Bike Riding and Shopping and the Beach

It is sunny and warm here and we have been riding bikes around the city, it is so relaxing and enjoyable, we’ve been drinking sugar cane juice, mixed sweet bean drinks and sweet tofu out of small dishes on the streets, in between picking up our jackets and our shoes. The whole town is like one long enjoyable stroll, meandering along, as the world whooshes by on motorbikes, or pads by with baskets hung over its shoulders.

“Buy from me, buy from me.”

We were offered five pairs of undies for 1.1 million dong and we got them for 200 thousand. I even tried them on in a corner of the shop that wasn't so private. The girl staff giggled as I dropped my dacks, but it was their idea. "Yes, yes, try them on." Anything for a sale. Oh, what the hell, undies aren't so much different to what we wear on the beach. Did we need L or XL, it is hard to know any other way. Just do it, don’t think too much about it. Our mission now, is to get another five pairs for 100 thousand dong, as we reckon we could have got the first lot for that price.

So far, I haven’t managed to get a coconut bowl for 20 thousand dong, but I am working on it, much to Sam’s chagrin.

We ate lunch on the corner across the river, where we ate dinner last night. The food was good there and the view across the river lovely, all of pretty Hoi An captured in one panorama. I tried to get some passing tourists to come in and eat, but I was too slow the first time and the second time I don’t think they spoke English, or they just ignored me. There seemed to be a lot of French in Hoi An. The proprietor of the restaurant thanked me for my efforts.

We rode home. It was so lovely riding around Hoi An by bike, we should have just ridden around the whole time. The fresh air passing over you kind of counteracted the heat.

I bought a painting. Finally. After all of the looking and humming and ha’ing, I bought a watercolour on paper, and not the large paining I really wanted for my lounge room, if only I had know to measure the size before I left. I haggled her down to 200 thousand Dong from 700 thousand Dong, even though she didn’t want to go that low. It took leaving the shop to get it. She said that I was her only customer for the day and she hoped the sale would bring her luck.

We rode our bikes around the city, enjoying the day, the gentle streets and the gorgeous surroundings.

We rode our bikes to the hotel’s beach in the afternoon. The water was warm and lovely and we dived through the waves. We sat back on the lounges provided by the hotel. We stayed for a few hours. There were rows of lounges shaded by rows of thatched beach umbrellas. The sand stretched for as far as the eye could see.

The French couple in front of us continually kissed. I’m sure the boyfriend got a woody in his swimming shorts, as she was keenly rubbing herself against his leg. Hairy-chest and handsome was he. They ate, what we’d call, rice paper rolls, almost suggestively. The couple next to us, with the handsome son who’s legs and arse where that of a man, but who’s torso and chest looked like that of a teenager, drank fancy drinks in fancy wine glasses, bought to them by the guy who was serving everybody. A group of young, muscular, Vietnamese boys, with their girls, chatted on the other side of us, smoking continually. The boys seemed to be strutting just a bit, for the girl’s attention, which I didn’t mind at all. And English couple lay right next to us, covered from head to toe in towels. A fat, berry-brown, Italian girl lay on a lounge in front of us and to the side. She unhooked her bikini as her girl friend rubbed sunscreen on her and then seemed to laughed loudly as she struggled to get her ample bosom back into the far too small pink material. It looked like trying to push marshmallow into a small container with a stick, and it threatened, on more than one occasion, to flow freely out onto her towel.

We ate at Miss Sau’s. We tried to find somewhere new, but the restaurants were either too western – the moment we saw hamburgers and pizza we moved on – or too simple, or too expensive. Miss Sau made really nice home cooked Vietnamese food. She was busy, so 80 year old grandma delivered the food, with a tray and a shuffle and a smile, from her toothless grin. She was adorable. I drank lemon juice, which Sam always complained a bout – he doesn’t like it, so he can’t sip on it too – and he drank sugar cane. He does like to taste everything I have, no matter if he has eaten it before.

I'd recommend Miss Sau's if anyone is heading to Hoi An.