A Hop, Skip, and a Jump to Hoi An

The morning after my birthday festivities was a bit rough since no one had slept for more than three hours.  On the other hand, since everyone felt terrible, it wasn't so bad because we could all commiserate!  And we had a long bus ride from Hue to Hoi An, on which we all planned to sleep.  That didn't actually happen.  First of all, as we ventured south through Vietnam, the size of our buses steadily decreased.  I'm pretty sure that the bus that we rode in from Hue to Hoi An was the smallest bus ever made.  Which made for uncomfortable sleeping conditions.  Hoi An is close to Danang, which is the third largest city in Vietnam, after Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City) and Hanoi.  On our way to Hoi An, we passed through the mountains and stopped at a former Viet Cong bunker.  The bunker had amazing views of some of Vietnam's gorgeous beaches, and it was nice to get out and stretch our legs.  Once we got back on the bus, Pong was unstoppable on the bus microphone.  I'm pretty sure he talked for two hours straight, sometimes saying things of substance (for example, his view of the Vietnamese Communist regime), and at other times babbling nonsense.  It was hysterical, but also exhausting because it prevented any of us from getting any sleep!  Because his English isn't very good, he has a hard time pronouncing the word "fish."  Well, one of his former tour members taught him to say fish slowly while shaking his head back and forth, as if it was a fish that was swimming.  Absolutely hilarious.

VC Bunker near Danang

View of Danang Beach

VC bunker near Danang

Yes, those are bullet holes!

Silvan and Daniel were trying to look cool - not sure they succeeded?

After we arrived at the hotel in Hoi An, we went into town to grab a late lunch.  Our hotel was on a little island across a bridge from the town itself, and to get to the restaurant we had to walk through the local market.  Now, normally I'm all for walking through local markets because you generally see some pretty cool things and have great photo opportunities.  Well, not this market. It was pretty gross, actually, and it was covered with tarps that were, at times so low that I had to bend over double to get through.  And people drove their motorbikes through the market. No joke. Through the very tiny spaces available for walking, and the lack of available head room.  It was pretty awful. To make things worse, they were selling raw meat right next to the fresh produce! Talk about health hazard.  I tried not to think about the fact that all the food I would be eating over the next three days had come from that market!  Lunch itself wasn't great. I had eggplant, which turned to be green, and therefore quite bitter, although it wasn't a huge deal since our late lunch was only a few hours before we planned to eat dinner. After lunch, Pong took me to try and find some medicine for my kayak-inflicted wound.  Unfortunately, the combination of swimming, motorbiking (lots of dust), and excessive dancing had resulted in a swollen and painful foot, and I had no doubt that my wound had become infected.  Of course, since Hoi An was quite a small town, it was not a good place to go to the doctor, and so instead I tried to go to the pharmacy to get some antibacterial cream. I was quite dubious of what I ended up buying and instead elected to use a different ointment that one of my friends had given me the night before.  Unfortunately, although I didn't really let the injury get in the way of my trip, it definitely put a damper on things.

Hoi An is such a charming little town.

Boat on the river that runs through Hoi An

Before dinner, a bunch of us decided to go and get massages.  I elected for an 80 minute herbal massage, which was a normal massage, with an additional herbal rub.  It was pretty amazing, and only 25 bucks!  There were 8 of us that went together to get massages, and they split us into two different rooms (three in one and five in the other).  What we didn't realize was that the rooms would be coed. So, as soon as four of us girls got undressed and settled in our room, they let Silvan in too!  I think he probably felt super awkward about it, but I guess that's how things go in Hoi An!  The massage prepared all of us (who were still exhausted) to eat a quick dinner and then head back to the hotel and crash. Needless to say, no babies were saved that night.

The next morning, my roommate Natasha and I decided to sleep in to try and recover from all of the excitement, and didn't end up heading into town until around noon.  We grabbed some breakfast and coffee and then headed off to find a tailor.  Hoi An is known for its tailors and cobblers.  The town (which is tiny) has over 300 tailors!  We went to An tailor, which Pong had recommended, and flipped through countless magazines and catalogues looking for dresses that we liked.  These tailors are amazing. You can give them a picture of anything and they can reproduce it for you in 24 hours, sometimes less, for super reasonable prices.  Natasha and I each selected different looking black dresses.  The one she picked happened to be shown on Halle Berry.  The one I chose happened to be shown on Jennifer Aniston.  We also altered the dress designs slightly according to what we wanted.  It's actually really hard to design a dress and to decide how long it should be and where the sash should go or how thick the straps should be, etc.  Thank goodness the tailors were super helpful and gave us great suggestions.  My dress is a halter dress made out of black silk with a drapey cowl neck type top and an A-line skirt.  The tailors took my measurements and had it ready for me to try on the next morning.  I only had a few adjustments to the top, which they took care of on the spot, and then it was done.  And it only cost 50 bucks! Natasha's dress was more form-fitting and therefore required that we return a couple more times for fittings, but both dresses turned out really well.

