Hoi An and Hanoi, Vietnam

Didn't really do too much in Hoi An. Mostly just spent a lot of money on tailored clothing and lounged around the hotel's pool (a must in the middle of the day). Hoi an is a cute little town with a really old style throughout (apparently the government insists on it staying like this for the tourists...Has banned glass doors and anything else too modern looking).





Found an amazing place to eat, where I essentially had all my meals. It was called 'The Eating and Drinking Area', nice name lol, and consisted of a row of tables and a roof. Wasn't much to look at, but was dirt cheap and unbelieveably delicious.
My favourites have got to be:
- morning glory in garlic: kind of like spinach...but better
- wontons!: Amazing. Like nachochips with shrimp, mango and veggies on top.
- rice pancake: kind of like crepes with meat and cheese.
- Cao Lao: local speciality, tasty noodles with lettuce, prawn crackers and shrimp.
- pineapple shakes!

The custom made clothing business in Hoi An is booming and you can't walk 10 m without passing a tailor's shop or being approached by a random lady trying to lead you to her out of the way shop. I decided to order things from 2 different places. One was a random little market area with mountains of fabrics and tons of women with sewing machines. From there I ordered a dress and a blazer and put down a $20 deposit on the clothing. After two fittings it became obvious that the women had no idea how to tailor clothing. The dress looked like a bag and the blazer made me look like a football player. My attempts at showing them the picture of the dress and the detailing that changes it from a bag into a nice dressed only ended in them saying 'you not skinny like that model!'. Ok well that was obvious, but didn't change the fact that they had no clue what they were doing. Long story short I ended up walking away from my $20. Lesson learned. The 2nd place I went to, Kimmy Tailor, was a lot more expensive, but much more reputable and organized. From there I ordered a suit, 2 skirts, 2 dresses and 4 dress shirts. I was a little concerned when I put on the 1st dress and it wasn't at all what a wanted, but was immediately reassured when I exited the dressing room and the tailor immediately came at me with a bar of soap (what they use to sketch out the changes) and started changing things. by the third fitting everything looked great!


Took the night bus to Hanoi. Met an Aussie couple on board that broke out a bottle of wine and were just generally hilarious and awesome. Made the bus trip all the more pleasant. Loving the night buses.

Hanoi day 1: checked into Hanoi backpackers, which is 'the place to stay'. It's pretty nice, clean rooms with nice beds and a nice breakfast, but nothing over the top amazing about it.

We were pretty tired from the night bus so we opted to wander around the lake (nice little spot) and then went for massages at the Lien Bien hotel. Turned into a rather weird experience. Went with three guys, but, not surprisingly, ended up by myself. I quickly understood why. I was led into a hallway with lockers and (no one spoke any English) so was motioned to strip....on the spot, in the hall where female staff are having their coffee breaks and hanging out. Random, but ok 'when in Vietnam' right. Next I got into a barrel full of hot water, while two Vietnamese guests looked on curiously. Pretty weird with the three of us sitting in our barrels with only our heads sticking out. Then I was told to get into a scalding hot bath full of brownish water. It was kind of like soaking in a giant tea cup for 15 minutes. Then the most normal part of this whole experience, the steam room, but even it had an added twist: our feet were soaking in buckets with bits of some kind of plant. Then I finally got to the massage portion. The massage itself was ok, but consisted of a lot more pressure point pressing then real deep muscle massaging. I definately prefer the massage I got in the Philippines and Malaysia, but this was a cool experience just the same....despite all the weirdness. Also, the Vietnamese use extremely hot towels from some of the massage, which was a cool modification.