We woke up in a hot sweat Wednesday morning. I didn’t know if I was sick or just extremely hot. It turns out the hotel saves energy by turning off the AC around 6 AM,,,, not a good idea. Such a gorgeous hotel and a beautiful room went way downhill when the AC automatically went to a LOW setting. Our guide explained that the city regulates electricity so they are forced to do it. If you communists are reading this,,, bad idea,,, keep the AC on,, keep the tourists happy.
Katie and I packed quickly, took cold showers and headed down to breakfast where the AC was still in full force. I love Katie for thousands of reasons but on the top ten list is her ability to get ready quick when she wants to. Since the heat woke us up an hour earlier than planned we had some time to kill at breakfast. At 8:30 our guide showed up and we started our journey to Hoi An. But wait,,,, we forgot our “masterpieces” from yesterday,,, after about 5 minutes we realized we forgot our artwork and had to do a U turn and grab it…. Back on the road… 3 hours from Hue (pronounced Whey) to Hoi An.
The drive was much like the rest of the country. There were a lot of fields, lots of people working very hard for what we learned was a little amount of money. There were a lot of boats hauling sand up the river. A boat of 3 people anchor somewhere and dig the riverbed up, loading the sand on their boat. It seems about 2 pickup trucks full of sand. Those 3 people can make 3 loads of sand per day to the cement factory and earn $30 per DAY. That’s $10 US per person per day. During the drive we took turns laying on each other’s lap,,,, sleeping. At one point the guide was excited to tell us of a pass that goes up 3k feet “cloudy pass” where we can look out over the country. We asked about the road up and back down,,,, he said “it’s narrow, twisty and steep” --- great… Anyone that knows us well knows we’d much prefer to be in a helicopter, airplane or boat.
The guide kept going on about the history, the people, etc etc…. then,,, he mentioned a tunnel they built for the busses and cars (mopeds forbidden) that goes through the mountain. We asked him “wow, that sounds good, why can’t we do that” --- his reply “sure, we can do whatever you want.” What? Why didn’t you say that earlier? The timing was perfect; we were just before the turnoff. Katie and I quickly decided to take the tunnel saving about 30 miles, 45 minutes and 2 sour stomachs.
Along the way our guide wanted to show us Da Nung. It’s an up and coming city,,, very cutting edge. There is a lot of land along the water prepped for major development. There are signs for multiple resorts including the future Park Hyatt with an 18 hole golf course. It’s easy to see this place will be the next Dubai or at least the next Maui,,, I thought it would be a good investment but the government here only lets foreigners lease land for 50 years,,,, you can’t buy it. Another FYI to the commies,,, lighten up! Get some foreign money in your land. We stopped at a museum, learned about the Cham people (Vietnam’s version of the American Indians) then headed on to Hoi An.
We passed our hotel and headed straight to town to our predetermined lunch destination. Along the way our guide asked us if were allergic to any types of food. We politely asked them to allow us to select from the menu since the preset menu didn’t work so well for us in Hanoi. He said “Says here the Biters want to enjoy the local cuisine at the finest restaurants”… I guess we did say that to our travel agent but after a week in Vietnam, eating the same dog stuffed spring rolls, it gets old. It would be like eating anything for an entire week; you’d probably get sick of it. They obliged.
We arrived at the restaurant excited to eat,,,, but wait,,, an outdoor facility? Words can’t justify how hot it is here. It absolutely sucks the energy right from your body. Fortunately the place was right on the water, our table was in the shade and there was a strong breeze. Between all of that and the “Japanese Slippers” (ask Katie for the recipe) we were loving life.
Lunch was simple, Salad, Vegetable Rolls, Chicken Stir-fry, Mixed Fried Rice and French Fries. It was nice to sit alongside the water and enjoy such a great lunch with a very attentive staff and a very beautiful wife. After lunch we started the walking tour of Hoi An which included another temple with rows of incense hanging from the ceiling. Apparently for $20 US you can buy an entire pyramid (see the pictures) of incense and have it burn for a month for you answering your wishes. We donated a few bucks to get some incense sticks and burn them for the temple gods. I guess it was for the god of child birth, the god of heroes and god of money but we only have one God so we just went through the motions out of respect for their ways and to please the tour guide.
