HoiAn

By 8:30 am we made it to Hoi An and headed to our hotel! 

The rooms weren't ready so we had to leave our bags in the reception and find a place to have breakfast! It was early so we didn't have so many options! OLeang finally found a spot, we ordered and it took longer than an hour to get our food!

Many restaurants here have pictures on their menu so tourists can identify what they want but this restaurant was beyond deceptive! The actual food had NOTHING to do with the food in the pictures!

Anne Marie ordered bread and jam... It took probably 75 mins to get it and it was a mini baguette with a tablespoon of jam on the side... 75 MINUTES!!!! And she decided to ask for butter and I jokingly said "you didn't order any butter!" When the waitress came and she asked OLeang had to get involved and they actually said NO! Because she only ordered it jam... How crazy is that?

I came to Southeast Asia because I wanted to learn more about their culture and have a similar experience to my trip to Africa but so far people in here have been very disappointing! I don't know if it is because I'm in very touristy places but I get the sense that all these people want is the tourists money! Nobody makes an effort to talk to you and their attitude is not appealing at all. During my taxi rides in Africa I was able to have conversations or at least learn a little of their language but over here is like they are not interested at all... They don't answer your questions and if they do they only say "yes"... Even when "yes" doesn't even make sense!

I am not trying to be negative or critical but people in here, mostly Vietnam, seem just rude and not cold.

Thinking back about my experience in Cambodia, people in Vietnam are for sure less friendly! I'm trying to think that it is a language barrier but I just get the sense that this is just the way people are in Vietnam!

Now back to Hoi An... After our 2-hour breakfast,checking our emails while waiting and playing cards, we finally got to see what Hoi An is all about! 

Hoi An is very famous for tailoring! They make whatever you want in 24 hours!!! So as soon as we left the breakfast place we started seeing tons of tailoring shops!

Hoi An is probably one of the cutest cities in Vietnam! It looked very French and is well preserved! The city is  part of UNESCO's world heritage thereford is very well preserved.  I wish I could capture the beauty and charm of Hoi An in pictures but it is mostly impossible... You have to come and experience it for yourself!

The downtown area (touristy area) is covered with antique looking houses all painted yellow! There are lanterns hanging everywhere and at night it really looks magical :-)

Our first day here we had all day to explore on our own. I went out with Becca to see if we wanted to get some things made. I decided not to but she went for a dress.

After the fitting we walked around town and booked a cooking lesson for tomorrow!Yeay!

We went into a pagoda and then saw this ladies out and they let us borrow her basket ( in exchange of buying fruit, of course!!!)

Hoi An by the river at night:

At night we all went out to an all you can eat Vietnamese "restaurant" on the side of the street!

We had spring rolls, banh xeo (Vietnamese pancake), lots of BBQ meat, and lots of veggies. All the food was supposed to be wrapped in rice paper and stuffed with the meat and spring rolls and garnish with greens and dipped in fish sauce.  We all ended up paying 90,000 Dong ($4.50) for our dinner and we were stuffed!