CHICAGO, 1/5

Jet lag sucks. Woke up this morning at 5ish to see the sun rise, this time over the Sears Tower. We got at least 7 hours of sleep though, which is a good thing, so hopefully jet lag won’t kill us too badly.

Anyway, just wanted to link to the last of our Tokyo pictures. We’ll put up one last post with a best-of picture album for all the people who didn’t read our blog and have asked to see pics. Thanks for playing, stay tuned for “Let’s learn about working day to day jobs with the Levys.”

So that’s it. We’re back in Narita about 15 min from boarding a flight to Chicago. The past couple days have been a whirlwind, so we’ll do a recap for as long as the boarding announcements allow.

Woke up yesterday in Kyoto and had to hop a shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo at 6:45. We would’ve opted for a later departure, but they were all full b/c everyone and their mother (literally) were in Kyoto saying prayers. So we hopped on our early train, and about an hour into it, Alli is sound asleep. Well, she was. Because the man behind her started tapping her on the shoulder (est time 7:50 am) to look out the window to see Mount Fuji. It wasn’t even an excited “Hey, check it out” sort of tap, but more of a “Show your respect to our mountain.” type. She never fell back asleep. 

Back in Tokyo we checked back into the hotel and headed out. We had grand plans. First we stopped for some breakfast sushi (even though the fish market has been closed since Dec 30, we don’t have the foggiest where they got their fish from) and headed to the subway. First stop was at the Imperial Palace Gardens. We had hoped to see the East gardens, but the stop was at the outer gardens and we walked in. It’s really pretty. Incredibly calm and peaceful, there’s a bonsai forest, and huge walkways through the center. People jog, take walks, have picnics, whatever. It’s really great, and looks awesome surrounded by the Tokyo skyscrapers.

Back on the subway and off to the TokyoDome, so Alli could pay her respects to where Hideki Matsui played. It’s a huge complex, the Dome is pretty big, and surrounded by an amusement park of sorts. It had a pretty great looking rollercoaster, and a bunch of other rides, which we passed on b/c of our afternoon plans. We wandered around for a bit and headed to Akihabara to wander around one more time. The first time we were there we were really just overwhelmed by all that is japan, and now we were just overwhelmed by all that is nerd. It’s such an odd area, boys outnumber girls 382 to 1, and dorks look the same in all countries. We poked around a little, btu got tired of all the manga and anime porn, and headed back to the subway to…

GO TO DISNEY. That’s right. Tokyo DisneySea, possibly the most amazing theme park ever. Well, most amazing looking for certain, the place is beautiful. They have an after-3pm pass, and they were open until ten, so we headed over there for the next several hours. It’s great. It’s so great. The attention to detail is incredible, the whole park is like a work of art. The rides are pretty good, not AMAZING, but the park as a whole is a good time. I think the rides would have been better if we understood a word of them, but they were pretty fun regardless.

Ok, there’s more, but we have to board the plane. I’d like to link to our last set of pictures, but I can’t b/c I’m using picasa and on a pc, ad pc’s are known to suck occasionally.

We’ll do one last post with our pics and a final story or two when we get home. Off for home!

KYOTO, 1/2

So today was awesome. And though it may have peaked around 12:40ish, it kept being awesome all day. That’s pretty impressive. Except when Alli needed a bathroom and nearly got herself locked in a KFC at 10:15pm. That part was slightly less awesome, until she got out, when it was once again awesome. And then more awesome happened. So let’s begin.

Breakfast. Our hotel includes breakfast of your choice, either the Japanese style set breakfast, or a western buffet. Being in Japan, we took the Japanese breakfast. Being Shogatsu (the new years celebration that lasts months, apparently) they had a special meal set. Lucky us.

I’ll be damned if I can name 5 things on the plate. There was some cold fish. And a few cold sweet black beans. Also, a couple pieces of fish cake, some salmon roe in a kumquat, and maybe a carrot. Beyond that there was a fish roll-up, think apricot looking fruit rollup, only the worst thing you can imagine putting in your mouth. And then it stays in your teeth, like the gift that keeps on giving. And there’s nothing particularly great to get the taste out of your mouth, so you’re really screwed. There was some cold clam chewy thing. Some soup with a giant glob of glutinous rice flour (mochi) in it. Some sweet paste. Something David is certain was cold brain wrapped in fatty meat. Some celery things. And some weird mushroomy thing almost like the meat with brains but different. And the big ball of potatoy mush. And the yammy thing cut to look like a fish. Also, there was green tea and some melon and a really delicious strawberry.

