Hoi An - 6th July 2009

I had a lazy morning today. I sorted out some washing to put into the hotel; my first official wash that isn't just washed and hung up by myself. I had very relaxed breakfast in a near by cafe, the usual bread and jam with a coffee whilst reading my book about the Cambodian war. I then hired a bike, for less than 30 pence! A bargain! I popped ot the bank, in order to get enough to pay for my tailor made items which I was picking up that evening.
I passed through the old town and overheard several Australians chatting away; one of them sounded like the pelican from Finding Nemo, which was rather entertaining, and another female Aussie sounded strangely familiar, although I'm not quite sure where her amazingly cool accent came from. I bought a hat, as I'd forgotten to bring one from my rucksack, and I thought that on such a hot day it would be a definate must-have. I looked a bit random with my pink dress, trainers, bicycle, mini-rucksack and a indiana jones hat; but it was a practical outfit, so I was happy!
I had a few close shaves with the traffic but eventually got onto the straight long road to the beach. It was about 5km and followed beside a river, which was very pretty in itself with houses and boats along it. The road was lined with many shops too.
I reached the beach and had to pay pence to have my bike guarded whilst I relaxed on the beach. I found a lovely spot under some palm trees so I was in the shade. There were sun beds, a wooden hut, and just off from the beach was an everstretching line of restaurants. I read my book for quite a while, before I was aproached by several vendors. Many were selling things I'd bought the previous day. A boy of similar age to myself approached me and sat down and started to talk. He was friendly and spoke shakey but eventually understandable English. He had a bunch of postcards with him to sell, and we looked through them as he described what was in the pictures, some of them depicted things I'd tried and failed to take photos of, so I bought a couple. The boy was working in a restuarant for 48 hours a week (6 days a week) and for days at a time his family brave the waters to bring back fish to sell.
I was getting peckish by this time, so after the boy left me, I headed off in search of food. Just walking past the restaurants, many vendors run out and beg you to choose their restaurant; it gets rather tiring, so it doesn't take long for me to choose one, just to get away from all of the begging.
I ate chips and juice; both very tasty, whilst continuing with my reading. I then dipped my toes; and unintentially my legs! in the water, which was lovely and warm. I was slightly jealous that I hadn't brought a swimsuit of sorts, or at least a more practical top to swim in. I was quite chuffed at my lime green toenails from my pedicure the previous day; a gorgeous colour! I headed back to my bike, stopping only to get some very much appreciated cold water.
The ride back was pleasant although very hot especially as my next stop was to the tailors to get my second fitting to check the clothes were ok. The ladies were very nice, and I was extremely pleased with the clothes, there were only minor adjustments needed.
I had an hour to wait before I could collect the finished products from the tailors, so I went on the internet in the hotel. I happened to be there when Anja (a girl I am to travel with later on) and her travelling partner were collecting their laundry. They had smelt it, and it smelt it no better than when they had put it in, and there was dirt still on the clothes. Eventually they brought down one of the towels that had been supplied in the room as linen, which smelt beautifully, and they explained that it was washed using washing powder. It was crazy that they thought that foreigners wouldn't want nice smelling laundry!! I was a bit scared of the receptionist and the washer-woman by this point, but managed to apologise for them feeling stressed and promised that I didn't want to stress her out even more, but I would like my washing to come back smelling nice. The dirtiness of the clothes didn't matter, as long as they smelt nice. They assured me they would make my clothes smell nice, and the washer-woman looked quite nice, so I felt relaxed as I was glad to have not offended them.
I had dinner; pasta in a tomato sauce, before popping to the travel agent to book various buses and flights. The girls in there were awfully helpful, so I felt safe in booking with them my flight from Hanoi to Saigon, as well as my sleeping bus for the following day from Hue. I had thought about using their internet skype to phone home, but unfortunatly it didn't seem to be working too well, or at least it didn't recognise the Thurso number.
I returned the bike, and by this time it was around 7pm, and as it was a full moon night, there would be a festival down by the river. I headed down, and sure enough, the streets were dark but lit up spectacularly in very pretty silk lanterns and candles. There were boats on the river, and small paper boats with candles in, sold by vendors on the street. The Japanese bridge was lit up and looked very pretty. There were several groups of people just singing along the street which was really pleasant to listen too. Across the river there was a stage with some instrumentalists and singers playing traditional music, along with people dressed up as the four sacred creatures of Asia dancing to the music. Back over the bridge, there was a type of bingo going on, although I think they were using pictures instead of numbers, and instead of the boring silence between each picture being drawn, the male and female hosts were singing! It was really enjoyable to listen to.
There was a man selling some caligraphy, but the quotes that he was using weren't that special so I decided against getting one. There was an adorable kitten near by where the man was working, so I sat down on the pavement and was playing with the kitten. She must have only been a few weeks old. There was a grumpy old dog in the shop near to where the kitten was playing, and he kept coming out and trying to scare the kitten away, eventually looking like he was going to eat her! But thankfully the dog's owner got the dog in trouble, and he left her alone!
Some kids who were all trying to sell their paper boats with candles, had a small disagreement over something and one of the children scrunched up someone elses boats in retaliation, getting an angry telling off from her mum. I sat in a cafe, drinking a mango-shake, and writing up my memoirs by candlelight, before heading back through the streets to my hotel.