Hoi An: much needed downtime

So, the overnight bus over here was a pretty hairy ride- the seats put your body in the most bizarre and uncomfortable position ever- but I ended up running into three kids from Vang Viene and the couple that sat next to us from Laos to Vietnam so we were, at the very least, in good company. Took another quick bus from Hue to Hoi An and were checked into a nice hotel by lunchtime- comfy bed and a pool and a shower with doors that close all for five buckaroos. Grabbed some amazing veggie food and then went right back up to our room to collect a few more hours of sleep we lacked.

Finally got up the motivation to move and headed for the town center... Oh and the relief I felt as soon as we got into the heart of Hoi An! After a week solid of moving and busing from one place to another and dealing with mean city people, I just wanted a small town to chill out in for a little bit. And walking down the small streets and alley ways that first night, I felt so relieved to have found just that. With a mixture of eastern and European buildings (all mostly painted a golden rod yellow and semi covered in mold), the main streets run along a stretch of river that floods over at night when the tide rises (the coast is only 5km out). Only scooters and bicycles are allowed down these main streets so everyone walks lazily through the streets. Hoi An is famous for it's plethora of tailors and prides themselves on the fact that you can have a shirt or suit made in one day if you really wanted to... And for dirt cheap. Thus, the town is litered with these tailors along with souvinere shops and a slu of restaruants that all serve the same food. There are tons of little street carts and a huge market that sells the typical stuff: bizzare meats, fruits, veggies, flowers, tiger balm, inscense, ready made rice and 18 different kinds of noodles. The city is covered in colorful lanterns and old women in cone hats selling peanuts and fruit. Everyone here is trying to sell you something but, unlike the north, they are still nice and plesant to you when you decline their offers. And the food here is the best I have tasted in Vietnam so far: there is cau lao which are wheat noodles with meat and veg served in a broth and with crutons and the country pancakes which are made from eggs and pork and shrimp and are rolled up in rice paper with veggies stuffed inside- so good. They also have 'fresh beer' that all the restaurants downtown serve which is the Vietnam equivalant to keystone light. I'm not sure if it's home brewed or just a cheap keg that they all have, but a glass of fresh beer is literally a fraction of the price of all the other beers. A bottle or can will cost you anywhere from 9,000 to 30,000 dong depending on what you order while the fresh beer is a measly 4,000/ glass- you can't even get a soft drink or a coffee for that much! All in all, I really like it here... Though it is still a touristy town, I feel more content and relaxed here than I felt the entire week we traveled up north (Sapa excluded).

My days here have been spent rather lesiurely and usually begin with eggs and toast and a freshley brewed cup of VN coffee with condensed milk and tend to end with a few fresh beers and a sampling of the local cuisene. The time in between has been filled with wandering around the markets, a bit of shopping for loved ones back home, reading, journaling, iPod touching when I have wifi and taking it all in. Saha was here with me for the first few days and she was really good about doing a few tours around, but it was nearly impossible to motivate me to do anything tour-related right away after our terrible Halong Bay experience- though I'm maybe regretting not doing anything sooner as the weather has turned monsoonish.

It was sad saying goodbye to Saha (who actually spells her name Shachar, by the way, but if I start writing it correctly I start pronouncing it incorrectly), but she wanted to head out earlier than I did. She has only a few weeks to see Vietnam and make her way into Cambodia so she is more limited in time. She is also much better at going to a place and doing everything in a day or two and then moving on. Contrary to me, who, as I have come to discover, likes to travel and learn about a place through osmosis. I like to sit and absorb a city, figure out what I really want to do or see there and then finally doing it before heading to my next destination. I like to know the best place for a good breakfast, to be able to navigate the streets on my own accord and try my hardest, with my blonde hair and blue eyes, to blend in a bit. And I'm such a better person to be around when I'm not stressed out and lost and sleep deprived when I'm constantly moving from one place to the next. (These are all facts I am finding out about myself along the way as I go, by the way.) Anyways, goodbyes suck- especially with a travel buddy who was just as independent as I was. Saha and I were good at having heart to hearts at times and not speaking for hours during others- perfect when you are with someone consistantly for a week and a half- and I feel like we both posess similar mind sets and outlooks on life. I'm grateful for the time we had but am looking forward to being on my own again as well. Though it's never long before you stumble upon another group of gypsies.

