Hoi An - Beach Visit
Another scorcher of a day - maybe only 37oC but so humid!
Spent some time by the pool and then came back to the room to find this on the bed: -
A dog made entirely of hand towels! What a work of art! We just carefully moved it aside. It was too beautiful to destroy!
Yesterday was the more simple version made out of flower petals: -
I think it's supposed to spell LOVE Vietnamese-style.
This afternoon we caught a taxi to one of the beach hotels - about 5 km away - the Sunrise Resort - to have lunch. It's a very posh resort but rather soulless compared to ours.
Here all the staff know us - and it's a bit quirky and a bit old. The staff wear traditional Vietnamese dresses and trousers and obviously really want us to enjoy ourselves.
But I must admit, the Sunrise had a magnificent pool: -
Not being guests, we couldn't swim there - but Jim took lots of photos of us all lounging about.
And we were interested to see that somone looking suspiciously like Kim Jong-Un was having a dip with what looked like a couple of bodyguards and a few bathing beauties. (Highly unlikely, but fascinating all the same.)
While at the resort, there was a sudden squall of wind and the sky clouded over - and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees in an instant - down to a lovely 29oC. The staff went into alert mode at once and lounge chairs were packed away, umbrellas tied down and counters cleared - all within a few minutes.
We watched with great interest from our seats in the cafe but this is obviously a regular occurrence as there was no panic and service continued as usual.
The wind soon died down but the temperature stayed balmy - much to our relief.
On our return to our riverside resort, we went on a free evening cruise of the river. Apart from the dead dog floating near the wharf, it was a fascinating experience. The cruise took us up to Oldtown and we could see preparations were being made for some special celebration that evening. It turned out it is Buddha's Birthday tomorrow and tonight there were to be parades with dancing dragons and lots of noise and activity.
We headed into Oldtown in the evening and it was absolutely packed with revellers. People by the roadside were burning paper money for good luck and all the street lights were turned off for the occasion. It made walking very "interesting".
We passed a Buddhist temple with extremely loud chanting and electronic music and thousands of people spilling out of the doors. It was almost a relief to make it past and on to the modern section of town which houses the hundreds of tailors and shoemakers in the city.
We headed for one particular tailor, recommended to us by the hotel, and spent a pleasant hour being measured, looking at fabrics and designs and haggling about price. Jim was the master haggler and they loved him. The three young girls in the shop kept coming over to me, shaking their heads, sighing and saying "Your husband is very difficult man, Miss Milly. Very difficult man."
But eventually, terms and conditions were agreed and they broke out a bunch of Vietnamese bananas to celebrate. (As you do.) We are to go back on Wednesday to collect the clothes or have them altered, if need be.