After a busy day of traveling yesterday, we were already for a lie in. Well, that is as much as you can when the street callers wake you up at 5:00 a.m. Apparently in this seaside village they call all the Vietnamese awake to start the day and get them all motivated to make the best of the coolest part of the day. We all dosed until around 7:30 am - even me and I’m supposed to be nocturnal. We plied ourselves from our hard wooden beds, showered and came downstairs for breakfast. Hung, the owner along with his father cooked us a yummy feast of eggs and bacon, salad and fruit accompanied by the best bread so far on the trip. Lucy sneaked a few crunchy pieces with pineapple jam to me – total yumminess.
Full of breakfast it was time to hit the beach. We passed by the small restaurant opposite the hotel and I sat and watched as the children ran in an out of the surf for the next 2 hours until my feathers were soggy and I am quite sure my old Kakapo skin received a little too much sun.
A light lunch of spring rolls and salad (plenty for me too). Now in Hoi An, one should take it easy in the middle of the day, as it is apparently to
hot – I kind of agree, aside for this being my sleep time, 38 degrees is not too appealing.
At this point a great discovery is made. The in-house entertainment system. Each room is fitted with satellite TV as well as a movie hard drive box with lots of box office hits – if this is a kosher system, this would be awesome for Kinloch Lodge. The kids settled down to Tomb Raider to see the scenes set at Angkor Wat, and Toni and John watched this as well.
As the sun cooled down to a more liveable 35 degrees it was time to hit Hoi An by taxi. Hoi An is a living World Heritage site where the preserved part of the city is just for people on foot and on bikes. To make things more pleasant for tourists and to encourage more relaxed buying classic piano hits are piped through the streets. There is something very weird about listening to Czardas, though I guess Chopin fits with the French Heritage. Whether it has been cleared up for tourists or not, Hoi An is a lovely place to spend time. The people here are very relaxed and friendly. The atmosphere is glorious with little lanterns everywhere lighting up all the streets and curio shops. One still needs to bargain hard here as prices can be very different depending on where you go and your bargaining skills. Toni is not feeling great today, her neck is really sore after too much time on a bus and a very hard bed and a not great pillow. Perhaps she is just getting old!
After much walking around the beautiful town though not looking at any of the actual sites several hours passed. Lucy bought some purple pants for $8 and John continued his pursuit of a very large belt to ensure his very large trousers stay up.
No comments:
Post a Comment