Happy in Hoi An

Today's adventures bring a sick traveller (just a head-ache), a delicious meal (okay, more than one to be honest), and some messed up travel plans.

Where to start? Right, here, in Hoi An. As you may have read, this place is a seamstress'/tailor's dream come true. Fabric and tailor shops galore. We had done some research beforehand and options ranged from getting stuff done super-cheap to super-expensive (which even then isn't super expensive). Since we've saved some money for this trip we decided we wanted quality over quantity. As it stands, I've been measured and fitted for a suit, a sportscoat, and 2 shirts at one of the best tailors in town, known as A Dong Silk (look'em up, they're good). Reggie is having a suit (pants, skirt, and jacket) and 2 dresses made there. Suffice to say, the work and service have been excellent and tomorrow we have another fitting. We've also visited many of the many hole in the wall places and after Reggie saw a "twirly" dress (I know that's not the technical term, but its what she's been calling it) in one, it was decided that we'd go there for that dress. One "twirly" dress for her and 2 conversion pants for me, and we've now completed our buying here. We still have some fittings tomorrow to make sure everything is just right, but we are super-happy with the stuff. Reggie still looks at all the shops and keeps saying she needs to take a class to become a better seamstress.

Sick traveller is Reggie, with a massive headache for today. In fact the person who's handled the heat the worst has been her. I've been great minus one time 2 days ago when the heat was getting to me.

Let's talk food. As most of you know, I don't like Chinese food, its too fried and greasy and just has never sat well with me. Vietnamese food is completely different. The ingredients are fresh and I've been eating it right up. I've liked it so much so that today we took a cooking class. I can now make Pho, a shrimp wrapped in banana leaf, as well as a fresh Vietnamese salad with Chicken. I could go on and on about the food around here, suffice to say the herbs have been fresh and even Reggie is eating seafood. We've had dinner at the place where we did the cooking school and at a place that helps train disadvantaged youths in the hospitality field. Being the suckers that we are, we even made a donation to that program.

One interesting thing about travelling not with a package is knowing your options (you normally have a million) and being flexible. Originally, our plan was to go to Hue tomorrow, but we've been enjoying our time here that we've cut it out of our journey. I'm sad about that but sometimes a place feels right and you want to get deeper, which I feel we've done. So in addition to staying longer we need to make our way to Hanoi on Thursday night for a tour that leaves on Friday morning. Unfortunately, all the berths on the sleeper portion are sold for both trains that leave that night, so we're trying to figure out how to arrange things now. We've got a day train and several flights as well as a night bus. We're working it out but its certainly an adventure...which is the point.

I'm sure I'm missing some things, but that's all I've got.

'Til next time,
N