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3 July: Hoi Ann

I'm up early, John had recommended that I buy the French rolls from a bakery just across the road from them, according to him at 07h00 in the morning, their ready to go and I shouldn't pay more than 2 000 VND. Half asleep I head down the street to them, there are already 10 others all waiting to collect the gleaming hot roles for their street stalls. I order 3, but they want 10 000 VND, we haggle about the price and I'm willing to pay 6 000, but they still won't. Irritated and not willing to pay more I head back, wishing I had rather slept in. Back home I decide not to sleep, but rather research a little on the internet. I had emailed a TAS contact, who referred me to one of her colleagues at Robert Walters. After a mail to him he requested I give him a call. That day would be today.

We headed down later to the market to our usual spot to enjoy a breakfast of Mi Quan and Coa Lau, enjoying a cup of tea to wash away the spiciness. After breakfast we head down the market looking for some silk ties, after some bargaining we leave with four for $7. At the same time one of the vendors attracts Leanne's attention with a pedicure for only $1! We follow her to the store where she starts on Leanne's feet. The place is still in the market tucked away in a corner, cordoned off by sheets and then there are 2 beds in the "room". Very funny! The total process isn't that long 15 minutes, but during the 15 minutes they constantly try to get more money, either by offering to do her heals for another $5 or paint her nails for $1. If its not that then we're harassed by a lady who wants to give us a massage. We pay the money and await change, she continues as if we gave her a tip and only upon asking for change does she offer it.

We continue on through the market looking through stalls and stop at some clothing shops, Leanne buys a top which looks really nice, but unfortunately the material for the mens shirts appear very poor quality. We walk on through the cloth market trying to find material for my last suit, no where could we find what we were looking for, but in the end we found something reasonably near to it. Writing down the shop's name we walk on further to another stall where we purchase some raw silk scarves, before founding what we really were looking for. A cooking class at a reasonable price. It costs $12 per person and we can cook what we like, the only thing that isn't so nice is one cooks in the restaurant not like what we did in Thailand with the cooking school in the kitchen. The other classes are all in the vicinity of $23 each, so this one suits us fine.

Heading back home we purchase two ripe avocado's, but have trouble buying the bread, everyone charges us absurd prices. In the end I ask the hotel reception lady if she wouldn't buy for us, explaining our concern. She returns with two at a reasonable price, at least we have bread. In the room we prepare our lunch, before I start preparing for what I could be asked and what I would like to ask Nick during our chat. We chat for 20 odd minutes about the different options available, at least it sounds as if there is work available, unfortunately I am required to fly to the UK or Oz and look for it there. The days of agents organizing a work contract for you and paying your ticket are gone!

After our informative discussion its down to Hi again, I only have a suit pants and shirt to try on while Leanne has to try on another suit and some dresses. Notes of adjustments are made and the whole process is over in 1 &frac12; hours. We head to our usual meeting place by the river, but John and Barbra are nowhere to be found. Knowing we were a little late, thinking they either moved on or were enjoying dinner, we walked on to where we had eaten the evening before, they weren't there so we assumed they had left Hoi An. (They had also been told to find a new hotel for the night).

We sat down at the same restaurant, ordering the rice with vegetables, fried spring rollls and a new one, fried wanton with fillings on top. I don't know how to explain what Wanton is, only that its some kind of crunchy crust, but very tasty. After dinner we head home, only to enjoy the evenings movie, before settling into bed.