We decided to just take a wander through the small town of Hoi An and spend the day relaxing. The town is a mix of many architectural styles -- French, Chinese, and Vietnamese, and escaped destruction during the war.
It has recently become a major tourist sight, and is crawling with westerners, although there are many locals too. Nearly every storefront is a tailors shop, with occasional art galleries, silk lantern shops, plastic trinket shops, and wood carving shops in between.
Unlike Thailand, where the vendors were very laid back, the Vietnamese take a very aggressive marketing tactic. As soon as we round a corner, we are met with a cacophony of, "HELLO! YOU BUY SOMETING! YOU BUY SOMETING NEW! WHERE YOU FROM!?" Yes, ma'am. We can see that you are selling your wares, you don't need to announce it repeatedly. In fact, the only stores we stopped into were the ones NOT hollering at us. (At least they're not pinching us like the purse vendors in China. Oof.)
We wandered down to the river in search of a Cafe for which we had received recommendations from both Lily's sister, Jen, and from a stranger in a nail salon in DC, Cafe de Amis. They did not lead us astray. The facade is not as elaborate as most others on the road, but the food was wonderful and wonderfully cheap. We got a seat on the balcony overlooking the river, and indulged in a massive pre-fixe menu of who-knows-what-all. The server brought each course and simply announced "fish" or "meat". I think we had something called nuoc mam or "white rose" (a steamed dumpling thing with diced crab inside). I could be wrong. there was also some dried meat on pounded rice and fish soup with lentils and then a tasty lo mein thing, and the most wonderfully fresh squid in a light stir fry with crisp veggies. We couldn't identify it all, but we ate it all! Mr Kim, the owner came out to greet us and chat, and we signed the guest book which was filled with praises from visitors from all over the world. We sat in the Cafe for maybe 2 hours, eating, drinking, and reading guide books before continuing on.
We walked through the streets more, ignoring the hawkers ("Motorbike for rent!" "Hello madam, you want look in my shop?") We looked into some wood carving shops and were awed by the prices of the beautifully crafted furniture, and are considering having something shipped to the States (we have no dining room chairs at the moment).
In the heat of the day, we returned to the hotel where we soaked up some AC and composed some very belated blog posts. At about 5pm, we went back out, and it had cooled significantly. One of the women at our hotel recommended a place to eat and drew a vague location on a map with the name Bale Well. We wandered around a little lost and headed down an unlikely looking alley, and voila. A poorly labeled sidewalk restaurant with the kitchen on the street corner.
Oh.
My.
God.
The best meal we have had yet. (And we thought Cafe des Amis was going to be hard to beat). We ate spring rolls that we hand rolled ourselves in crispy rice pancakes. Or, rather, the owner handrolled for us, and occasionally fed to us (with her pink-and-white polka dot fingernails). The array of food options was endless--veggies (including cucumber, lettuce, and mint), small omletty things, meat, and smaller springrolls to roll into the bigger spring roll (how meta). And a peanut and chili dipping sauce to boot! They kept bringing more without our asking for it. Plate after plate! There was no menu. Just the spring rolls. Soon after beginning our meal, an older American couple sat down next to us, and we passed the time chatting about America and Vietnam travel and what not. We probably sat at this out-of-the-way restaurant for an hour and a half indulging in food, drink, and the company, and ultimately spent the equivalent of $7 total for the both of us.
We walked off the food and went to the river to see it lit at night, and ended up having coffee at...Cafe des Amis. Mr Kim was thrilled to see us again and seemed to be enjoying his beer out front of the restaurant, toasting all his patrons.
Halfway through coffee, we struck up a conversation with 2 German guys sitting next to us, and sat with them drinking beer for maybe an hour talking about travel.
By this time, it was about 10pm, so we headed back to the hotel, intending on researching clothing styles to have made at the tailor, but ultimately blogging and sleeping instead :-)
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