Hoi An Day 2 (Jan. 12, 2015)

Today was a lovely day, weather wise. I thought there might be rain, but it was lovely, warm and sunny. It wasn’t beach weather, but it was certainly decent enough to be outside all day without a rain poncho and damp socks. Yeah!

I met three people last night as I told you, and today, I went with Jodie, the Web Designer from San Francisco, into town. We are quite far from the town so I needed to rent a scooter to get back and forth. It is only one road, not much traffic and much easier to navigate than in a larger city. She had told me that she found a place to rent her scooter which was almost half of the price that the hostel had quoted me. She said that she was going into the city to get fitted for some clothes she had made here. This place is famous for tailor made clothes and shoes. She said that she needed to extend her rental of the motor bike for another day, and that she’d be glad to take me into the city with her, show me where she rented from and hang out. I thought that would be great, as she’s been here for a while and knows her way around the city. That would enable me to focus on the driving and not have to navigate. A very appealing option for me!

Jodie, Jamie and Sean

I rented a Vespa type scooter that is fully automatic and very small and easy to handle. I thought this would be the best as I haven’t ridden for a while and the least amount of things to think about, the better. It is a fantastic scooter and if the season in Toronto was longer, I might consider one for getting around. They are so economical and take up such little space on the road and to park. Anyway, that’s what I got. I didn’t even take a photo of myself on it yet, so I will tomorrow. I like to use it only to get into the city on the one road, then park it and walk around so I don’t have to navigate and worry about the traffic. It works really well and gives me a lot more freedom to go in and out of town without taking a taxi and paying through the nose. It cost me $10 for three days rental, so you can’t beat that. 

We went to check out Jodie’s clothes at the tailor she chose, and I got them to make me a light cotton long sleeved blouse to take with me for sun protection, to Indonesia. I will be back in the heat soon and thought it would be great to have a top to use for this. It’s that coral colour that I love and I will take a photo of it when I pick it up tomorrow. I saw the almost finished product and wasn’t that impressed, so asked them to make some alterations to it so that it was a bit more becoming. We’ll see what it looks like tomorrow…..lol.

Next, we went into the Old Quarter and stopped at this tea house that is fully staffed and run by deaf people. It is the coolest, and you don’t speak there. You just enjoy the silence. We had some Jasmine Tea and a sampler plate of homemade cookies that the deaf people make by hand. It was so cool.

Jodie at the tea house

Enjoy the Silence

Name of the Deaf Tea House

Blocks they give you at your table
to use with your server

My jasmine tea - hot

 

Jodie's cold jasmine tea

Shot of tea house

Cookie sampler

Close up of cookie sampler

The WiFi wasn’t that good and Jodie needed to do some work on her Web Designing Project which suited me fine as I wanted to look around the Old Quarter. We parked the scooters outside another cafe, just down the street from the Tea House, and she worked, and I went walking around to look at the city. What a charming little town. I love it and it’s so much quieter than some of the others I’ve be at lately. 

View of city from balcony of
second cafe

Another balcony view

Front view of Tea House

Street scene

Street shop

Street scene

Temple off the street

Lady that sold me street food 

Inside the temple

Kwan Yin statue in temple

View across the river to the Old
Quarter

Bridge in Old Quarter

Street scene

Rice paddies on highway on way
back to hostel

Highway shot on way home

While I was walking around, I went to the restaurant where you book the Cooking Classes that the couple from San Francisco told me about, last night. I found the place, which wasn’t that far from where Jodie was working, and booked myself a class for the day after tomorrow. I thought that I could go into town, drop off the scooter, go to the cooking class and leave my suitcase at the bus station that I went to today to talk to them about where to catch the bus. They were really nice and I told the about my plans for the last day. They said it was no problem to leave the suitcase there during the day, in their lock up room and then take the 5 pm bus later that day. I booked the ticket then as well.

The cooking class should be awesome and I’m really looking forward to it.

I went back to get Jodie, go to the tailors to see my first draft of the top, and pick up her stuff as well. I will go back tomorrow to get the finished product, and take photos of the shop then too. Then we stopped at a place near the tailor that Jodie knew about, to get a Vietnamese sandwich which are the best ever. They have a photo of Anthony Bourdain on their sign claiming that this place is the best place in Vietnam for these sandwiches……….and it is! We got take out Banh My’s which had pate, pork, spicy sauce, veggies and other great stuff on them. We need to get back to the hostel before 5 pm because one of the girls that works here, lent me her bike helmet to use when I went into town with Jodie this morning. She got off work at 5 pm and said that she needed it by then. When we got back, we dug into these sandwiches that were absolutely fantastic.

Banh place

The banh being made.....yum!

Inside the sandwich

Once we had filled out tummies, Jodie went back to work, and I walked down to the beach. What a beautiful beach, but right now, the weather is making the water seem very aggressive and mean, but lovley. I wouldn’t swim in it right now, but it was amazing watching it and the cute dogs that were playing while I was there.

Evening sky

Beach

Beach

Evening beach shot

Dogs for Rachel on the beach

I will crash early tonight, and perhaps see if I can reach any of my family or friends. Tomorrow Jodie and I will go on the scooters to see some sights that are not in the city, but close by, and quiet. That will be very cool.