You Want a Suit? Shoes? An Old Chinese/ Japanese/ French Colonial City?

Then you want Hoi An. Hoi An was our first stop after our harrowing 16 hour bus ride from Dalat. The Easy Riders sounded an even more appealing option after being jammed into a tiny seat on an overnight bus. Speaking of which, if you ever need to do the same trip, avoid T.M. Brothers. The tour group that booked our ticket said that we would be on the sleeper bus (MUCH more comfortable), charged us for the sleeper bus, then forced us on the decrepit old regular bus. Now we road for 9 hours on a bag of rice in Laos, so we are used to uncomfortable but when you are expecting to be able to fully recline and can't, it's a bit upsetting.

Anyhoo, we arrived early in the morning and after lugging our bags all over town looking for the cheapest flophouse, we settled in and started to explore. The city itself is comprised of two cities really. One is a small, bustling town and the other is the UENESCO World Heritage recognized Old City. We spent the day cruising up and down the Old City Streets, enjoying the wonderful architecture and trying to resist the lure of cheap hand-made suits/sweaters/etc. The architecture is a combination of teak houses and weathered yellow stucco structures that definitely complicate the already complicated visual history of the country. After a wonderful noodle dinner for the princely sum of 80 cents, we retired to catch up on sleep.

-d