Friday, May 7, 2010

If the shoe fits, buy it

Hello from Nha Trang, south coast ,the Blackpool of Vietnam with slightly less honkey tonk and much better weather - apart from the thunder and rain tonight! After leaving Hue our last stop we took a 5.5 hour bus ride with the locals to Hoi An , the Vietnam capital of silk and with over 500 tailor shops in the one town and almost as many cobblers who can whip up any shoe you want within hours it is a shopoholics dream or nightmare if you're on a budget!! In true Jane style I have left the town with 8 pairs of shoes (well when you have feet like mine getting made to measure shoes for the fraction of the normal price it would be wrong not to!! I just wish I'd had time to get those knee high tan leather flats made and all the other beautiful shoes I've ever dreamed of that I either can't find to fit my big foot and skinny leg or can't afford!! Another time!!

Having got off our relatively shourt bus ride we were met once again by someone from our prebooked accomodation. This time 2 girls on scooters. They werent quite as well equipped to take us and all our bags and our attempt at fitting the bags infront of them didnt work - at all. So we had to put our rucksacks on our back and wearing our matching outfits of denim skirts ( Jo and myslef have turned into clones of each other and usually end up wearing almost the exact same outfit without even knowing what the other has panned on wearing that day!) we as lady like as we could straddled the ack of the scooter trying not to fall over or knock the bike over with the heavy load on our backs. A few wobbles later and another helmet over hte head case and we were off, whizzing not so fast or smoothly as before through the streets of Hoi An. We alone were twice the size of the small Asian girls riding the bikes and with the bags on board also Im not sure how they kept their balance. Once again we arrived safely at the hotel and got off / fell off the back of the bike as we tried to maintain our modesty and balance hte 20 odd kg on our backs!

The 'hotel' wasn't quite as flash as our last one and our fresh towels everyday gave a new meaning to 'fresh' - not oone I really liked! But they did have a swimming pool, which they were very proud of and had signs all over the hotel to advertise it. we didn't actually locate it till the last day but it was very nice , albeit very small when we did find it! The wiring in the room was a little concerning , especially the bundle ofloose wires beside my head in bed and even moreso the ones dangling under the shower head! But the water was hot, the fan worked and the breakfast was good!
We had asked the lady in our last town to recommend a tailor to us as we knew it would be hard todecide on one when there were so many. She put us in contact with her friend who was eagerly waiting for us at our hotel onn arrival. Ms Vy was her name from 'An' Cloth shop and she was lovely, hard to tell exactly what age she was but we reckoned late tenties. we warmed to her immediately and after dumping our bags in our room she had us on her scooter and on our way to her shop where we met her husband and the other lovely young girl who worked there - conveniently her name was also Vy! 'An' Cloth shop was situated bang in the middle of the Old Town which in Hoi An is beautiful, steeped in history and French Colonial architecture. The streets are narrow, the yellow paint of the buildings is peeling off revealing ancient rock and many of the houses and buildings here are some of the only really old original buildings in Vietnam,many of the others nover survived the Vietnam war. Cars and scooters are banned from some of the streets so only pedestrians and pedal bikes can get through which is a really nice way to get around this town. There are endless cafes, boulangeries, restaurants offering cooking schools, balconies overloking the river dripping with cascading purple flowers, very picturesque.

