Hoi An

Ahhhh! Hoi An, my lovely, my precious, my most beautiful city. Birthplace of the pretty, pretty clothing, all tailor made expressly for the consumer. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, let me tell you about the bus journey...

The bus journey was not tight. This is mostly due to the fact it was an overnight bus and I was on said bus for eleven hours. There was absolutely no padding in the bus seats; though I do have some padding in my seat, it was not nearly enough, and thus I suffered greatly from the curse of the "numb-bum". We stopped, frequently, for seemingly no reason. I don't tend to relish long and inexplicable stops.

However, there was a silver lining folks, and what a silver lining it was! I got a free night stay at a lux hotel, part of the open-ticket deal. It had a bathtub and air conditioning! What unbelievable riches!!! I felt like I had unexpectedly inherited a million dollars. I took a looong nap, then went for a wander in the main town. Jon and I checked out a zillion art galleries and a few tailor shops. (We totally got hussled into one shop, and they nearly freaked out when we tried to bail.) That evening, we ate at this really cool vegetarian restaurant, which featured set menus of whatever the chef felt like cooking that day. The food was heavenly. I took a bath that evening, which was the icing on a pretty perfect day.

The next day, I spent a good amount of time at the tailor's shop, picking out skirts and such. I ordered 3 skirts and a pair of pants. While I was getting measured up for everything, I thought about my grandmother. My grandmother sewed clothes for me when I was a little girl, and it always made me so excited. I would feel like a little princess of sorts. Jon and I met up for dinner, and I spent the rest of the evening reading. A bit of a lazy day. It was also a hot day, which was, in part, responsible for the laziness. If I had a dollar for every time I said, "It's hot", I would have a lot of dollars.

The next day, I had to go back for fittings. I had a few adjustments made. (I loved one of the skirts and ordered it in another color and a bit of resizing done on some others.) I then went on a second buck-wild spending spree at another tailor shop. I got some winter coats (hey, it's going to be cold in Illinois), as well as more pants and dresses. Lots of fun. I was quite excited about my clothing. England was playing Trinidad and Tobago that evening, so we checked it out on the projector screen in the town square. (The Vietnamese are hilarious when it comes to the football. They drag television sets out onto the street corner, and a whole horde of them sit in teeny-tiny chairs to watch it.) England won. This is good. I only thought about my clothing intermittently during the game. This is good as well. Thinking about clothing during World Cup football games is probably frowned upon in some circles.

The following day we went on a tour to My Son, the center of the Champa kingdom from the 2nd century to the 15th century. Unfortunately, the site was mostly obliterated during that nasty American-Vietnamese conflict. There are a few huge craters where American bombs were dropped solidly on top of the ancient buildings. However, there was enough remaining to be interesting, and I think it was definitely well-worth the trip. We traveled there by bus and returned by boat, which added a considerable amount of variety to the day. When I got back to the hotel, I went for a swim, followed by a shower, followed by more fittings. I loved loved loved everything I bought during the second shopping trip, and decided to order a bit more. (I know, I know, I'm shameless.)

That evening, Jon and I went out to dinner, where we had a most unusual experience. A girl served us a bottle of water that had been tampered with. Though the safety seal was intact, the cap of the bottle had been neatly shaved across, leaving a sort of "lid" at the top of the bottle cap. I was quite certain it had been deliberately done (though Jon was not), but the girl refused to exchange our defective bottle, so we left the restaurant and returned to the restaurant with the vegetarian smorgasboard we frequented on our first night.

The next day I picked up my clothing and had a few last minute alterations before we headed out of town at two. Final tally on the clothing: 4 winter coats, 3 tank tops, 6 pairs of pants, 10 skirts, and 1 dress--all for 270 USD. Not too shabby. Unfortunately, as a result of my frenzied buying spree I now have lots of baggage. (In all fairness, I haven't been shopping since February or something. Shopping deprivation makes me act a bit crazy-like.)