Hoi An 2

Beach day. The perfect antidote to the 38 C weather. We went to the beautiful An Bang beach, about 4 km from our hotel. Golden sand, clear water, uncrowded, beer served on the beach, it was almost perfect.

There were plenty of palapas with beach chairs available for rent. They are governed by employees of the various restaurants lining the beach so you can choose to either pay the daily rate of 100,000 dong (about $5.75) or eat at the restaurant and get the beach chair for “free”. We chose the food route. The food turned out to be nothing more than something to fill our belly’s, totally forgettable, but hey, at least our beach chairs were “free”.

The water was fantastic, sandy bottom, a gentle slope out, enough wave action to keep us happy, and no jellyfish. Keegan was in it for hours. And there was a stiff breeze coming off the water that kept the temps bearable. It was a nice sweat-free day.

In the pictures below you’ll notice a round boat, which is a basket boat that fisherman use in the area. The boats are made of woven bamboo, coated in waterproof resin, and are manoeuvred by a single oar in a short back and forth waving motion. We did see a couple of fisherman heading out in their boats until they were hundreds of yards off shore. The paddling doesn’t look like it would be very efficient but seems to work. Apparently when the French arrived in Vietnam they started to levy taxes on everything, including boats. The fisherman, worried about being unable to pay the tax and endangering their livelihood, came up with these basket boats and argued that they were not boats at all but baskets. The French accepted this and they were able to avoid paying the tax.

Dinner tonight was Italian, which was pretty decent. Pasta was perfectly cooked and tasty, and Keegan scarfed down his pizza, not unusual but he said it was very good. Mexican, Indian, Greek, Italian, American, all on our Vietnam vacation. Shows you where Vietnamese food ranks with us.

Off to Da Nang tomorrow to overnight before flying out to Ho Chi Minh City the next day.

A couple stories:
The other day, driving in from Da Nang to Hoi An after the train, we passed several rice fields lining the road. Standing just off the side of the road, in the shade of a large tree, was a gigantic water buffalo with a woman lounging on her side along it’s back. Today, driving to the beach there was the water buffalo again, this time lying down with a woman lounging on it’s back. On our return from the beach the animal was once again standing, with a woman reclining on top of it. I don’t know if it’s the communal resting spot but it was quite funny to see. I would have taken a picture but that would have meant extricating my fingernails from the front dash of our taxi. There is tailgating, and then there is tailgating Vietnam style.

During some of our past longer vacations we’ve had need to get our clothes cleaned. We’ve always used a self-serve laundromat, sitting for hours waiting for our clothes to be done. In Vietnam they have laundry services, drop off or pick up. Your laundry is carted away somewhere (the river perhaps? I don’t really want to know) and returns the next day clean, dry, and folded. All for a much lesser cost than any do it yourself laundromat we’ve used. Across from our current hotel, sitting beside a hand made “Laundry” sign, is a little old Vietnamese lady who always waves and smiles at us as we walk by. In need of some clean clothes (particularly Keegan, he’s currently wearing a hoodie and jeans), the boys and I lugged our stinking pile of clothes across the street to this woman. All she had at her disposal was a very old scale to weigh the clothes (you pay by the kg). Not a washer in sight. She weighed ours, told us how much it would be, and said we can pick up tomorrow at 9:00 am. No receipt, no ticket, nothing. I have nothing to show that I dropped off our clothes with her. I trust she’s legit, I mean who would want some sweaty, dirty tourists clothes, but you never know. Money is pretty tight here for a lot of people. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow. Keegan may be in his hoodie for a while.Read more