Anyway, an hour later we were still sitting in the tailor shop having dredged through enless magazines and catalogues and drawn designs ourselves we were measured up and told the clothes would be ready tomorrow afternooon for the first fitting. You'd be forgiven for thinking less than a 24 hour turnaround was overly impressive but when you add a wedding dress to the list of 2 winter jackets, a skirt, 2 tops and a summer dress between us it suddenly becomes very impressive, well in our eyes anyway! Now I won't give all the details now as I'm sure some if this story will come out during wedding speeches but it deserves tobe mentioned for entertainment value!! Unlike many brides I'm not one of those kids who drreamt of the dress she wanted and imagined what she'd llok like walking down the aisle. In fact I had no idea up until a dew weeks ago when Jo andd myself spent an hour in a wedding dress shop in NZ trying on a few dresses. So I caame armed with a few drawings and some downloaded pictures on my laptop to the tailor shop. After explaining what I thought I'd like to the girl in the shop who measured me up she then handed me a helmet and we were back on the scooter , laptop in hand and off to the actual tailor who'd be making my dress. I've never been into a wedding dress shopin Ireland and the one i NZ was a back alley small one but I imagine most shops are quite fancy, might have carpet and some may even give oyu a glass of champagne I hear!! well welcome to Vietnam style wedding shopping! we turned down a tiny side street, passed a few chickens and families sitting out on the side of the road eating their dinner in the dark, past a few more children playing in the street and pulled up outside a glass door which led into a tiny front room. we had to take our shoes off before we entered. I couldn't see much as in the time it had taken us to get form the tailor shop to the tailor's house there'd been a powercut. There was a single candle lighting and I could just make out the silouette of the big gold buddha sittingin the corner of the room ( a lucky omen I hoped!) and copious aounts of dresses of all styles and colours hanging from hangers off anything they could hang from around the room.

A few moments later guided by a torch the tailor herself appeared and in the torchlight we were introduced through a torrent of Vietnamese and the laptop was opened up. I was sitting there thinking to myslef how I wished Jo couldd see this now, meanwhile she was sitting by candlelight back in the shop trying not to be convinced to get another few items of clothing made up!! As I sat there I had to laugh to myself I never imagined I'd be sitting in a dark room with the two women analysing the pictures in the dim light of my mini laptop. I just hoped she could actually see the design and wondered what would acttually appear at the first fitting tomorrow!! The powercut continued but that didn't stop them taking my measurements yet again , this time in the dark and then getting me to pick the material. I seriously couldn't make out waht colour it was but trusted the girl from the shop who told me it was like what I had described I wanted. Getting my dress made here was always going to be a risk, but at least I'd have a story!!

That night I didn't sleep a wink, I was worried that she wouldn't have seen the detail in the picture and that because she couldn't speak English what I really wanted might hav got lost in translation. What's more I was worried that the material I had chosen wouldn't really be the right colour or the right type of material. half way though the night I got up and sent an email to Vy explaining my concerns and hoping she'd get it before the cutting and sewing started! Early the next mornign I checked my email and bless her she's sent one back saying she'd pick mee up at 9 and we'd go check the material and design again! The rest of what happened with that I'll fill in at or after the wedding!! Our time over hte next few days was divided between fittings in the show shop, tailor shop and bike trips to the beach! We soon felt like locals as peopleasked us what we were doing to day and we'd say oh we're just off to our tailor and later ok we'll meet you after our fitting at the cobbler etc! We were known by name as we cycled passed people's shops and restaurants and we soon fell in love with Hoi An. On our final day we went to the market to buy flowers for Vy and Vy and the tailor. The rest of the day anytime we cycled passed the lady inthe flower market she would shout at us 'See you next year!'. We thought to oursleves mental note, bring a completely empty suitcase next time!!

One evening as we were having dinner we asked the waitress about the cookery classes the restaurant offered. She told s they were 25 US dollar. A bit out of our budget we thought we'd look around and see if we could find a cheaper option . However she quietly told us that for 12 dollars, including a trip tot he market with her she would bring us to herhouse and teach us how to cook several local dishes! We arranged to meet her at 8 am at the restaurant the next morning and off we went home delighted to have met another local in this super friendly town.

Next morning we picked up Hian on the back of our push bike at 8 and off to the market we went. The market was a treasure trove for foodies and an exerience everyone should encounter. we made our way through the narrow aisles laden with colourful and exotic fresh fruits and vegetales, many of which I'd never seen before and wondered what they tasted like. They have so much variety here and everything is so chep, especially for the locals. Hian told us to hang back as she would get a better price than us foreigners would! After the aisles and aisles of fruit and veg we went into the fish section. There were baskets of fish everywhere, every type and size of fish you could imagine. There were crab having their legs wrapped up in seaweed to stop them biting and women gutting fish all over the placce. One woman loked up as Jo was taking a picture to display a gummy mouth with blood and fishy guts oozig out, we take it raw fish is a popular snack!! Hian explained that many of the fish from the river are more expensive than the fish from the sea. It was an impressive variety of fish and seafood and I was envious we don't have a local market at home like this!