After the tailor, I went to get shoes made (duh).  As many of you may know, I have a shoe problem (just ask Kate), and so naturally I needed more shoes.  And I had them made especially for me.  I got one pair of suede moccassin-like boots (which I can't find in the right style in my size in the States), and then a simple pair of black flats.  The shoes were a little more expensive, since I chose nice leather, but it was totally worth it.  It's a cool experience to be able to choose exactly how high your boots rise up your leg, and to get the right toe shape to avoid discomfort.  My shoes, again, were ready the next evening, and after I tried them on to ensure the right fit, they had them delivered to my hotel so that I wouldn't have to carry them around with me all night.

We had one epic night in Hoi An as well.  The evening began at 4:30pm.  Pong had told us about a beer particular to Hoi An called Bia Hoi (Bia means beer in Vietnamese, and Hoi is for Hoi An).  It only costs 5000 Vietnamese Dong (~25 cents in USD) for a glass. Crazy cheap.  So Pong said he would pay for all of the Bia Hoi that our group drank between 4:30pm and 7:30pm.  Natasha and I were right on time to start drinking, but the rest of the group had gone to the beach and didn't arrive until closer to 6pm.  Basically, we drank the restaurant out of Bia Hoi! We all started tallying beers on our arms, which was pretty hilarious, especially to see how quickly some of the guys caught up to me and Natasha, seeing as how we had started an hour and a half earlier!  The restaurant tried to get more Bia Hoi for us, but since that night happened to be the night of the Full Moon, it is customary that the roads in downtown Hoi An are shut down for all motor vehicles, and as a result, the motorbike carrying our beer was barred from reaching the restaurant! Bummer.  The Full Moon festival itself was kind of cool.  All of the shops and restaurants turned off the lights, and only candelight was allowed.  Then, vendors sold candles that you could float down the river.  It was pretty cool to see.

Our lantern once they turned out the lights.

In the restaurant after lights out.

Our fearless leader, Pong! His bandanna was actually a gift from one of his groups.
It is embroidered with the following: Save the Babies

Natasha and I were the first to arrive! We had a head start saving babies!

Woman selling lanterns for the full moon.

The moon is hiding.

Full moon celebration in downtown Hoi An

Me and German Daniel at the beginning of our epic night...

After we moved onto another bar that still had Bia Hoi available, Pong taught us a drinking game and insisted that we play it. It consisted of clucking like chickens. A LOT. And really loud. So that everyone around us thought we were crazy. P-Caaaaaahck. P-Caaaaaaahck. Something like that. If you're curious, I'll teach you one day.

We then experienced, what appears to be the norm for large groups of tourists, in Hoi An.  Representatives from different bars come by your table and try to lure you to their bar with drink specials.  They also offer to drive you there on the back of their motorbikes for free.  So naturally we did this.  And because there were so many of us, we had to hop onto the backs of these bikes two at a time, which is kind of scary and generally uncomfortable!  The first two bars we hit were pretty mediocre, and the drinks were weak and unappetizing.  However, we were told that there would be a Full Moon Party on the beach at 1am.  So, we hired the motorbikes that had been driving us around all night to take us out to the beach. When we got there, it was not actually a Full Moon Party, but rather a bar on the beach, which was still lots of fun.  We did a lot of dancing and drinking, and some of the braver members of our group went skinny dipping in the ocean.  I stayed on shore, electing only to dip my feet into the water, which was much cooler and nicer than the beach water that I experienced in Thailand.  When we were ready to leave, I couldn't find Natasha.  She seemed to have disappeared with another of our group members, so even though I felt terrible leaving her behind, we all returned to the hotel without them.  Felipe (Colombian) decided to stay behind but sent his shoes home with me in my backpack (I still don't understand why he did this).  We got home around 3:30am. He didn't get home until 8am that morning! Natasha showed up about 45 minutes after I got home.  But she had left her backpack on the beach unattended and had all of her money stolen.  Not smart, is all I can say about that.  By the end of the night, I had 17 strikes on my arm.  That's a record for me, although I will also add that the beer couldn't have been more than 3 percent alcohol, each glass was probably only 8 ounces, and I was drinking over the course of 10 hours or so. But still. That's a pretty big number for me.  And it wasn't just me! I'm pretty sure Natasha made it to 17 too! I don't even want to think about what number some of the boys got to!

So this was epic night number two in Vietnam, and as I have said before, none of us were ever really able to recover.  We just kept getting more and more tired as the days went on, although never too tired to have a good time.  And it was an amazing time.

The day after this epic night, I spend the majority of the afternoon in a coffee shop in town, just relaxing, writing postcards, chatting with friends, and journaling.  By the end of the afternoon, I was shocked to discover that my entire foot had swollen up to an incredible size, which led me to start freaking out a little. Well actually more than a little.  That was when I decided that upon arrival in Saigon the next day, I would absolutely have to hit up the international clinic.  The next morning, we got up, packed, and drove to Danang for our flight to Saigon. Over and out.

-- Priya/Pri/P/Preesh/Pixi/LPJ/P-Money/Baibiya