Hoi An

So now we have spent a couple of days in Hoi An we have a greater feel and appreciation for the place. Well for starters everyone is extremely nice, from the peddlers that try and sell you things to the shop owners not guilting you into walking out of their shop to the super friendly restaurant staff (one in particular) with even the cyclo's not trying to commit fraud with every customer they scam onto their tricycle.

So the first topic I think I should address in this post is the abundance of shopping (and scarcity of consistent pricing). There are literally little markets stalls everywhere, and if there's not a little market stall at every angle trying to sell you something you don't need, then there's a shop at every angle. See now this wouldn't be such a bad thing normally, however it is not the incessant pesting that is the downfall of the overcrowding strategy the stall owners have taken, it is the insane repetition of products they all sell! At any one time I can almost gaurantee you that if you stand anywhere near only a few market stalls you could see at least a dozen of the same product ranging from 50,000 VND ($2.50) for a simple t-shirt to 180,000 VND ($9) for the exact same t-shirt only a few feet away. And while you bargain with the expensive ones and get them down to a reasonable price, they look at you like your cheating them out of money when there's the same t-shirt a few stalls down in which you don't even have to bargain the price down and still get it for a more than reasonable price!

However the shopping is far from the best thing about this little picturesque town, with the food coming in for a clear second place. The Hoi An specialties are some of the best little snack sizes meals that I've ever eaten (with the exception of pacific house). There's a short list of about 7 items that cost no more than $1 each (so you can have multiple dishes in one sitting!) available at most, if not all, restaurants around the city (however some restaurants try and sell the same quality food for double the price). Some of the best dishes include white rose, fried wonton, Cau Lua and various types of spring rolls and pork and shrimp pancakes. Just a pre-warning that if I come home and I am a size (or four) larger than when I left it is not my fault. Always blame it on the food! However sometimes there is an exception, and that exceptions name is Le. She works in a restaurant on the Hoi An river front called Cordon Bleu and has taken quite a liking to the both of us (to the point where we can walk in for a quick snack and she will already have the fresh beer, chocolate milkshake and white rose just about ready for us. It has even gotten to the point that she has fed me some of my white rose (I swear I did not request this). The poor girl works 7 days a week from 8am all the way until 11pm that night than starts it all again the next day. I think seeing us is one of the only exciting things that comes with the job. To the point where we were just walking past the restaurant when she comes running out and hugs both of us and just stops for a chat. She even yells and sprints down the stairs when shes sees us approaching its actually quite entertaining and everyone in the restaurants thinks we are the VIP's (because we are). Also, like everyone else in this town, she has a fascination with Laurens skin. Every time she comes in she's always sitting at the table with us just playing with her arms or doing her hair, or yesterday when Lauren had a bit of sunburn, every time she would bring someone elses drink out she would quickly put it on Laurens arm for a quick burst of cool! Lauren will put a photo up of her soon as shes loved being in photo's with us (I even think there's one of her feeding me, but that might just be a video).

So now I should get onto the number one thing to do/see in Hoi An (even probably the best thing to see in the whole of Vietnam). We were extremely lucky enough to have our Hoi An visit (unintentionally) fall on the 14th of July as this date was the celebration of the lunar full moon. Now if any of you have not seen the Top Gear Vietnam special I suggest you go and flick through it so you can see what I'm talking about. So for every full moon (which occur once a month), there is a ritualistic ceremony in Hoi An that at around 6pm on the evening of the full moon every street light and hotel/restaurant/house lights are temporarily switched off with the only form of light being that of the full moon or candles and lanterns being hung in place of the switched off lights. Just this spectacle is something quite spectacular to see, let alone what comes next. At around 7pm all the locals gather around the riverside and start lighting candles and placing them in little paper lotuses that were in a variety of colours. After lighting all the candles comes the lowering into the river, it takes around 15 minutes for a decent amount of candles to hit the water but once a couple of hundred are floating downstream it is a fantastic sight. With the surrounding darkness and colours displayed from both the lanterns and the floating candles, it has to be one of the prettiest things you could watch and by far one of the best things I've ever seen. You could probably sit there for hours and just watch. If you are ever going to visit Vietnam, make sure your in Hoi An on the 14th of any month.

Yesterday we took a visit to the Ancient Ruins of My Son (pronounced Me Sen) which was pretty good to see, I'll write a bit about the Ruins tomorrow because its time to head out and buy some t-shirts! So we will post again sometime tomorrow with possibly some photo's coming online later today. So we hope everyones still well and we will speak to you all soon.

Kristian & Lauren.