Next it was onto the poultry section, which consisted of cages of live chickens and other birds as well as bunches of live chickens hangin by thier legs off bike handles or anywhere else they could be hung! Then it was onto the ducks, who were a steal at one dollar - live ofcourse! Some of them were sitting in chilly bins (cool boxes) oblivious to their impending fate. Scooters went by laden down with chickens and eggs and birds and veg and bread and everything else you could imagine. One of the funniest yet saddest things we saw was the 5 pigsint he cage being wiped down before they were sent to slaughter. The woman with them was lovingly running a cloth over them as if they were her pets! After the market it was back on the bike to the house where Hian rented a room. The house was in a lovely area of town and we're not really sure how many people actually lived there. Women and children kept appearing over the hour or two we were there. The kitchen consisted of 2 small portable gas stoves and a sink. we sat on the floor and sampled some of the exotic fruits we'd bought in the market and then we got cooking. Hian was 19 and her mother had died when she was 14. There was no Dad on the scene and she had moved to Hoi An to get work. She told us that her mother had taught us to cook these dishes. She designated chopping jobs to us and soon delicious smells were wafting through the house. They use copious maounts of vegetable oil and sugar in their cooking here and yet the majority remain slim!Havign eaten breakfast on our hotel at 7.30 we weren't really prepared for eating so much again so soon. We were guided to the one and only plastic table and plastic stools in the front liing room and shown how to hold chopsticks the proper way! As we muched away on delicious green papaya, shrimp, mint nad carrot salad Hoan got working on the next course. We tried to gobble it up so we could go back to the kitchen and see what she was doing. it was after all supposed to be a cookery clas , however I think Hian just wanted to cook for us! We observed and helped out where we got a chance and after 4 more dishes we had to surrender and admit we couldn't fit anything else in. It was delicious though and I'll definitely be trying to recreate some of them at home.

On Thursday night we said a fond farewell to Hoi An and boarded another night bus (contrary to swearing we'd never do this again!) The man from our hostel promised us this company was much better than the last one we'd come on and that he'd reserve good beds for us on it. The bus was supposed to pick us up at 5.30 so just before 5 we went to the restaurant next door and ordered some pancakes. At 5.15 they still weren't cooked and in true Vietnam stype the bus had arrived and couldn't wait around. We quickly grabbed our bags and asked the woman to put our pancakes in a take away box and onto the bus we squeezed bringing a nice waft of freshly made pineapple and choco pancakes with us! At least if we weren't comfortable we'd have comfort food!!We were showed toour beds down the narow aisles again right to the back of the bus this time. The beds did lookslightly better, they had material this time instead of slippy retro faux leather and slighly better 'keep you from falling out bars'. However at the back of the bus was a different story. All 5 beds were joined together. When I say bed they were again just wide enough for us and notlong enough. Jo was in by the winow and had a bar inbetween her section of the bed and mine and definitely not enough length to stretch herlegs out so she bent one leg upon her sideand stuck her other legt he other side of the pole and used some my side. I in turn put one my legs same side as her nad the other around the pole and into what was initially a spare 'bed'. The spacein the middle was even shorter than our beds and had a pole either side of it. Across form this space there were 2 other backpackers. We prayed nobody would have to come and sleep inbetween us. We were very impressed with the 2 elder couples , atleast in their late 60's who were taking this sleeping bus thing in their stride! This bus had no movies blaring and no music thank God but it did have a constant flow of locals getting on. Soon they were going to to a bed( God only knows how, I mean I know theyre only short and small they would need to be Houdinis to fit 2 on the bed to be any way comfortable. Everytime the bus stopped we hoped nobody would come down to our spare space. We were spared a few times as we refused to movve over, we were standing our ground and a few of the locals obviously didn't want to be stuck inbetween us. Instead they opted for a roll upmatress on the bus aisle floor , or 3 in a bed!

