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Our time hanging (like lanterns) in Hoi An has finally come to an end. It has been very restful indeed and we even went swimming a few times in the crystaline blue pool at our hotel. Fairly sure we were bumping into icecubes at one stage - hard to believe the water could be so cold when day time highs were still in the mid to high twenties - but there you have it. The locals are wearing puffy-jackets and maybe our blood is getting thinner as well. We are definitely looking forward to even cooler weather as we head north to Hue and Hanoi - to the point of having changed our hotels... no longer necessary to pay the pool premium.
We’ve run the gamut of weather whilst in Hoi An. Hot and sunny days (and thus pool visits), cloudy, drizzly days with intense humidity all the way down to 3 days of seemingly monsoonal rain. The noise of the rains had our heads rattling by the time they blessedly came to an end and we could hear ourselves think again - many conversations consisted primarily of screeching ‘WHAT???’ at each other. Aside from anything else - impossible to get clothes dry. Even when they were dry we felt damp all the time. Never let it be said a little bit of rain stopped us however - we continued our evening constitutionals for 7-8 kms (almost) every night. There was one night where a boat would have been more practical. Since we know the rats swim, we gave it a miss.
Speaking of evil little/not so little rodents, we have officially rechristened them ‘Chihuahuas’. All in order to make them seem less threatening, dirty and big. So the story goes... we were at one of our 5 fave restaurants and chatting to the owner when his dad bought our their pet chihuahuas dogs for show & tell - a mother and son and only a few years old. We love Chihuahuas and have minded a couple. Anyway - we asked him how he went with the barky-barks and it turns out they hardly bark at all, but do spend all night running around chasing the rats and then sleep, exhausted, all day. He said they don’t actually catch the rats... as they’re bigger than the dogs. Eeeeek! And such a nice restaurant - but c’est la vie. So it came to pass when we were doing our riverside walk every evening, in the very dark patches where a phone torch was required, we would keep our eyes peeled for ‘Chihuahuas’. Of course, the purpose of the torch is not so much to alert the beasts of our imminent arrival, as it is to aid us in not stepping on sleeping Chihuahuas (you know... the rodents who’ve had an argument with a scooter - and lost). Go on... ask us how we know about almost stepping into something like that...
During our sojourn in Hoi An, we tracked down a florist and bought a couple of massive bunches of lilies to chirp up our room - much to the delight of the housekeeping team. We had thought we’d found the only florist in Hoi An - but it was in our last days in town when it was cool enough to hike in during daylight hours that we found at least a dozen florists outside the Hoi An market. Turns out our florist was simply the only one who stayed open after 9 pm when we were usually in town. Hmmm. Also discovered the main part of the market. Ahhh well... not as though we need to buy anything - the bags are kicking along at the maximum as it is and there’ll be serious work to do when we ‘hard-pack’ for the flight out of Hanoi on 2 Feb.
James’s birthday came and went in early January in a whirl of mai tais, fish and chips and banana shakes for dessert - and a special banana pancake made by our new friend Hien who owns one of the local restauarnts. We went there almost every night for the 3 week stay - often for food and if not food then definitely for predinner drinks.
We fell in love with our room in Hoi An not just for the comfy beds (though that was 80% of it), but also for the balcony overlooking the pool and the egg shaped freestanding bathtub. Which we used 2-3 times every day. The one thing we required to enjoy the bath to the max was of course a book (or 2) to while away the time with. To this end we discovered a book exchange in town. Quite a magical little shop and the owner and his wife were sad to see us go. By magical I mean they categorised the books by language, and only language... so all the English books were on the shelves next to say all the German books on another shelf. No genres, no alphabetical by author, no ‘just arrived’... nevertheless we probably got 5 books there in the end and are now fans of Stuart Macbride - a Scottish author. Just never know when you are going to open a new corner of the world.
We were lucky (though with a 3 week stay, the odds were on our side), to be in Hoi An during the monthly (logically) full moon festival. The moon chose that night to be clouded over, but most of the Anceint Town turns off their streetlights/shop lights etc, unless shaded by silk lanterns. Very pretty indeed but felt quite dangerous - as tourists were meandering about, staring at the bright screens on their phones, then looking up only to crash into walls/scooters/steps/bikes/other tourists. Funny if it wasn’t quite so alarming. The full moon fell, as luck would have it, after the 3 days of monsoonal rains - and the river broke it’s banks in the old town - Aqua Alta Hoi An style. Floating bicycles would have made a lot of sense, but the visitors determined to use the free bikes provided at most hotels ploughed on, in up to 10 cm of water. Not our place to mention the swimming ‘chihuahuas’ after all.
As the moon began to wane, the waters receded and we continued to enjoy our long riverside walks. We were thinking, foolishly, that all the staff parties for ‘end of year’ were being held a bit late in the game, then finally realised that January is indeed the end of the old, lunar, year and actually was the equivalent of December for us. You have not heard Karaoke until you’ve heard the entire Food, Beverage and Housekeeping team of a large hotel giving it their all. Actually, given the volume of some of these massive shindigs, there’s a possibility you may have heard it.
Now we have mentioned before we’re a bad bet for souvenir sellers altogether - don’t need hats / clothes / fridge magnets / bowls made out of coconuts / lacquerwares or anything really but we are both suckers for jewellery as souvenirs. Every item we’ve bought over the years immediately takes us back to the place and time of purchase and gets worn with utter enjoyment. So there we were, a lantern lit evening in Hoi An’s ancient town... We actually had no intention of visiting this spot... primarily because we didn’t know it was there. We were having our usual evening stroll and had just walked over the main pedestrian bridge - faster than usual to escape a particularly insistent woman who was so intent on demanding we buy a candle to make a wish on the river that she almost set us on fire (shan’t write the wishes I was formulating... rude...) Anyway - just over the bridge is a very popular outdoor spot with a very ‘noticeable’ local music/dance show and hordes of tourists - ie. more than the general screeds of tourists walking about the old town. And by ‘noticeable’ we mean piercing, raucous and thoroughly irritating. We were well on the run from the pyromaniac candle vendor by this stage and we spotted a gallery/gem store with a beautiful peaceful aquarium. I ran in solely for escape purposes. James has been caught out by gem stores before and sensibly thought he’d stay outside in an effort to avoid collaborating with me and helping to buy something. He eventually had enough local music and also nipped inside. Brilliant shop. Loved it. Some beautifully designed and thoughtfully displayed pieces and it was no hardship to ask the lady attendant to get a tray and follow me around so I could point out the pieces I wanted to try on. Absolutely no pressure to buy (as if I needed any). Ended up with a glorious pair of earrings that just begged to come home with us to their forever home and it helped that they were substantially reduced in price. Even by our standards of never, ever paying retail, 70% is a reasonable reduction. Everything looks good and sparkly in ‘jewellery gallery light’ - but these also looked stunning when we got them back to ‘boring hotel light’. We had so much fun we went back a few days later and explored the upper gallery where stunning examples of carved gemstones are displayed - the owner has been in the gem business as a collector and artist for decades apparently and these are his all time best pieces, for display only.
Well there we have it, 3 weeks in Hoi An and tomorrow we have a car booked to drive us to Hue - the old Imperial City of Vietnam. It will be an interesting trip - a combination of transport and sightseeing as we’ll be driving past the Marble Mountain, visiting a stone carving workshop (and not buying anything), cruising over the Hai Van pass to the ‘north’ of Vietnam, seeing remnants of the American War / Vietnamese War, visiting a beautiful and serene lagoon - all with the eventual purpose of arriving at our hotel in Hue. Big day. Yep.
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