The overnight train to Hoi An was a nightmare. There was garbage in the room, black hairs over all of our sheets and cigarette butts scattered around. Unfortunately, I threw out my sleeping sheet in Bangkok to make room for other things. When we reached Hoi An, the train trip was forgotten. We arrived in Danang around 0530 and took a bus to Hoi An. The beaches were packed with people playing sports, swimming and doing tai chi. It was quite a sight. Hoi An itself has an old town historical feel to it (pic. 1). Small, with few cars, mostly motorscooters and bicycles. The old part of town is filled with tailoring, shoe and souvenir shops and quaint little restaurants along the river. As Hoi An is the place to get tailoring done, Sarah (England), Allie (Australia) and I decided it was something we definitely had to do. Little did we know the nightmare that was about to unfold. Because there are so many shops, it is completely overwhelming. Clothing and shoes in every style imagineable. We spent our first day walking from store to store, everyone telling us they had the best deal, "You buy, I give you good deal". We finally settled on a tailoring and shoe shop for no other reason than convenience, as it was close our hotel. I had decided that I would be getting a dress, pants and shorts, and of course, shoes. Very few of the shops are airconditioned which makes trying on clothes a little tedious, especially when three girls are trying to change in a room made for one. We had our first fitting done, I decided my dress would be better as a shirt and then had some linen pants and shorts made. We then headed off to choose some shoes. Now, the plan was to end up with ONE pair of shoes but faced with the $9 per pair of shoes reality, I ended up with more. Looking at them now, they are not even very different from one another, but hey, they were cheap. What made the experience so dreadful was that we had to go back 3 times to the store for further fittings and to have shoes taken in or taken out. In the heat, this is not fun and the last thing I wanted to do in a new town was to walk around the same streets for two days. It all ended rather pleasantly though when we received the finished products; 1 skirt, 1 pair linen pants, 1 pair trouser shorts, 3 pairs shoes, 1 pair sandals and 1 shirt, all for under $75 USD. Not too shabby.

In between fittings, we had a cooking lesson and went on an absolutely amazing bicycle tour through the countryside of Hoi An. In the end, it all ended rather pleasantly. Our Vietnamese Cooking 101 Class was incredible. The menu: hot and sour soup, green papaya salad, spring rolls, tiger prawns in coconut sauce, fresh tuna that had been marinated for over 2 hours and fruit salad. Not to mention the free rice whiskey shots and sangria included. We got to watch how it was prepared, participate if so inclined, copy out the recipes and eat everything that was made. Each dish was absolutely delicious. Who knew that fish soup could be so good?! That night, we also decided to live a little dangerously and hopped on a moto to our restaurant. Mine and Sarah's first time on a motorbike, quite exhilarating. I had nowhere to put my left leg, I was in the middle, and was paranoid about it hitting the ground. Ended up with a major cramp in my left hip but we giggled like little kids the whole way. It was great fun. Too bad Allie got dropped off on some random road that was nowhere near the restaurant. Good thing she's a great navigator!

At Cau Dai Beach (pic. 2)the following morning, my stomach was not as enthusiastic about the food we had tried at our cooking class. Without getting into any great detail, I will say that I was feeling rather nauseous and crampy and had to make a couple trips to the squatter toilet *big sigh* that had no light. It also ended our day at the beach ( it was 1030 and we had only gotten there at 1000) as we felt it would be better to have the comfort of western toilets should the episode persist. However, after cycling back to the hotel, I was feeling much better. It had been raining intermittently throughout the day but that didn't stop us from going on our cycling tour (our guide wanted to cancel it! the only exercise I was about to have for the whole trip!). We talked him into it though and it was well worth it. We headed out with our cagouls sp?, as Sarah calls them, I call it a rainjacket or poncho, and cycled through and around town. Little kids come out of their houses yelling "Hello! Hello!" The countryside is spectacular; the colors, the landscape, the poeple, all of it amazing (pic. 3&4). I'm loving Vietnam. It rained off and on throughout the ride but there's something a little unique and childlike about riding around in the rain with a purple poncho on.

We had a final dinner out in Hoi An and went back to the hotel for some drinks. The fish I ordered came out whole, not surprising but if you pretend the eyeball is not looking at you, it actually tastes really great. No idea what kind of fish it was.

This morning, we left Hoi An by private bus and made our way over the Hai Van Pass (pic. 5)to Hue. Again, more amazing scenic views. Tomorrow, we have an all day motorbike tour. Good thing I've already tested out the waters a little.