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Day 17 Hoi An.
Having heard a couple speak about the fisherman unloading their catch in the morning, we decided to make the effort to get up early to watch this spectacle, safe in the knowledge that we planned to 'veg out' in the afternoon.
We had seen the boats empty on the beach the previous day. They resemble a giant half of a coconut shell, no more than the width of an average mans height or in the case of a Vietnamese man no more than one and a half's height. We were keen to see how they managed to manoeuvre a boat that is round and has no prow.
So we rose early at 5.15am and made our way to the beach by our hotel. As they say, 'the early bird catches the worm' but on this occasion these early birds missed their worm as most boats and their catches had been landed. Still we did witness individual fisherman wading out up to their chests, fishing with what looked like enormous lacrosse sticks.
Now with breakfast served from 6am (clearly a hotel for insomniacs), we were able to have an early breakfast and make it into Hoi An town before the heat and the tourists arrived. Now breakfast is an exhausting event - so much commuting to be done. First you have to visit the juice station, before moving onto the fruit station then the cereal station, before finishing one's commute at the egg station. Thankfully, that is normally enough, although if really hungry one can get a ticket for the circle line and go round again!
We called our taxi, via reception. This was an object lesson in Vietnamese efficiency. From the steps of our hotel to the other side of the road was a small matter of 20 yards walk - too far for someone on holiday. Instead reception rang the taxi call centre, who radio'd the taxi driver. Next we witness a driver sprinting from a roadside cafe, chopsticks and noodles abandoned in a flurry, to his cab which arrived at our hotel steps in less than the time it would have taken to reach the central reservation (reservation is used in the loosest sense).
Now Hoi An is a shopping addicts paradise (or hell depending on your viewpoint). There are of course the usual tourist tat shops, but in addition there are so many 'quality' shops. Their specialty is tailoring. You can buy any garment made to measure - we have seen made to measure shirts and blouses, made to measure duffle coats (although not much call for these in 34 degrees centigrade), even made to measure knickers. A close second to tailoring is leatherwork whether sandals, belts, handbags or manbags.I would imagine you could even order a made to measure, head to toe, gimp's suit - all in leather of course. Finally there is an abundance of craft/artistic stores for paintings, photographs or even embroidery pictures, so fine in detail they resemble photographs.
So we wandered through the French styled shuttered shops, all painted in peach 'whitewash' (or should that be 'peachwash'), alternating between shopping and 'touristing' in the ancient town, before returning to our hotel for a well-earned slob out, before the mercury hit 90 degrees (farenhuit this time!).
Not much more happened for the rest of the afternoon, except Julie almost got into bed with another man! I have described our setee loungers by the pool as large as a king sized bed. (Check out picture on link.
http://www.jasmineholidays.co.uk/files/img_cache/634_320_Poolside%20Loungers_1_1_Fusion_Maia_Resort_Hoi_An_2013_lounger4.jpg)
Well, Julie returned briefly to our room whilst I was on our bed surfing the internet. On returning to what she thought was our bed and just before she settled down next to the chap, she noticed (a) he was typing on a full 15 inch laptop rather than a measly 6 inch Nexus and (b) he was completely bald. So she came scurrying back to me. There are two lessons in this story (1) Size does not matter (at least when it comes to laptops) and (2) Just because a man is bald it doesn't mean he is more virile!!
...and on that note, goodnight all ;-)
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