4/30 – Da Nang and Hoi An

What will we find today? Another country, another immigration process. Although this one should go better since the ship has a blanket visa for most people – and some – like us who were told unequivocally by Corporate that we had to procure them on our own. Sigh. We’re not going into the absolute CF that has become Azamara communications and IT. It is bad enough without rehashing so…..on we go.

We had our landing cards and were all ready and are on a ship’s tour to Hoi An which doesn’t leave until 9:30 of all things – so it isn’t really an issue like it was in Hong Kong. As it turns out, there is no one on the pier except Ryszard when we leave. Easy peasy. We get to our assigned bus to find another couple already there – turns out these are the people who have been on the ship for like 3 months or something. What a trip they are. Nice. But a trip. (Oh, and PS, turns out the wife was the one dressed all up in a Geisha outfit in Kochi!)

At any rate, the bus finally fills up, and somehow we have the slow bus again – with the woman who is way overweight and can’t walk worth a darn and who asks where the mall is, because she and the girl with her (who dresses all in black and looks like a witch, whom I begin calling Stevie, for Stevie Nicks) just want to go inside and get wifi and shop. I mean, come on! Did you NOT read the tour description? Do you not get we are not in Taipei or Tokyo anymore? Sigh. Plus there are others who are definitely not our speed on the bus as well. This is an On Your Own tour – thank God – so it shouldn’t matter, but still!

The guide makes up for it, her name is Ai and she is the cutest thing. She gives us all maps with her name and phone number, and the meeting point marked right on it. Thank you, thank you! She narrates our whole 45 minute journey with cute remarks and lots of history and practical knowledge. She calls the toilets the Happy Room. Very very cute!

Once at the bus parking lot, we march to the Happy room where you know we end up losing half the group who are just too slow, as we watch bus 24 walk right by us and get on their way. Sigh. We go over and tell Ai we know where we are going and will see her at 2:30, but she insists we wait for her to walk us to the covered bridge which is our meeting point. Sigh. Then she tells us we need our tickets to get in – but we don’t need tickets to enter the old town. Turns out they provide tickets for some of the historical places we can visit. Ok, we’ll wait for that. The tickets arrive and she hands them out, then we say goodbye to her again, as she gives us a skeptical look – but we tell her we’ve been here 4 times, we know exactly what we are doing and we promise we’ll be back. And with that – group ditched!

We’re off and running. First stop the ATM where 2 of the guys on our bus have beat us too! Man, they are faster than us! Then it is on a quest of t-shirts – the great heavy duty ones that we bought here years ago and that we want stock up on. Turns out that was a wild goose hunt. We even asked a bunch of people, including the Aussie and his Vietnamese wife who stopped and tried to get us to come with them to the time share place like they did 4 years before. I swear they are the same people!!! Anyhow, she tells us there are 2 stores, 1 in the market and one in old town. Ok – we’ll look again. But the store we remember is nowhere to be found. We’ve walked this damn street 3 times now and can’t find it.

But then we spy a woman walking down the street with a huge yellow bag with the logo on it. I chase her down and ask her where the store is located. She points back up the street on the right. There is only one store that matches that logo and it is the same name as on Ed’s shirt, but it is all bamboo now. After wandering through the store and getting the sales job put on us by an aggressive sales girl, we leave, figuring that this was the brand, but they’ve gone totally upscale now and are only selling things made of real bamboo. Total bummer – but hey – go where the money is!

Then it is off to the Pharmacy for cough drops and cough medicine – neither of which is easy to find here. You can get the herbal stuff, but not the medicinal stuff we can get in the states. We can’t even find real Halls cough drops – just mints and Fisherman’s friend. Although the pharmacist does suggest Ricola, which we figure is better than nothing. She also tries to translate what we want, to stop coughing, and it comes out Shut Up. Gotta love – and hate – Google translate!

Ok, so 2 of our chores done, now it is time for lunch. The main Old Town avenues are crowded with people – and we’re tired of being jostled and crowded – which means we’re veering off the beaten path, down an alley and into Ty Ty Cao Lau, a teeny little family run place off the main alley in an alcove that serves some of the best Cao Lau in town – or so we’d read. Well, this doesn’t disappoint. The Cao Lau is a Hoi An specialty of thick wheat noodles with pork in a rich broth. This version comes with these crispy crackling like crackers on top with makes it even better. We also get an order of Com Ga, chicken with rice, which is another specialty here – at least the way they make it is supposed to be special. It was all right, but paled in comparison to the Cao Lau. Yum.

