The Town for Walkers and Primitive Vehicle Users

In the morning, most of our group headed off on a boat tour. I skipped out on it and checked in at the tailor shops and walked around town. I was heading back to the hotel later when I bumped into Cat eating lunch at a cafe across the street from hotel. I joined her and we were soon joined by the woman from England in our group. I ordered a rice noodle soup dish, a local specialty in Hoi An. It was definitely the most interesting and flavorful meal I had in Vietnam. It had rice noodles in an reddish orange broth and it was full of prawns, pork, some sort of hard boiled egg (I don't think it was a chicken egg) and vegatables. It also had some crispy cracker-like things in. It was really good.

After lunch, I decided to head across the river. I crossed the bridge and walked along the river on the other side and checked out some interesting sculptures made by both locals and foreigners. Then I headed a little bit inland, away from the river and felt like I was in a completely different world. It has the same feel of Hoi An's Old Town, but there are no tourists and craft shops. It's a tranquil and sleepy village. I loved walking through there feeling like I had been transported back in time. I saw this amazing old woman and I pointed to my camera as a way of asking her if I could take a picture of her. She nodded yes and then lit a cigarette. I took a picture. She looked up at me with the cigarette in her mouth and gave me a look that said, "What are you waiting for, take the damn picture. " So I took another one. I headed back towards the river and walked along the other side to see the rest of the sculptures. There was an art class spread out along the shore of the river painting pictures of Hoi An's scenic riverfront. Hoi An seems like it would be a great place to study art. There is inspiration everywhere.

I headed back across the river to pick up some clothes from the tailors. One dress was terrible. My red shirt and green pants turned out well. I had also ordered a cotton dress that day from the people who made my pants. I saw the design on a mannequin when I was going to get my green pants and I loved it. I was ready by the end of the day and fit perfectly with no alterations needed. We decided to have a group dinner that night and I was late getting ready because it had taken awhile to get my things from the tailor. I decided to take my time and meet up with everyone later. I wore the new dress that had turned out really well and a flower in my hair that I brought from home and happened to match the dress perfectly.

As I walked down Hoi An's streets, it seemed that the whole town approved of my look. All of the locals hanging out in front of their shops commented and said things like, "Ooo, it's Saturday night! There she goes with a pretty dress on and a flower in her hair." I turned the corner onto the street the restaurant was on and was approached by some street kids. They kept pointing to my skin and their skin and saying, "Vietnam, same same!" They were pretty tan, but definitely not "same same". They asked me were I was from and then followed me down the street asking for American coins.

I was almost at the restaurant when I saw Cat and one of the Canadians walking away from the restaurant. They told me they were looking for shoes. I asked why and the Canadian pointed at her feet. She was wearing her sports sandals, the only pair of shoes she brought, with a cute little black dress she bought in Saigon. It was an amusing and incongruous outfit. We chatted while the street kids hovered around, now asking for Canadian money too, and then I headed off to Tam Tam Cafe to meet the rest of the group. When I got there, The Kids were already there. They had arrived in Hoi An that morning, and unsurprisingly, they spent the day at the beach. After dinner, The Canadians, The Kids and I headed to the bar area of Tam Tam Cafe to sit down, have a drink and catch up.