And with that, on with our day. We went to the train to Arashiyama, a part of Kyoto near the edge of the mountains. What we heard was a train was really a glorified trolley, that sounded like it was grinding to a halt each time it stopped. It did, however, take us where we wanted to go, and for only 4 bucks each. Upon arrival in Arashiyama, we went straight for the monkey park.

The Iwatayama Monkey park might just be the best place ever. There are over 150 monkeys, all free to roam wherever they please. And they built a little house at the top of the mountain for you to hike up to and sit in while the monkeys are outside. Yes, you’re caged, and the monkeys are free. It’s a reverse zoo, or like an aboveground version of a shark cage. And it’s amazing. They give you a little map with a bunch of warnings about not looking the monkeys in the eye, and don’t show them food. Or feed them from outside the cage. And there keep being warnings the whole way up, so by the time you hear the monkeys, you’re certain they will rain death on you.

And you do hear them. Monkey screeches fill the air, until they finally appear. They’re up the hill and there are a lot of stairs to climb, but it’s very exciting when you notice the first one. And the second. Then the third. Then they’re EVERYWHERE. You’re surrounded by monkeys. At the top, there are at least 30 just hanging out, here’s a video. The staff usher you into the house (cage) to rest at the top, where you can also buy some food to feed the monkeys. We got some apples because it’s what the baby monkeys eat, but the big monkeys tend to bully them out of the way. You have to be sneaky to get to the babies, but we did it. You can see a video of David feeding a couple here. And 2 other videos here and here. (For those who don’t necessarily understand what we mean, click the mouse on the underlined words.)

After a prolonged time of taking pictures, David getting challenged by the head monkey (his own fault, really, but Alli pointed out that if he took the challenge and won, he would then be the head monkey. hindsight is 20/20…) we headed down to continue on with the day of awesome. To leave the monkey park there’s a double-length slide to a playground. We’ve never seen such a long metal slide, and had it not been drizzly, we’d have been on it.

After the monkeys, we hit lunch (tempura udon). And then on to the Tenryuji Temple and gardens. They were pretty, very serene. We felt it would be a nice place to live, so we bought it. Ha ha, no we didn’t. Everyone knows we’re incapable of buying a place. Out the temple grounds, and into another amazingly awesome spot, a bamboo forest. It is what it sounds like, and it’s awesome. There’s a pathway through it, and it’s beautiful. Incredibly tall bamboo trees surround you. It’s great. It made Alli wish she were a panda bear.

Back on our trolley, and a bit of walking around before dropping our stuff off at the hotel and heading for a sukiyaki dinner. Holy wow. It was awesome. First, they walk us through a maze of hallways to our own private room. After sitting we perused the menu, chose the second highest class of meat (we’re not made of yen, ya know) and a bottle of sake. The waitress, who only spoke certain words of English brought us an appetizer and then proceeded to cook our sukiyaki on the table. Sukiyaki is raw meat cooked in beef fat and sukiyaki sauce, with a bunch of vegetables and a few noodles for good measure. You take the hot food and dip it in a raw egg and it’s wonderful. First she cooks up the higher quality meat without any vegetables and gives it to you. Those first few bites were on par with the best food we’ve ever eaten. Amazing.

The came the Alli bathroom excitement, and we headed back to the hotel. Trying to find a bar(it’s not only a bit dead over here, it’s shogatsu so everything is closed), we walked to the hotel next door where it looked like there was a top floor bar. Well, there was but damn was the hotel creepy. We didn’t see a single person while walking through the entire first floor to find the elevators, then up the elevator, then around a few staircases, until we finally got startled by a “Hashimemasssse” when we actually made it to the bar. Well we sat, heard there was a table charge, plus a cover charge, said “forget it” and walked back down. Emptiest hotel ever, and you want a cover charge? Also note the bar was completely empty. Just as well, the place freaked us out. It was the Japanese equivalent of the hotel in The Shining. And since the Japanese do horror movies better than we do these days, I shudder to think what would’ve happened after a drink or two. Ghosts love drunk gaijin.

And now we’re back in the room, about to sleep b/c we have an early Shinkansen back to Tokyo. G’night.