Not to mention a great atmosphere tucked away back here in the alcove, sitting outside, enjoying the food – and being served our beer by the adorable little 3 year old girl who is stationed inside the front door. I couldn’t snap a picture of her fast enough, but she comes waddling out with 2 beer cans clutched in her hands and sidles up to Ed with them. Too precious!

Well, that was great, but now, what to do? We’ve accomplished our 3 goals – well, accomplished 2, failed on the 1, but at least tried – and we still have 3 hours left before meeting time. Wander it is. At least we’ll get our exercise in today. Trying to stay out of the Old Town streets, we walked down by the river, finding one of the smoke ice cream vendors and decide to have some dessert now before the hordes descend. We have no idea what to expect – but hey, smoke we like and ice cream we like. What could be bad? And its not bad – it is good and totally fun – but not smoke as in smokey flavor, and definitely not ice cream! Turns out the little balls in the cup that look like ice cream are actually rice balls that then get thrown into a big open mouthed cooler jar and liberally doused with liquid smoke. The vendor is a hoot, we video him making our cup, and then follow his instructions as to how to eat it. As we are standing off to the side, he tells us to pop it in our mouth and then open our mouth and blow smoke. Then he says to bite it and blow more smoke. When we comply with these instructions we are met with laughter from him – and from the vendors whose store we are standing in front of. We are hoping it was delighted laughter and not just, well, look at those stupid tourists doing everything I say laughter! Whatever it was, it was totally fun, and the little rice balls were really, really tasty.

More wandering ensued, more photos of gorgeous old historical buildings as well as those that might need a little repair. Thinking about more food – because those Ty Ty dishes were fairly small – we find a great little Banh Mi stand where the guy makes a killer sandwich – for only $1.29 USD mind you! Perfect. We happily sit on our little teeny stools and munch away on this excellent treat. Far better than the “famous” banh mi store that Anthony Bourdain made popular – which we tried when we stayed here a few years ago. Isn’t that always the way?

Then more wandering, this time figuring we might as well use the tickets Ai was so determined to give us. We hit the Chinese All—community hall, which was nice and had a good little sitting area in the shade for us to use to plan. And it was free, so we still didn’t use our tickets.

Next we went to the Fujian Assembly Hall, which Ai had suggested, and finally got to use our tickets! Yay. We don’t remember visiting here before, but we did. Hey, it was 7 years ago, and lots of temples in between, and we’re old you know? We don’t remember everything! Plus, we loved then and now, so who can argue? The garden area is gorgeous, there are lots of cool statues and the woodwork is simply incredible. Inside are all these incense “lantern” sort of things hanging from the ceiling, burning. Apparently you can purchase one of these and leave your wish or prayer to be hung around the temple. We’ve seen these somewhere else, although I’m hard pressed to say where, but at least now we have figured out what they are!

More walking aimlessly leads us across to a minimart for supplies (Listerine, beer and we found more of the cappuccino candies we love! Score!) then across the bridge out of the Old Town to a little restaurant for a couple of beers to fortify us for the ride home.

Not a bad in general. We know remember what we really disliked about this city – the tourists. And what we really loved about it – the food. Staying here is far better, as you have plenty of options to stay out of Old Town and still get the great food and a better atmosphere. Ah well, we still had a good – if not hot – day.

At the meeting point, Ai is inordinately happy we have returned, and everyone else makes it on time as well. We are mightily impressed! Our seat mates show up with bags like you’ve never seen – she has shopped till she dropped! Turns out she bought a bunch of outfits for people on the staff who saw her in the fashion show and thought they outfit was wonderful – which is a lovely gesture! – plus besides the tons of bags they have, she also had an outfit made for her that will be shipped home. Wow. I don’t know if we should be impressed or just in awe!

As we hang out, waiting for everyone to coalesce, we are besieged by vendors, who finally get us to succumb to some coconut and peanut snacks, and then Tiger Balm from this girl who will not give up. She starts out with magnets and something else, and is so persistent, saying to Ed, “come on man!” Too funny. We had to give in.

On the ride back to the ship, we pass the many rice fields and then head toward Marble Mountain, where the marble factory we are to visit is located. Ai asks the bus if we want to visit, and surprisingly no one wanted to go! We were shocked. Very pleasantly so! We took pictures from the bus of all the little factories and stores with the statues out front on the sidewalks as we passed – and that was that.