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Greetings from the Saville Row of Vietnam. After an early flight from HCMC to Danang, we are here in Hoi An visiting Alex and Ha (and little Amelie). But first I need to backtrack a little to get up to date.
So as a day trip out of HCMC yesterday we opted for a cycling tour of the Mekong Delta, rather than the standard tourist bus tour. Considering I have only been back biking a few months I was a little unsure of a 30km bike tour in Vietnam, Maria and Jo even more so. Rightly so, our guide kicked off the tour leading us on to a pretty major road where we came to the conclusion the best course of action was to hope that the other million bikers (in HCMC there are 8 million people and 4 million motorbikes) and the odd car would figure we were tourists and give us a wide berth. Not necessarily so and it was all quite dicey until we got off the roads and onto the lanes through lush countryside, villages and across tributaries. The day was great and the biking in the end pretty easy with the flat terrain. If only for the fact that it rained ALL day (no sign of a tan yet), and that every fish free dish that was served at lunch had prawns lurking in it, it would have been amazing. Needless to say by the end of the day we were filthy from all the muddy puddles and the impending monsoon (wet season should not yet have started) and pretty tired. Time enough for a $2 slap up veggie meal (made it to my one week vegetarian mark) and to bed.
So today we have sauntered around Hoi An, a small harbour town on the South Central coast of Vietnam. In 1999, the old town was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO as a well-preserved example of a Southeast Asian trading port of the 15th to 19th centuries, with buildings that display a unique blend of local and foreign influences. The cobbled streets are lined with trinket stores and tailors producing made-to-measure clothes for a fraction of the prices we are used to back home. So on Ha's recommendation we spent a couple of hours today with Miss An, who showed us books and books of dresses and suits, and fabric after fabric, pattern after pattern and took every measurement possible. Between us we have ordered a good shopping trip's worth. Tomorrow we will have a fitting and we should have all our made to order clothes finished by Monday!
Tonight a treat. Alex and Ha are cooking us a home made meal, and then I think we will hit the bars in town (Tam, there is one called Tam Tam, if you make it here!), and I hope I may even get to watch Arsenal v Pompy. Tomorrow IF it stops raining, we will make it to the beach.
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