Right after Saha left, I went out to go find some food. Walked around and see if the market was open and along the way was checking some menus out. Got stopped at this one restaurant where the owner and another guy were sitting outside and they started talking to me. They offered me some shark that the owner made (so good!) and then offered for me to sit down and join them for some rice wine and food. So I did. Now this is not something I would normally do but we are talking about a grandfather and a forty five year old guy sitting around slightly wasted in a very quite and friendly town... The owner splits his time between here and traveling Europe cooking but has had his place open since Vietnam opened it's doors. He is married and has three daughters and three sons and one grandson who I got a picture of as he was dressed in the VN paraohanalia as the womans soccer team won that night. The other guy was from equador, has been living in Nepal, is 45, has been married 8 times and I'm pretty certain makes his living selling lots and lots of weed. An interesting duo I found myself with. The drugdealing devorcee told me the second I sat down 'well sweetheart you are way too young for me so why don't you look out for a thirty some year old woman for me and I will look for a twenty some year old guy for you'... Thus, I got to share with him rather quickly that I appreciated his offer, but that I had an amazing boyfriend back home. This spurred a very long and slurred (on his part) discussion of relationships (coming from the guy who has been married and divorced eight times) which started with him calling BS on having a relationship while traveling and ended with him begging and pleading with me to please fly home as soon as possible to be with Andy. He told me I was lucky to have found someone that I am so excited about and continually asked me over and over again: 'why are you here? What you want is home not here... Go home!!'. I definitely am not going to change my plans around after my little heart to heart with the drunk south American/Nepali drug dealer, but it was a very enthralling dinner convo as our restaraunt owner would just sit and laugh and would take our spoons and individually make us spoonfuls of goodness (shark in a saffron curry sauce with green papya and mango, dipped in a clear, citrusy sauce and dusted with chili and a little piece of puffed rice cracker on top). The night ended after a few more dishes of delicious food, another bottle of rice wine (I only had three sake sized glasses mama so don't worry please), and after a few more people joined our table and the festive drinking and eating. I excused myself shortly after the couple from the bus sat down and joined our little group- I was full and tired and ready for bed by that point.

I woke up that night to find my little loft room (that I had been moved to after Saha left) partially flooding as it poured buckets. Found two pails and tried to catch as much water as I could but by the morning, half of my room was covered in a half inch of water. Luckily, the hotel was able to pit me in a nicer room (for more money anything is possible here) which I am very grateful for after my body started retaliating against something I had injested. I had tried booking my bus out to NhaTrang after the bus was already full and was dissapointed to have another two full days in this rainy town, but they came in very handy as I was unable to do much more than walk to the market next door for crackers and OJ and massive amounts of water. I canceled the moto-tour I was going to do and attempted to heal. Ran into Jaap and Theo (my Dutch friends from Luang Prabang) who were staying right next door to me, but I was quite the Deb Downer being sick and all. I guess it's bound to happen sometime along the way though...

Just survived another overnight bus ride that was more comfortable but also more wet and a bit late (3 hours) and I now find myself in rainy Nha Trang. To be more specific, I am in a cafe that looks quite snazy from the outside- everything is white and very modern and along the wall is written 'wifi.cafe.wifi.cafe'. Inside this place though is just...so...wow...Asian?? Inside this bright white building is low low lighting and cheap-looking furniture that probably once belonged in a nightclub and now overcrowds the huge floorspace. There is a DJ blasting Christmas music (it's 10am) and there are five plasma TVs playing Terminator and XXX. There are a few christmas decorations and even some blue jewish stars wrapped around a pole decorated in red and green streamers. Oh, and it smells like cigarettes and pee. And despite everything being in english (the menu, the music, the subtitles on the movies with no sound), no one speaks English here... Gotta love it. Just had a very delicious breakfast though with my three new kiwi friends and I am feeling much better so, despite the smell and the rain outside, I'm rather content at the moment.

Heading to Dalat tomorrow morning which is in the Central Highlands. It's a nice little mountain town I am told and is where I will be spending Christmas (as will the Dutch boys and the Brit couple I keep running into). Excited to get to some nicer weather and to a place with some more outdoorsy options to choose from. It will not be home or Colorado, but I will be in good company and in a mountain town- Think it's the closest to home in Vietnam I will be getting!

Happy early Christmas/belated chaunaka to y'all back home.