Scott Fletcher Travels

Day 34-37 19th-22nd August Chillin Hoi An - favourite so far!

Upon arriving in Hoi An at 6am I was tired and wanted to drop my bag off. There was a guy who said he would take me to three hotels for 5000 dong which is pretty reasonable. He took me to three and they were all expensive and every time I told him cheaper he said yes and took me to an expensive one. I ended up just leaving him and going next door to a place he took me, first night $7, next three $5 so that was good value.

Even though I was exhausted I decided to go for a walk around town to see what it was like. There were tailors everywhere, every corner and every second shop all begging you to come in and have a look. The streets are very narrow in the old part of town, about a car width wide and cobbled. The houses are very old terrace houses, and mainly wooden dating back to the 19th century. Hoi An is really a sleepy paradise, I really think I could live there for a while. The thin cute streets are all different, with different historic houses, different shops and art galleries. This truly is the town of Tailors and Lanterns, they are selling them everywhere too. As you walk through the town you move towards the focus being the river, where there are two story terraces that have been converted into restaurants overlooking the river.

I was getting quite hungry so heading to the market seemed like the best idea. I was surprised how expensive everything was here, it was truly catering to the tourist. I had some good noodles and met a Physio from Newtown who was travelling with her friend from NZ. They were good value and it was good to speak with some level headed people again. On the way back from the market it was getting hot, but i walked down a few more streets and went into a tailor. Being cheap and quite skeptical I decided to just bite the bullet and get one and see what it was like. I chose a grey colour first(with funky blue lining, you are on a winner there Greg) and the material was $70 including tailoring, you just chose the material at the price then they make it for you. I managed to get a shirt thrown in for $5 so that was gold. Choosing out of a book was pretty easy and the shirt was easy as well. They said come back in about 5 hours. I also bought the book “life of Pi” which is a great read. It was getting hot so it was time for a siesta.

Later that afternoon I hired a bicycle(thinking some manual biking would be good exercise) and rode to the beach about 5km. The beach was awesome, it is about 30km long with pristine sand and palm trees. The water was if anything a little to warm, but perfect for a swim for about two hours. It was time to go and check the suit, went back and it was a little tight here and there so they said some back tomorrow and we will fix it up. It was too easy. That night for dinner I just relaxed and ate some street food which was great. On the way home I noticed some Soccer on the TV in a tailor shop, so I ducked in and ended up watching the whole game with this guy, he was making me coffee and being quite the host.

The next day I hired a bike all day which was a better idea, although the bikes are not built for anyone tall, and can be quite punishing to get any speed up. I found some great noodles around the corner from my hotel, the centre of town was right so I went left and stumbled across it. I ended up having two bowls. They were so good I ended up going back there every day for breakfast, and the lady was introducing me to her family, quite funny really because she spoke no English at all. I did notice her attitude to me changed as time went on, at first she gave me dodgy pieces of chicken on top, but she was slowly getting better and better pieces and giving more as well, so I was pretty happy about that.

While I was cycling around town I met two Italian girls and we decided to go to the beach, it was to hot to move (the whole town seems to shut down in the middle of the day for about 3-4 hours everyone is asleep and they sleep anywhere. So I ended up reading on the beach for about two hours and a swim. While I was in the water there was one of the best sunsets I have ever seen. There was a huge cumulus cloud and the sun was almost below it with a great orange glow at the base of the cloud, however at the top there was a halo of light, looked magic. It is funny how you appreciate the simpler things after a while, something like that can make your day.

After the beach I went back to check on my suit and it was perfect and the tailor was there to see what he thought. He changed a few things, and I decided to get another one, another jacket and three more shirts. So all up two suits, a jacket, four shirts $220 all perfect fits. That night I met up with the Australian and New Zealand-er for dinner which was good, then had another early night. The nights were so hot that it was hard to get to sleep most of the time.

This was my hot date

There is a place near Hoi An called My Son, it is an ancient temple city that was built from 2nd to the 10th Century. This was sold as Vietnam’s Anchor Wat, and there were meant to be amazing pagodas there and plenty to see. Upon getting a little lost on the bike on the way there, there was a walk up a hill about 1km up in stifling heat. This was more of an Archaeological site, where most of the temples where in total ruins or there was say a 5 foot wall and a pile of bricks left. This is fine if you are into that, but I was not really and thought it was a little bit of a hoax the way they sold it. Everyone I have met that has been there has said the same thing, so if you end up going along don’t waste to much time.