What an amazing time in Hoi An (the coast of central Vietnam)! After too much time scrunched into tiny sleeper bus compartments, it was time to relax.
By the way the sleeping buses make ZERO sense (but they're much cheaper than the trains) for the following reasons:
1. All the buses leave at around 6pm and get in at 5am. Why not leave three hours later and get in at 8am?
2. They all play Vietnamese soap operas late into the night. You can't turn off the speakers above you're head which are blaring the yelling of the Vietnamese girlfriend at her boyfriend. My Bose headphones turn paper thin, when matched against the piercing bus speakers. And you thought nails on a chalkboard was bad...
Moving on... Our first three days followed a similar schedule. We started our day early with a cup of sweet Vietnamese coffee. The coffee with condensed milk is unique to Vietnam and will be most missed most after we leave for our next country. After talking for close to an hour we make our way to the beach via motorbike. I picked up a photocopied book on the way for 3 dollars: High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. I've seen the movie but the book is much funnier. I laugh to myself consistently which draws strange looks. I enjoy music and so I find it hilarious how them main character related every slice of his life to a song or artist. My reading on the beach is broken up every few minutes by locals of all types selling you their goods. Lighters, cards, fake cigarettes, paintings, unknown foods, sunglasses, and who knows what else. One vendor that always manages to sucker us into buying is the fresh fruit lady. Nothing like a cold pineapple or mango on the beach. I took a pineapple photo shoot shown below:
Each night pool, pool, and more pool at the Treat Treat Cafe. My game is steadily improving and the constant laughter of foreigners, locals, and friends, is slowly deteriorating. Ari is having a little more trouble, because instead of playing pool he would rather discuss philosophy as shown in the picture below. In this photo, Ari explains the difference between moral truth and moral relativism to an interested English lad who performed on the British American Idol, X-Factor. Oh Ari.......
Our last day in Hoi An was different, and much less relaxing than the previous 3 days. Hoi An is most famous for their 400 tailors who supposedly make incredible suits for a very cheap price. I figured that I was in a great place to buy my first suit! Not only would my suit be inexpensive, but it would be a special keepsake for my travels. I can't begin to understand how women find shopping desirable. Trying to choose a tailor was easily the most stressful part of my trip to date. After looking at only about 5 tailors of the 400 tailors in Hoi An, we hesitantly chose to go with a group of ladies that were the most friendly to us: Lana Tailors. We thought the major decision process was over. Not at all... What type of material, what material design, what suit style, how many buttons, what type of pockets, what color lining, what color hemming, matching vest, matching overcoat, where we wanted the seams, how many flaps. Man oh man... The picture to the right is what I got. I think you can click on it for better quality. Who knows if this is the suit I ordered, but I like it. Grey, with pink pinstriped, and rust lining:
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