Next stop was a inter-tube recommended tailor. (You're never out of sight of a tailor in Hoi An, and so a little research was needed). Chris ordered a three-piece cashmere suit, and what he refers to as a green velvet "opium jacket". It's actually a knee length smoking jacket or "house coat" as the Victorians might call it. He also ordered some silk PJ pants to go with said coat. Lily ordered two dresses as well.
After having a wander through the streets we decided to sample whatever was menu du jour at Cafe de Amis. It' didn't disappoint.
It had been raining all morning so we went back to the hotel to investigate motorcycle tours of the countryside. We settled on one we liked and arranged to meet the guide at 6PM.
After a day or two of wandering without going into any of the historic sights we decided to buy a ticket book and check them out. The most interesting were the Ky house, with its mix of vietnamese, Japanese,and Chinese architecture, and pulley system to get the furniture upstairs. (it inevitably floods every year). The chinese meeting hall we went to was also cool, and filled with these giant inscence coils that take a month to burn completely. The coils had prayers / wishes hanging from their center, but that's just a guess as we had no idea what they actually said.
We still had some time to kill before meeting our guide so we looked at some hand-carved furniture. Beautiful stuff, and very reasonably priced, but it just doesn't fit our house decor. If we had an eastern themed room it might, but all the fancy carving and mother of pearl inlay is a world apart from our Swedish pine. (read IKEA)
We met up with our prospective tour guide at 6. He's an expat Aussie who has been living in Vietnam for 7 years. We wanted to see the countryside, because Hoi An is lovely, but it's chock full of tourists, and tourist oriented vendors. He said he had just the tour through the mountains on motorcycle, so we agreed on a price, time and hoped that the weather was not going to ruin the day.
We stopped back at To To tailors for some dress adjustments before going back out for food.
We debated on dinner for a while but decided to go back to Bale Well. That place is too good. We justified the same dinner twice by noting that every item is a regional specialty. Whatever--it was just as tasty the second time. Bellies full, we got in early night excited about the prospect of the next day's motorcycle tour.
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