After the temple we went to a clothing store which was basically a tourist trap. I have to give them a lot of credit; they have a great system for extracting black cards from white people. First, they showed us the people working in poverty to create hand embroidered art work (starting at $700 US, we didn’t buy any). Then, the loom. We learned out how ancient and then not so ancient women weaved fabric on their loom. After that they took us in to the backroom where two women from my high-school National Geographic magazines were making Vietnamese mats. After that experience we went upstairs to learn about silk.
I guess Katie never learned that silk came from worms,,, she was grossed out (check out the pictures). This place has their own silk farm along with a demonstration of each stage of the silk extracting process in their store. I have read about it before but it was really something to see it firsthand. Then,,,, the silk store (of course). We were given the opportunity to purchase shorts, shirts, pants, suits, etc. We priced out a bunch of clothes for the two of us (3 pants and 2 shirts for her, 4 shorts and 1 pair of pants for me) which came to over $500 US. After a long stent of negotiation and a few attempts to walk out (with smiles on our face of course), we agreed on $380 which made us all happy. Little did I know that our guide had no intention of us buying anything from them.
A few stores away we went in to his (our guide’s) personal clothing store and bought another 4 pants for me, a sport coat and a few other things for about $300 US total. Either way it’s a great deal and much better than you’ll find anywhere in the US. It wouldn’t be the worst thing for these folks to make a few extra bucks. We go back tomorrow for our first fitting (pictures will follow). After the 2 stores we were done and ready to head back to the hotel.
The hotel??? Are you kidding? Trip over, we’re staying here. This place is amazing. So far on this trip we’ve been at hotels,,, this is a resort in every sense of the word. The place is surrounded by a moat and a very secure front gate. The guide and driver dropped us off at the front entrance,,, they apologized they couldn’t take us further because “help is not allowed inside.” The resort had four people great the car plus our butler (5 total),,, all welcomed us to the resort. The butler took our bags to our room while Katie and I went straight to the bar for our welcome drinks.. After the quick bar stop we headed to our room. Words can’t do this place justice,,, just check out the pictures and make sure to watch the video of the room,,,, crazy.
After getting the tour of our room along with another in-room check in from our butler we decided to head to the pool. Normally we’d unpack but our butler was all over it,,,, this time we had no problem accepting her help. After 6 or so stops of unpacking, packing, unpacking, packing, etc, etc, etc – the help was very much welcomed. We are staying in a 3 room compound. 2 of the rooms are ours; a living room and a bedroom which they call “the Mansion”. The Butler has her own building with her room, a bathroom and a kitchen. Anything we want to eat, at anytime, she cooks for us and serves in our bedroom, our living room, on our porch or at our own private pool. I’m not one to write on and on about luxuries but this is a first for me,,,, I was very impressed,,, this place definitely takes the cake (so far anyway).
We made a quick stop at the complimentary minibar and headed off to the main pool to enjoy some R&R. At the pool we met up with Michael and Carrie. We spent our time in the pool catching up on the last day’s activities. After the swim we headed back to the room, showered up and got ready for dinner. The outdoor shower was amazing --- the lights were very dim making the stars seem extremely close,,,, I loved it.
We called for a buggy and we were driven up to the restaurant; which was gorgeous. The water, the lights and the live music made us excited to sit down and get to work. Their wine list is quite large but it only had a few US selections. The food and beverage manager, Erica, was able to help us select a nice Australian wine (her home town). The food was excellent; I had the snapper while Katie enjoyed the risotto. After dinner we moved to the piano bar where we enjoyed the live music. The singer was a super sweet Aretha Franklin looking musician from the Philippines. She has been here for 2 years of her 3 year contract but hopes they keep her, she loves it. We bought her a drink and sang along for about an hour before heading to bed. It was a long day and we were beat. Check out the photos:
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| 2010-06-16_Honeymoon in Hoi An |
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