Hoi An

When we boarded the plane, we still had the last line of our previous post in mind, and we were dreaming of a swimming pool. Reality is an evil bitch, and one with a gruesomely cruel sense of irony, we thought when we saw the flooded villages out of the descending plane and felt the rain as we disembarked.
Hoi an is still suffering from the typhoon and the heavy rains that passed over a few weeks ago. This was obvious when we were looking for a restaurant and suddenly were standing in front of a flooded street. The river came a block too far. A few days later it appeared that it wasn't so bad afterall. The waterlevel is dangerously high, but as we are close to the sea, there's only a flood during high tide. Yesterday night we saw the waterlevel rising up to the stairs of the restaurant while we were eating. Another typhoon is arriving in Vietnam at this very moment, but won't pass over Hoi An.
The stormy weather has other consequences. The beach, which is known to be one of the nicest in Vietnam, looked like a landfill, and the (rough) sea wasn't blue at all. So we didn't swim in the sea either.

But up to the good news!!! Hoi an is marvellous. When we arrived at the hotel, after a long taxiride with a very friendly cabdriver, we went to the restaurant nearby. Both adresses were tips from Martine and Robbert we met in the Tiger Leaping Gorge. The restaurant was a small terrace with plastic chairs, owned by a very friendly family. It was great! We had 6 beers in total, and a four course menu, for about 4.5 euro. And the food was outstanding. A beer and a fish grilled in a banana leaf.. what else do you need to get in a tropical groove? The food was awesome in all other restaurants too! For our 5,5 year anniversary (at least we have a reason. ha!), we went to a good restaurant and had cocktails and wine with our dishes. We had the best dinner in months! The Cao Lau was divine, and they had profiterolles. Colonisation might be a dark page in history, but what the french did to vietnam definetely had a bright side as well!!!
The town itself is also beautifulm with manu old houses with oodles of charm, housing great little bars and restaurants. Most streets aren't even asphalted, but the atnosphere is great, attracting planeloads of tourists.

But the main reason for us visiting this Vietnamese gem of a town, are the countless tailors that cover the streets. After a few days, the balance is:

Frederik:

• 2 3-piece suits
• 2 extra pair of pants
• 4 shirts
• 1 tie
• 1 pair of slippers
• 1 pair of swimming pants

Eline:

• 1 winter coat
• 1 cocktail dress
• 2 tops
• 2 skirts
• 2 linnen pair of pants
• 1 beachlike pair of pants
• 2 pair of shoes
• 1 pair of slippers

All together for the total sum of 500 euro. God bless the U.S. of A. and their weak Dollar. We do have to mention that sending them home is auite expensive, but even with the help of my parents coming to Laos, we wouldn't get everything home...
We are now waiting to get to the airport, as we are going to Hanoi. We planned to visit Halong Bay, but thunderstorms are expected, which will cause cruiseboats (the main method of seeing the bay) to stay docked. We'll see what happens.


PS: We did have a swim in the hotel pool, but it needed some persistence...