Day 15 - Our second go at the amazing buffet breakfast - we both had strategies (which had been thought of for the last 23 hours) this time to make the most of it! We were changing rooms today so just after breakfast we got a call from reception to say our second room was ready already so we were able to move across straight away. This room was just as nice the first but this time our balcony looked over the garden below.
We headed into town quickly to stock up on Dong to pay for our suits and then borrowed bikes for the day and headed to the beach. It's about a 20 min cycle from the hotel and these are my kind of bikes - no gears and a basket on the front! It's was a nice ride on the flat past rice fields and lots of big resort hotels.
We left our bikes in the bike-park and then made the short walk to the beach - wow! Blue skies, white sands and palm trees, and no sign of the rain which was forecast!
We chilled out for a bit, Chris got his 6 pack out and went for a swim in the sea (which was pretty warm). Then we sat at a beach-side cafe, ate spring rolls and wrote our postcards!
A bit more chillin on the beach (and playing spot the Brits by how sun burnt they were) it was time to head back for our next suit fitting. On the way back Chris' bike decided to pay him back for his rude comments about gearless girlie bikes as his chain came off - luckily not too far out from the hotel. We dropped the bikes back at the hotel and asked reception about our train to Hue tomorrow. She could not believe that had not booked it yet so got straight in the phone for us. Private car to the station and train sorted, amazing service! We (one of us, guess who) were too scared to cycle in the chaos of the town centre so we walked to A Dong Silk.
We were greeted by the usual 'hello Chris and Alice' but also by, "you wait there, let me turn on all the fans and aircon for you". Not helping Chris' embarrassment but air-con units on, wet towels and water distributed we were good to go!
The suits were fab - it's amazing how quickly they are turned around, but also how good properly fitted clothes can feel. My trousers needed one last alteration (apparently my right thigh is bigger than my left?!) but the rest were good to go, so we arranged to go back at 6pm for collection.
After a pit stop at the hotel we went back to the shop to pick the suits up - my trousers were all sorted. We had mentioned we wanted to post the suits home so within 15 mins of us arriving the woman from the post office had arrived with box, scales and all the necessary paperwork. The service we received the whole way through was amazing and this just finished it off. We said our thank yous and goodbyes and then headed round the corner for dinner.
'Miss Ly's Cafeteria' came recommended in the guidebook as the best place to try Hoi An's speciality dishes. We sat outside and ordered the taster menu which consisted of shrimp parcels, wantons, pork spring roles and chao lau which is noodles, chicken pieces and pork crackling - it was all delicious - possibly some of the best food we have had ever - not just on the trip so far! Finished off with a banana pancake - yummy!!!
If you could get rid of most of the other tourists - you could spend a long time in Hoi An......