Hoi An:

March 5th, 2005 - March 8th, 2005

Greetings from Hoi An...

We arrived here a few days ago after a brief one night stop in Nha Trang. We only spent a day in Nha Trang as we took the bus out of town the morning after we arrived there.

We arrived here in Hoi An at sunset. That was the longest bus ride so far, clocking in at the 10-hour mark. Luckily only a dozen people were on the 40-seat coach, allowing us to spread out and relax a bit.

Hoi An is an enchanting town with a real French flare. The night we arrived it was cold and raining which added to the atmosphere as we chowed down on an amazing seafood dinner near the water.

Hoi An is probably best known now for its huge tailor industry. There are well over 200 tailor shops here in a town of only 75,000 people. You can't walk two steps without seeing a tailor shop and having some one try and bring you in for a fitting. Anything and everything is possible here and the shops have the latest catalogues with which they are able to copy any design in only a few hours.

When not getting clothes made, there is not much else to do other than walk around the town (which takes about 15 minutes) and eat. Thus, the first two dinners that we had, we sat next to the same 4 groups of people - of course, both places were #1 and #2 in terms of recommendations in the Lonely Planet book.

That's why we tried to avoid Lonely Planet in India and try not to treat it as the bible here. It is a bit sad that most businesses in SE Asia's only goal is to make the Lonely Planet book... after that, they are set (and their service usually decreases).

The only problem with Hoi An is how much harassment we face from the locals - mainly the kids. It is quite sad, actually. Often you see fathers pull up on bicycles with kids on the back. The kids jump off while the father hides to the side. Meanwhile, the kids come into the restaurants and onto patios and try and sell postcards and other crap jewelry to the patrons.

Sometimes it can get bad though. The other night we were sitting having a coffee with some people we met and this kid came up to me and attempted a fake punch to my stomach. He was maybe 10 years old. I asked him why he did that. He didn't really have an answer and attempted to punch at me again.

This time I outstretched my arm and pushed a finger into his chest and told him it was not something he should be doing to people. He kept saying to me, "Why not?". I told him it was wrong a few times and finally told him to go away. Clearly, he was trying to get at my money both times he punched at me as he had hoped my hands would have moved from my pockets. Luckily, I have great cargo pants with tons of pockets and zips.

About 30 minutes later we were walking down the street and this same kid comes running towards us at full tilt. We see him drop a pair of flip flops from his hand as a man reached to grab him. The kid got away, but we realized that the man who tried to grab the kid was an undercover police officer.

That was the second time in two nights we had seen an undercover officer. Theft is so bad here that the officers drive around in pairs on a motorbike and one of them is free to jump off and chase would-be thieves.

So unfortunately the high rate of theft is a downside to an otherwise charming town.

Today being our final day, we took it easy in the morning enjoying more wonderful coffee on the patio of a French-style cafe. Of course, the kids were out in full force to bother the patrons.

In the afternoon we took a nice boat trip along the river surrounding the town. It was a peaceful way to spend an hour of the day.

We capped off the afternoon by doing our final fitting at the clothing shop where we ordered our clothes. I won't even go into detail with how much stuff we bought.

It almost becomes an addiction as they perfectly copy the clothes you want made in any fabric they have available. Most of what we got, if not all of it, is practical. We saw some horrid photos of people who got suits made out of crazy material (ie. Army fabric) thinking it was a great idea at the time... I'd love to talk to them now!

We are out of here tomorrow morning and heading to Hue for a few days. Hue is close to the former DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) and the 17th parallel where Vietnam was split in the mid-20th century. We will spend a few days there before completing our journey to Hanoi.

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