We settled down for the night, eye mask on and earphones in , we reckoned it would belate enough for nobody else to be boarding the bus. I woke up to some erratic manoeuver by the bus driver , pulled upmy eye mask only to find the 2 backpackers beside me who werent a couple at the start of the journey now all over each other. Talk about shennanigans down the back of the bus! But seriously there was less than 2 foot between me and them so it wasn't the most pleasant situation to be in! I gave them a few tutting noises which I doubt they heard over their making out noises, pulled the mask down again and rolled over to face Jo who was sleeping through it all! I thought that was as bad as it would get, but no. Next stop the inevitable happens and a local man is ushered down to the spare 'bed' between me and the kissing couple. Great! In he slides and for the next 7 hours I tried to avoid elbows and legs touching me or breath in my face. It was what I imagine will hopefully be the closest I'll ever get to having to sleep in a communal camp. Kindof like being on a longhaul with soemone realyl bg beside you who invades a lot of oyur personal space exccept theres no arm rest inbetween you on this bus!!

At 6 the next morning we thankfully hopped off the bus and found oursleves in the middle of nowhere in Nha Trang, the honkey tonk beach resort of Vietnam. We found ourselves on the footpath with one other guy who'd got off the bus ther too. we were all a bit dazed and confused so decided to team up and look for somewhere to stay as a team. We had arrived in on a holiday weekend and rumour hadit there were no cheap beds left in town. An hour later we realised this was true. We eventually located somewhere 'Nice Hotel' which looked very 'nice'! We went back to collect our bags from where we'd left them to go wandering only to find the lady at reception had given the room to someone else - typical. We went back to one other one that had looked okay only to find it had gone aswell. back on the road we felt tired and fed up as the day was heating up this was not looking good. About to embark on another search a man on a bike came up to us and told us he had a roomm for 3 peope free. We had only met Scott from Chichicago an hour ago on the footpath at the bus stop but when times are tough you help each other out , we all needed someone to share the cost of a room and he seemed like a decent enough guy. So off we all trodded and up a stepp flight of stairs or 3 and soo we were checked into our home for the next 2 nights!!

We spent the nextt two days chilling on the beach and sorting out some onward travel plans. With the trouble in Thailand at the moment we are having to rethink the final 3 weeks of our trip so lots internetting to be done! Nha trang has a nice beach but that's about all. We took a cyclo ( push bike with seat atached to front of it) to view the cathedral and that's about the only sight we saw save for the hundreds of Vietnames who had come to spend the holiday weekend here, fly kites and sing terrile Karaoke in the middle of the afternoon which could be heard from our bedroom! On the morning of day 2 we were discussing where to buy our onward bus ticket ove breakfast. We had planned to get the bus to Dalat the next day. Dalat is supposedly a French Bohemian town upin the Central Highlands that was left in piece during the American War and therfore a nice place to visit! As we were paying the bill wewere approached by a man in his 50's asking where we were from and if we wanted to see the 'real Vietnam'. Thinking this was another tourist trap we tried to be polite but at the same time tell him we weren't interested. Next thing he handed over his book of testimonials open ont he page from Barry from Carlow or somewherre like that who'd taken a trip with this guy and hadloved it.He was trying to sell us an Easy Rider tour. Easy Riders are locals who bring you and all your gear on motorbikes basically anywhre you want for as long as you want and promise to show you the 'real' Vietnam. half a hour later we had read enough testimonials to be interested and feel comfortable enough that this wasn't a con or a dodgy thing to be doing and 45 minutes later we had paid a deposit and agreed to meet these guys at 8.30the next morning with our bags packed and ready to hit the road for 2 nights , 3 days!! Our route was going to go north west into the highlands, spending night one in a minority village with a family in a home stay in a town called Lieu Son and then on south to Dalat for one night and day 3 would bring us to Mui Ne, a surfy / activity based town back on the coast. We went back to our hotel excited about our mini holiday where we wouldn't have to plan anything. We'd been promised tea, cocoa and coffee plantations, bridges, waterfalls, elephants, silk worm farms, mushroom farms, passion fruit farms, giant happy buddhas and much much more! I tried to put my nerves about motorbikes to the back of my mind and get excited about getting off the beaten track and seeing what Vietnam without the tourists(exccept us!) was really like.

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