(late entry)

Breakfast at the Cau Dai Hotel was lovely on the covered patio adjacent to the pool surrounded by a small but beautifully landscaped area. It was only a short walk from my room and I was able to dodge the drops from the light rain that was falling. There was a wonderful selection of food including granola, eggs, and fruit, good coffee and juice. Once I finished my repast, I had to gather my belongings because I had to check out and move about ½ block down the street to the hotel I thought I would be staying at for two nights. As the tour ended today, this night was mine and I had prepaid for the room. Intrepid paid for the taxi, probably about $.25. By the time the taxi came for the move, there was a major rain storm occurring. I got to the Hai An Hotel, registered and saw my room, up four flights of stairs. I came back down to meet my guide at 9 AM as planned.

The plan for today included a countryside bicycle ride and a BBQ. She informed me that because of the rain (which had also fallen during the night), the paths through the rice fields where we were supposed to ride were flooded. While she was thinking about how to plan the day, she offered to call the airlines to confirm my flight for tomorrow. Well, turns out the flight was cancelled and I didn't know. After some quick discussion and many phone calls and my running up and down the four flights of stairs in the hotel while she was on the phone for various documents with my luggage, she got me a seat out on the flight this evening at 7 PM from Danang to Dalat (the airlines had wanted me to wait another day and with not much to do in Hoi An but shop that didn't sound appealing) and confirmed with Dreams Hotel in Dalat where I was to stay that I could arrive a day earlier. I was a little crazed at this point. My plan had been to stay over in Hoi An and visit My Son, the Cham (Muslim) ruins the next day. My guide said even without the airline problem, with so much rain there would be much mud there and probably not the best idea. I was disappointed, but what could I do. I was sure I had not been notified of this change and was on the hotel's computer checking my e-mail and couldn't find anything. Later I found the messages in the spam folder, not actually stating the flight was canceled, but only new flight information for a different day.

By this time, the rain had let up. The plan was that I would get the use of a bicycle for the day from the hotel, that the BBQ would occur at 12 PM indoors back at Gioan Cookery instead of on the boat, and that I would leave in the evening. With that the guide who had been helpful, left to return to her home in Danang. I worked it out with the hotel that I could leave my luggage there, but would not stay in the room. There was no option with the hotel to get any money back due to the way I had booked online and the booking agency stated it was too late to cancel. I sent Vietnam Airlines an e-mail requsting a specific response stating that the once a day flight had been canceled (and I actually got the needed response back.)

The bicycle made it much easier to get into the old town area from the hotel. So I rode in, parked the bike, and walked around looking at shops. For $6 apiece I bought an already made silk shirt and pair of pants, not fancy, but cute. At the second shop, I was then escorted across the street for a free cup of coffee at a new guesthouse a young French woman had opened. Once finished with the coffee, it was time to head off for my BBQ. Sure enough, Gioan Cookery had a small charcoal barbecue set up in the middle of the cooking school and prepared my lunch. I was the only one there, although during the meal some people came in to sign up for a lesson. Lunch included grilled shrimp, fish, and a sort of ground meat(pork) hamburger like dish. It was all quite good and it was fun to visit with the staff again. However, in Hoi An, the premiere eating city of Vietnam, I did not eat at any other restaurants except the cooking school and lunch at the hotel. I wish I had had more opportunity to find out what else was offered, but all of the food I had was good.

After lunch, I wandered around some more and was caught near the market in the sudden onset of another monsoon-like storm. The bicycle was parked several blocks away. Despite having an umbrella (which only blew inside out with gusts of wind and was relatively useless) and a rain jacket, the force of the rain was getting me very wet. I ran across the street into the cloth market, with so many aisles with so many bolts of material and the scattered sewing machine. Because of the torrential rain, I felt trapped in there and had no idea for how long, only knowing I needed to get back to the hotel to be able to leave for the airport by 5 PM. I felt conspicuous as the only non Vietnamese person there and, of course, was not associated with any bolt of fabric. After about ten minutes I was approached by a woman offering manicures and pedicures. The pedicure was only $1 and as I was trapped in the market with nothing to do, I took her up on it. It was quite nice. When she was done she looked askance at my legs and pulled out a string which she twisted up in some way, rubbed some kind of powder on my leg, and then started using this string device to pull hairs out of my leg. Now my legs were perfectly presentable and this was a bit uncomfortable, so I put an end to that fairly quickly, paid her the $1, and ventured forth into what was now just light mist.

I found the bicycle, remembered the way back and took the bicycle back to the hotel. I got back about 4:30, worked on getting myself together and organized, and my 5:00 driver showed up just before 4:55. He spoke English. The trip to the airport was north back to Danang, the way I had come to Hoi An from Hue. As we approached the showroom with all the large stone carvings, he did tell me it was connectged to the Marble Mountains and said we had a few minutes to stop. I looked around and saw marble carvings of all sizes of buddhas and animals primarily. I settled on a small turtle (the sign for longevity.) As we continued to the airport, I realized I had left my jacket on the counter at the hotel. I was thrown off by the early arrival of the driver. Using his cell phone, I called the hotel to discuss. There was no time to go back, but they willingly agreed to send it on to Ho Chi Minh City, my destination after Dalat, by bus the next day. I told them I would e-mail them when I got to a computer with internet.

The staff there really were so accommodating with this jacket problem and my chaotic behavior earlier in the day regarding the airline problem ( and to think I didn't even stay there.) I arrived at the airport on time, checked in, had a smooth and uneventful flight. I spoke with to an English couple in Danang and turned out they were on the same flight (we discovered we were all staying at Dreams). We agreed to share transportation to Dalat from the airport. Once on the ground, we found the ground transportation desk. Along the way to getting there, I spotted a few other travelers who seemed to have no direction and invited them to join us since we were told the van would hold seven. So it was me, the English couple, two women from Korea who spoke almost no English, and two women from Beijing, one a Chinese corporate attorney who had spent a few days in LA at a meeting at UCLA, and the other an interpreter. The Chinese woman had no reservations, so they came along to Dreams and also ended up staying there that night. Well, that was a day filled with some adventure and it finally came to an end.

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