Hoi An - Morning Glory
Seems unnecessary to say it was another hot day - but it was.Morning involved another visit to the tailors to pick up the underwear and for our travelling companion to try on a dress. Jim idly started a conversation about silk shirts and next thing it turns out he is getting three silk shirts made. We'd better be careful how many times we come back to this place!
From there, we took a taxi to Hoi An Beach and strolled around. We came across a pavilion on the beach where we stopped and had lunch, looking at this magnificent view: -
I had a coconut juice, served in a green coconut which had just been hacked open with a meat cleaver: -
Can't say the taste was very exciting - rather watery - and the coconut weighed a ton. But was worth it for the bragging value.
We spent the afternoon at the resort - but Jim headed back to The Three Dragons Bar to watch Collingwood get beaten by Adelaide. What a waste of time that was!
We went back to the tailor to pick up our clothes - but they weren't quite ready because of a power blackout in the afternoon. Otherwise Jim's shirts would have been completely done! As it was, they were ready except for the buttons and some other final touches. We asked for everything to be delivered to the resort tomorrow morning and bid a fond farewell to all the staff there - promising to find an Australian-Vietnamese husband for our special favourite, Dung (pronounced "young"). Dung had been at the shop since 9 a.m. and would work until 10 p.m. - a 13 hour day - with a short break for lunch and dinner. She works 7 days a week with one day off a month. She begged us to put a 5 star review on Trip Advisor, mentioning her name, because then the boss would give her an extra day off that month. One day for each 5 star review - so we put two reviews on and hoped she would think of us kindly.
We had dinner at the most famous restaurant in Hoi An - "Morning Glory". Morning Glory is a vegetable very commonly cooked all over Vietnam - so we ordered a Morning Glory salad - only to be told "Morning Glory is all finished, Monsieur". ????? What kind of namesake is it then? (I did a bit of googling and found it is a green leafy vegetable - a bit like spinach.)
Morning Glory is a wonderful restaurant - great service, great food and a good atmosphere. Only tourists in there though. No locals at all.
As we were wating outside for our table to be prepared, I saw a blind man with one leg blown off sitting in the street selling fans. I bought one from him - because he seemed so sad and pathetic. Vietnam is truly a land of uncomfortable contrasts at times.
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