November 4th - 5thNovember 4th - 5th 

friday we flew to Da Nang, the plane seats were three and three and definitely made for small people.  I sat with Kerry and Hem, Hem's knees were pressed against the seat in front of him, luckily it was a short flight.  we recognised our intrepid bus in the parking lot and the driver acknowledged us and went to get the bus, to our surprise it was the old red bus with the funky interior and smell that came to the terminal, it was a short drive, relative to some of our other trips, to Hoi An. 

An is an old 16th to 18th century trading post which lost it's status in the 19th century after the silting of it's river caused the moving of it's commercial activity to a nearby town. A foreign traveler stumbled across it and it became an UNESCO site.


the town greeted us to pouring rain, the "holiday fairly" had a lot of work to perform.  we checked in to the hotel then Thinh led us on a tour of the town, dawned with ponchos and umbrellas; like most if not all SE Asia, the sidewalks are not really made for walking; we moved from the road to sidewalk dodging scooters, bikes and lots of puddles, not a lot of people were on the road.  the old town is filled with 100 tailor shops, places to have shoes made and even jewellery; there are lots of gift shops and small restaurants, many that offer cooking classes.  for lunch I decided on Thinh's favourite menu item, pork stuffed squid, it was really good, a bit expensive for Vietnam, just over $5:00.  after lunch we hit the "intrepid" recommended tailor shop, $175 US later, 3 business shirts, a reservable silk jacked and two silk shirts.  damage did not end there, Megan is such a bad influence, more shopping, a quick look see at another tailor shop led to $57 for a little black dress and two silk/satin shirts.  A stop at the jewellery store netted a cute amethyst flower ring. I get the impression Thinh leads a privileged life in Vietnamese standards, at 26ish, he buought his parents a house as well as one for himself which he plans on paying off within 3 years as the interest rates are about 20 some %. he likes to take his groups to the more pricier restaurants, which is fine sometimes, but they are not real local food; he gets his for free which is great for him but I feel it takes away from whole idea of intrepid which is to be immersed in the culture. so for dinner we went for Asia. Fusion food, I ordered sea bass which came with a salad plus 3 mis Hoi An drinks which were half price on hour special, megan and I shared duck spring rolls , all for 300,000 Dong or $15.

Our second day was a day of exhausting luxury.  After breakfast, we cycled through the country side on one gear bikes;  lucky for us the skies opened and we enjoyed beautiful weather; or was it luck?  Narrow cement roads (similar width to our bike paths) wound through the non touristy part of the village then out to farmland.  Locals went about their daily business, so much quieter than then hustle of the tourist area not far away.  we saw a few people pulled off the side of the road fishing, a man riding a water buffalo with a baby buffalo enjoying a swim in the rice field, others had storks riding their backs.  It was so peaceful except for that honking of scooter horns and being sandwiched between two other cyclists on cell phones. when we returned,

we booked our spa treatment for 1:00, wondered around town for some shopping, hit the bank (i am being ATM challenged, it took me two try's to pull out 1,000,000 dong, or $50 at a cost of $12... The next day I could not get anything), went for our first tailor fitting, had a terrible latte, more shopping (just looking for me but not Megan), 60 min stone massage for $15 ( rebook manicure/pedicure), next fittings at two tailors, cooking class/dinner, pick up clothes from both tailors, run for manicure/ pedicure then back to the hotel just before 10:00, full day.