After the beautiful green filled hills of Sapa, we made our way back to Hanoi on the sleepr train for an early morning arrival- 5.45am. This was to be the beginning of one of our longer and rougher days in Vietnam. We had nowhere to sleep and nowhere to go with plenty of time to waste. Ho Chi Man's museuleum was pretty scary and that's not just Ho Chi Man himself (Madame Tussaud's version was just as good, lol). The guards there watch your every move, everyone walks in two rows, and there's no talking-at all. It's a quick walk through and in the end you wonder waht just happened. The rest of our day was spent battling sleep and entertaining ourselves until our overnight bus from hell. We were shown lovely pictures of a modern bus with comfortable sleeping pads and an overall modern aesthetic. However, what you see is not what you get in Vietnam (future travelers beware). Our bus was on the low-low-low budget side complete with non-reclining seats/beds, no toilet stops, a mean driver and frequent delivery stops of "la vielle ferme" French wine. Apparently the delivery stops happened to be on our way so it made sense to have everyone on the bus participate. We arrived in Hue the next morning and were greated with warmth and perkiness from our hotel attendant. This was a big shift in atmosphere and almost had me worried. We visited a bunch of tombs and pagodas, checked out the citadel and observed the biggest flag in Vietnam (lol, ok.). Hue was nice and short. On to Hoi An... It's warmer here, calmer and the old quarter is quite nice and reminiscent of an older era in Vietnam despite being touristy. I'm glad they kept this place as it once was. The people are so friendly and joyful you'd think you were on another planet. We then made our way to the tailor district and spent 3 hours getting fitted for custom made jackets and dresses. This place is dangerous because once you get started the possibilities are endless and the price tag a joke. Everyone is happy in the end so it all works out. Our tailors, a Vietnamese woman and her sister, were funny and seemed to enjoy our negotiating pratices. In the end, they were hugging us and proclaiming long friendship. Here's where they got us: after finishing with one person you're passed on to a custom shoemaker that also has her giftshop friend waiting right beside her to get you ready for more spending. The Vietnamese are great salesmen and if it weren't for the airfare they would make a killing in the US! After a long day we headed back to the hotel situated in an alley with a couple little restaurents. To our surprise I discovered Danny Devito and his familly having dinner there too. I recognized him by the neck fat on his back, lol. What a day.
Tom & Ronit
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