the bottom bunk. Oh yeah, even though this is a company that gears itself towards foreigners, they play Vietnamese movies and music videos and such. They play it loud too. And they play it to about midnight. And they start it up again around 4:30 in the morning. My earplugs kinda worked, but not well. Oh well, at least I can sleep on my back...

When I got to Hoi An on Saturday morning it was pissing rain (as all the other travelers I meet, who are from the Uk and Australia and Ireland etc, say). I found a hostel and checked in. 7 bucks a night. Not bad. I did very little that day as it poured all day. I had some food. Bowls of pho, plates of meat and rice. I did have one really good snack. A woman was cooking it (she had one of the yoke setups) under a pavillion near the river, which flooded later. She was grilling pork on a stick. It was for spring rolls. You order the number of sticks of meat you want, and it comes with all the fixzings. There was herbs and lettuce and the wrappers and sauce. Take the pork off the stick, place it in the wrapper with herbs and lettuce, wrap, dip and enjoy. It was very good.

They next day, Sunday, it poured rain again. The river flooded, though it wasn't a disaster. I think the river flooding is not an uncommon occurence. It mostly just covered the road that goes parallel to the river and up some streets nearby. A few people were on boats on over where the streets are. Good thing I was wearing my sandals. I was about a one-third-the-way-to-my-knee deep in water at points. I eventually gave up, though. I didn't accomplish too much during the day.

Hoi An is famous for its tailors. There's something like 400 shops in town (the populaion in about 80,000). It's just ridiculous. They cater to the huge tourist trade here. Well, anyways, one can get high quality clothes made for really cheap. So on Sunday evening I went to get measured for a suit. For $60 I ordered a tailor-made pin stripe suit and a shirt. That's the only thing I really accomplished on Sunday.

Today, Monday, the sun was shining in the morning. It rained a touch later in the morning, but barely. It was cloudy the rest of the day, but the rain held off.

For breakfast I had a bowl of Cao Lau, a local specialty. It's a special kind of noodle, only found in Hoi An. It's made with water from a well found near town. They're chewy and quite good. It was served with some greens, some braised meat, and some little crispy wafers. It wasn't a soup, but there was a bit of really flavorful broth in the that had been poured over the top that collected in the bottom of the bowl. It was definitely tasty.

I went to go try on my new suit. They needed to make a a few adjustments. Coming back after a bit of sightseeing, it was ready. It fit well and I was happy with the results.

During the day I did a bit of sightseeing. Hoi An is an old town, largely spared by the bombings during the American War, and has many old buildings. One buys a ticket for 75,000 Dong and is allowed to enter various buildings around town. One chooses 1 of a few temples, one of a few old houses and so forth. There's a lot of Chinese influence as the town, as they were some of the settlers of the area.

I visited the Phuc Kien temple. It was interesting and ornate.

Another stop was the Tan Ky Old House. It had been in the family 7 generations. The surviving generations, 3 of them, still live there. The "tour" was basically restricted to the front room. Honestly, it was pretty lame.

The Museum of Say Huynh Culture was ok. The Say Huynh lived in the area around 2000 years ago, a group that pre-dates the current ethnicity. There were lots of clay pots and a few tools. Upstairs there was an exhibit about the American War, which wasn't really cohesive with the idea of the museum. I dunno...

I crossed the Japanese Covered Bridge, built by the Japanese who had settled in the area. There's a little prayer area inside connected to the path. That was cool.

My lunch was quite interesting. I stopped at a street vendor. She hd a set up of these pans with deep half-sphere shaped molds (roughly the size of half a golf ball) in them. They were filled with oil and were over a flame. In a bunch of them she poured some batter, which formed little cups. There were bits of scallion and such in the batter. She also fried 2 little meatballs. She unwrapped a package made from leaves, and took out the sausage inside and put that on top of the mold, essentially shallow frying it. On a plate she put lettuce and all sorts of herbs. On top of the herbs she put a bunch of shredded green papaya. Around all that she placed the little fried cups and put the sausage and meatballs on top. She served it to me, and put a big jar of nuoc cham (the fish sauce-lime juice-sugar-chili concoction) on the table. She ladled huge amounts of nuoc cham over the whole ordeal. She left it on the table if I wanted more.

A young girl nearby, also having a plate, seeing my confusion, demonstrated how to eat it. Put a bit of the chili paste (in a jar on the table) in the cup if you like. Then, using the chopsticks, pick up some of the herbs and lettuce and put them in the cup. Then,pick up some of the shredded green papaya and put that in the cup. Pickup the little cup, fulls of the herbs and lettuce and green papaya, and pop in your mouth. Add a meatball to a cup when you want (though there were 2 meatballs and many cups) or some sausage. How was it? Absolutely fantastic. It was really fresh and had great textures. The little cups were crunchy, the meatballs were firm and a bit chewy, the green papaya was crisp and the generous amounts of nuoc cham made it moist. It was perfectly sweet and spicy and delicious. And, it only cost 10,000 Dong, which is about 60 cents US.

The rest of the day was spent exploring the Old Town some more. I did a little souvenir shopping.

This evening I had a bowl of noodles with grilled meat. I didn't really like it. It was a cold noodles dish which I generally don't have much in liking.

That brings us up to now. Tommorow afternoon I go to Danang, one of Vietnam's largest cities. It's only about 18 miles from Hoi An. I should be there for just a couple day before going to Hue. Danang is a major port. It was also an important an important base for the US during the war. It's the home of the famous China Beach. It's airport was the place of the infamous World Airways incident.

One more thing...
I've been asked when I'm coming home. I was originally planning to come home on October 28. However, I am changing my plans. I've really grown to like Vietnam quite a bit. Today I extended my visa for another month (it was originally a one month visa). I'll be home in time for Thanksgiving. I'm not sure where I'll be going in my time, I'm sure I'll find plenty.

Take care,
Mike