from nha trang to hoi an, with the baby blue cords to prove it

we have spent the past three days in the town of hoi an, which is about halfway up the country, near the coast. we flew from nha trang to da nang, just north of here and then shared a cab to hoi an with the chattiest canadian on earth and the most silent brit on earth, who just happen to also be a (seemigly odd) couple. we got to town with a mission to find a hotel with a decent bathroom. after a night at dong phunog 2 hotel in nha trang, we had set our standards a bit higher. the let's go for some unexplainable reason gave our friend dong phuong it's coveted thumbs up icon... we're not sure if it was the scuzzy old blanket we had to share (without even a top sheet - which are hard to come by here - as a buffer) or the carpet art that adorned the breakfast room wall that set it apart from the competition, but either way we couldn't get away from the phuong fast enough.

when we got to hoi an, we looked at one hotel that was also given a hearty thumbs up by the folks at let's go - we hadn't quite given up hope on them yet - but it proved to be musty and not that appealing. so i left brendan at a coffee shop and set off to find something that would do. eventually i got us a big room with a river view that didn't quite meet the clean bathroom requirement, but i was tired and hot and the lady who ran the place was nice. the only downside was that it was only available for one night, so we would have to go through the whole charade again the next day. we enjoyed our one night there, and set off the next morning to find something else in the general vicinity of the river, which is a little more relaxed than being right in the middle of the tourist zone. enter vietnam village resort. the strangest - STRANGEST - place i will likely ever stay.

we paid $25 for a room that had it's own balcony surrounded by palm fronds, a bathroom cleaner and more modern than anything we have seen since leaving the U.S. of A. (and even there, we would be hard pressed to find a hotel with a loo this nice) and beautiful bamboo furniture. considering we had paid the same price the night before for some mildew and a lot of traffic noise, it didn't really add up, but we went for it and signed on for 2 nights of blissfully scalding water and a sparkling tub. over the course of our 48 hours there, we never saw another guest - and are pretty sure that we were in fact the main event. there also seemed to be a strict energy conservation policy in place, since every time we walked into the vast lobby/restaurant building, all of the lights were off with the staff of 6-10 young ladies sitting the dark awaiting our return so they would finally have something to do. i almost wished i could keep them busy with something other than handing us our room key, which took approximately 1.5 seconds. on day #2 we got back to the lobby to find a delightful exception to the fierce conservation of electricity -- we were greeted by none other than a life-sized, motion-activated, singing and dancing santa. the folks at vietnam village might be stingy, but they know how to splurge with their energy budget. we enjoyed our stay there, though i will forever wonder a) how on earth they stay in business and b) whether there was a multiple homicide the day before we got there and we were the only people not to know about it.

in other hoi an news, this is THE PLACE to have clothes and shoes made. i came armed with a photo of a dress from an anthropologie catalog - another helpful suggestion from my friend who had been to vietnam before - and set off to find someone to make it for me at 1/10 the cost with my choice of fabric. there are tailors everywhere... about 80% of the storefronts are either tailors or shoemakers, some of them approaching you with the unassuming "quick look at my store please" and others with the more cut-to-the-chase line of "buy something"... so it was hard to decide where to go. ultimately, i was picky about the fabric options so we ended up with a very touchy-feely young lass at the cloth market who agreed to make me two dresses for $36. they came out pretty well, but the fun part was going to pick them up and seeing brendan get sucked into the allure of having things custom made. he (with my urging) picked out some lovely baby blue curdoroy for circa-1980 style pants that we would come back to pick up in two hours. between the pants and the additional alterations to my dresses, i'm not sure how she managed it, but she did. and we are now big fans of anh at cloth market stall #52. sure part of one of my dresses is a bit uneven, but isn't that the experience of hand made goods? i'm telling myself it is.

we also did a super-tourist excursion to my son yesterday, which is the site of ancient ruins about 40km from hoi an. we went out by bus, traipsed around with hordes of other tourists and took a boat most of the way back to hoi an. the ruins are a UNESCO world heritage site, dating from the 4th century. they were pretty amazing, particularly given the lush mountainous setting surrounding them, but i would probably have been more amazed minus the hundreds of other tourists running around at the same time.

we learned partway into our stay in hoi an that the town is not in its typically UNESCO-maintained (the town itself also had the designation) condition from some tourists from florida - who were, by they way, a RIOT - who had been here before. we had learned when we first arrived that there was some flooding here, but then proceeded to walk around town oblivious to the major road and sidewalk repairs going on all around us and making what most would say an obvious connection between facts A and B. not always the most astute of travelers. compared to da lat, hoi an seems to be teeming with tourists, but the floridian seniors tell us that it's empty compared to the last time they were here, since tourists were encouraged not to come given the flood damage. there is an old japanese covered bridge in town where there is one line marking the level of the flood waters from a flood in 1999, and a second - higher - line marking the water level from the flood two weeks ago. despite our initial and prolonged oblivion, we now get it that this was a serious-ass flood. part of the tourist privilege, i suppose, to take in the beauty of a place but be unaffected by the ravages of such events.

there is more to report, but my hands are getting tired from typing away on a less-than-responsive keyboard. we continue to work on our haggling skills, and brendan has done his best to bring the "buy one, get one" concept to this part of the world, but apparently it doesn't translate. they don't seem to buy into the idea of our agreeing to their price for the first item, and then suggesting that they give us a large discount on the second item, but i suspect he will keep on trying.

this afternoon we head 3 hours north on a bus to hue, the culinary capital of vietnam. it will be interesting to try some new options from that region. thus far, my only true love is vietnamese coffee, and i have vowed to start buying condensed milk by the case to make it myself at home. there is something so right about concentrated milk and sugar. we tried cao lau, a regional specialty from hoi an, a couple of times. not my favorite, particularly the vegetarian version i had our first night here. the menu described the elements of the dish, with the base of the broth being water from the - and i quote - "local bale well". i don't know what a bale well is, and from the taste of the broth i don't think i want to. so here's hoping for some delectable hue goodies once we get through another round of the hair-raising experience that is motorized transport in vietnam.