Hoi An

We arrived in Da Nang around 6pm to be screened by unpleasant customs officers. We also had to go through screening to exit the airport to ensure our luggage matches our boarding ticket - good check, as I wonder if someone will walk off with my luggage!

Our tour guide and driver took us to our resort outside Hoi An, about 45 minutes away from the airport. It was by far the most remote and third-world part of our trip so far -  single lane, dirt roads with frequent motorbikes, cars, trucks, bicycles, and people creating a maze for the driver to weave through. There were narrow, angular streets with small homes with open doors. There were rice pads, archaic bridges, and darkness. And then we turned a corner and arrived at our resort. It looked very stylish and nothing resembling the journey to get here.

We checked-in and went to the New Year's Eve Gala banquet hosted by the resort. The restaurant was situated above a river, with views of motorboats traveling up and down the river, and a shipyard in the distance. (I even saw sparks from a welding iron). It was New Years Eve and we were kilometers away from family and friends, but we were together and happy. Small candles in paper boxes were lit and placed on the river - making for some nice photos.

The banquet was buffet style: a large variety of seafood, BBQ skewers, noodles, soups, and pastas. We were feeling tired from the long day of travelling, so we tried to make the best of it. The food was quite exotic. We both sampled a number of dishes. Anna had the traditional soup, and I had some shrimp skewers. That turned our to be a bad choice, as my stomach started feeling queasy shortly after. Anna's stomach was also not feeling well, so we went back to our room, forgoing the nights festive party and dancing, although we could clearly hear it from the room. The blaring music went past midnight, but we were still up - spending most of the time in the washroom. Once I had cleared my system, I fell asleep around 3am. I hope I don't spend have another New Year's Eve like this one in the future.

We had booked a 1 hour  walking tour in the morning at 10am. In spite of the previous nights events, we trekked on. But we made a 2 hour stop at the tailor first. We settled on 3 piece suits for each of us, 2 blouses and a wool coat for Anna. The tailors took our measurements and we selected fabric. It was a long process but  well worth the time to construct a unique and personalized piece of clothing. We left the designs in their hands and eagerly awaited our fitting the next morning.

We set off on the tour, looking at a covered bridge built by the Japanese, with a temple off to the side. It was built in hopes of getting help on the seas when travellers and fishermen were on the dangerous waters.

The small town had narrow streets, open markets, and motorcycles everywhere beeping their horns. People had informed us that the town would be like a scene out of southern Italy, with small cafes by the canal, and peaceful times. Unfortunately we didn't find that town! We spent the early afternoon walking through the small town, taking sitting breaks for me as I still wasn't feeling 100%. But the walking was draining, so at 2pm we went back to the resort to sleep. 3 hours later I had regained my energy and felt better.

The next day we went back to the tailors for fittings. The clothes looked great, considering that they were simply sewn from a photo or hand drawn - no patterns. However each piece needed some adjustments.

Since we liked the workmanship  we decided to get a lace dress. We had a design in mind and shared the photo with the tailor for fitting later that day.

We rushed off to our scheduled cooking class at 11am. The class included a tour of the food market where they described how to select fresh and ripe ingredients. Thankfully we didn't need to select the ingredients that we would use for cooking. There were an amazing variety of new things to see. Some of them were: cooked blood, which we thought was liver, intestines, stomachs, ears, and actually any other animal part you could think of. They eat it all! Our guide reached down to a bucket of prawns to point and this apparently upset them, as they all started jumping out on to the ground. There were live crabs sitting on a table wrapped in banana leaves and if they weren't sold that day they would be put back in the river and given a second chance at life!

We then took a 10 minute boat ride to the Red Bridge Cooking School. Our chef was a humorous friendly man with a British accent and a remarkable story. Just 10 years ago he was a kid on the streets. He got connected with a group that taught him life skills for language, culture, and cooking. He conversed well with our small group of 8 people, making jokes about food designs and ingredients. We made spring rolls,  Vietnamese pancakes (very good!), and fruit and vegetable salad, eating each dish after we made them. It was all tasty, fresh, and filling. After our tutorials, the school provided stir fry with rice, and native fruit for dessert - mangos, dragon fruit, watermelon, and pineapple. We left feeling very full.

We went back to the tailors for a second fitting. The majority of the clothes fit well, except Anna's suit skirt and the lace dress was very different from the one in the photo. They worked on the clothes and asked us to come back in an hour, for more fittings and determining next steps. We were leaving at 11:30am the next morning, so could only be back in the morning for a final fitting. We went to explore the night life of the town, walking over a brick bridge, and enjoying some New Zealand ice cream in a nearby cafe. There were loud motorbikes everywhere, so it was nice to have some time to relax. We then walked back to the tailors. The lace dress had been adjusted, but was not any better. The tailor agreed to try one more time, from a new piece of cloth.

The next morning we took a shuttle into town. The suit skirt fit perfect and looked very flattering. The lace dress was another story - it was not the same details as in the photo and that changed the style of the dress. It was also laying wrong on Anna's body. The tailor was gracious to refund our money for the dress.

We went back to the resort, crammed our luggage full of our new clothes, with the suits as carry-on, and left for the airport.

Our flight is short - a 1 hour domestic flight to the big city of Hoi Chi Minh City (previously called Saigon). We are excited about seeing warmer weather in the southern part of Vietnam. Everyone we talk to says this city is crazy busy, loud, and hectic. We will see what happens, stay tuned!