Day 20: Hoi An by a thread
Today we got our clothes. My masterpiece of a jacket fits great, and looks pretty special. It’s probably safe to say it’s a one-of-a-kind, as I doubt anyone else has been “inspired” enough to get a jacket in that material. Now I just need it to get cool enough to wear it. I also got a tie in the same fabric to match, and some awesome shirts, and a decent pair of pants.
A one-of-a-kind, Project Runway eat your heart out
L also got the bulk of her clothes today, with just a couple of dresses coming tomorrow. This included the huge skirt, which the store owners have gone from incredibly dubious about to incredibly proud of (like L and my masterpiece jacket really). The owners got the tailor to come and see L model the skirt, and then there were many photos.
Banh Mi from the queen of sandwiches
In among all this excitement I also had a sandwich. In Hoi An, this is also noteworthy, insert “one does not simply order a sandwich in Hoi An” meme or similar here. My sandwich was from Madam Khanh, the Banh Mi Queen. There are two noteworthy banh mi joints in Hoi An, places where folks queue for a sandwich. Hopefully I’ll get to check the other one tomorrow, and compare. Madam Khanh’s banh mi is pretty good: a crusty roll, with vegetables, herbs, pate, pork, and a decent amount of chilli sauce. At the very least it’s a good sandwich. I’m not totally on board with all the hype around these, but I guess part of the charm is the price tag, a mere VND20k, or just over $1AUD. At that price, there’s not another sandwich that can beat it.
L with dessert
For lunch we found Streets International, a training restaurant, kind of like Jamie’s Italian but Vietnamese, where disadvantaged youth are given hospitality training, a place to live, and an opportunity. I had a wonderful dried beef and papaya salad, and we followed this with a couple of desserts, just to give the students more experience, of course. There was a wonderful fruit platter, full of lots of good fresh stuff (mmmm, lychees) and a creme coffee dessert that was immaculately balanced in flavour.
After some more walking it was time for a foot massage. We’ve certainly done our share of strolling around Hoi An, generally helped by it being a fairly flat town; there’s a slight inclination as you approach the river, but nothing very steep. All this walking is probably why I had a dream last night that I lost 5kg on this holiday, but I doubt I’ll see scales until I get home, so it can stay a dream for now.
Dinner was at a restaurant kind of on the edge of the tourist zone, so lots of locals were zooming past, but the prices were higher than deeper into the local zone, though still not extravagant. We’ve been on the road for almost 3 weeks now, and it’s starting to get to us, we’re starting to crave carbs other than rice, and some big protein like a serious steak, roast, or even just some lamb. The food has all been great, but we’re starting to miss home. We tried to make up for this at dinner, L had a beef salad and I had mackerel in turmeric, a decent sized fillet. It’ll help keep things at bay for another couple of days.
Today we also saw sun and blue sky for the first time in a while. While it was certainly a change, Hoi An was still quite humid, and I may have sweated a little (or a lot). We finished up hotel poolside, me dangling my feet in, L swimming.
Tomorrow is our last full day in Vietnam, and L’s birthday. We’re looking at maybe taking some electric bikes for a spin, or a boat ride, or maybe a trip to the beach, as well as some pampering.