KYOTO, 1/1

While our New Year’s Eve plans didn’t keep us up ’til dawn, our train to Kyoto had us awake for sunrise anyway. We hopped on the subway (joined by a number of people obviously just heading home from a night out) to the Tokyo Station to catch our Shinkansen train. I could pretend our excitement was for how awesome our nephew would find all the trains, but I thought it was really cool too. They’re supersleek, have fancy seats that switch direction (yes, like NJ Transit), and once they get started — they’re really freakin’ fast. And bright blue skies around Tokyo gave us an amazing view of Mt. Fuji out the window.

On to Kyoto.

Lots of shrines and temples and tons of people visiting them. Pretty, small streets and buildings. As we’ve mentioned, New Years is a time for the Japanese to come and give prayers for the coming year. What we didn’t know is that as a result, the street food vendors come out in droves, and it’s awesome. Takoyaki (octopus filled dough balls), chicken kara-age (mcnuggets gone awesome), red bean paste filled fish-shaped pancakes are but some of the delights we ate while walking around the city. It was our cheapest lunch yet, though definitely not the healthiest. And how do you top it off?

Dinner at an unagi (bbq eel) joint. David loves unagi. In fact, you might trace our coming to Kyoto to him reading a blog post about Japan about a certain unagi place in Kyoto. So we found that place today and it was decently magical, though not mind blowing. We walked in the door and are greeted by a man at the front desk:

Him:   Do you speak Japanese?
Us:     Not in the least.
Him:   We only serve eel.
Us:     That’s what we were hoping.

So we sat down with our bowls of eel on rice and dug in. It was good. It was much less sticky sweet than you get in most places, and the eel had a definite char-grilled flavor from being roasted over charcoal. It was certainly great, though not the incredible experience we may have hoped.

And now we’re back in the hotel watching real japanese gameshows on the television. It’s not a cliche, this is what they show.

Also, note that we did a double post again today, and there’s yet another new one below this. Please read both. Also, here’s a treat we forgot to upload from Ho Chi Minh City. Click me.

TOKYO, 12/31

After sleeping in just a little bit, we started our morning yesterday with a trip to McDonald’s, where David ordered the Juicy Chicken sandwich and Alli ordered the Teriyaki McBurger. Apparently, juicy chicken is an incorrect translation of “fattiest piece of chicken ever.” It’s like they took all the fat from the rest of the chicken and added it to this chicken, then deep fried it and added a pound of mayo. Teriyaki McBurger seems to be an attempt at turning a hamburger into dessert. Next time I’ll have to get the McPork (yes, really) instead. Or just avoid the weird international options, or McDonald’s all together. (Our breakfast the day before was more successful, a game of breakfast roulette at the minimart. Alli played it safe with a SoyJoy bar, but David went all in, getting a packaged pastry with some sort of filling. Turned out to be soft and bready with jam inside. David wins!)

We then headed over to Roppongi Hills, this giant complex with restaurants, shopping, the Mori Art Museum offices, hotels, a movie theater, lots of japanese people, and is connected to several subway lines. The museum seemed like a good idea, but our lack of ability to stay awake in heated environments required us to leave. We did, however, spend some quality time in their great design store. Next, we headed back to Shibuya to wander around all of the shops, alleyways, and department stores. After a futile search for an izakaya (Lonely Planet continues to lose points in our book), we ended up eating this tasty crazy-garlicky ramen for lunch.  After a little more time wandering Shibuya, we headed back to Harajuku, aka teenager paradise, we’ll head back on sunday to see those same kids dressed up as anime characters in a futile attempt to escape their horrible lives. No seriously, that’s what the book said. We’re not that mean. Things there were starting to close up (most everything shuts down for New Year’s), so after a quick walk up and down the main strip, we wandered over to the shrine in Tokyo. To get in, you wander through these long wide gravel paths under giant trees, and it’s all lit up. There are special things set up for New Year’s, all tied into the rituals and prayers for the new year. It wasn’t too busy when we were there, but they were setting up for the major crowds that show up later that night and all day on the first.

With our shrine-visit wrapped up, we needed more of a traditional David and Alli way to ring in the New Year. What better option than deep fried dinner? Lucky for us, that option exists at a restaurant in Roppongi. Basically, you sit down, are given a dish with some carrots, zucchini, cabbage, and one other raw veggie (jicama?), and a plate to fill with a bunch of sauces. Then they start bringing you the fried. One at a time. And they will keep bringing them until you tell them to stop. And that’s dinner. Awesome! We had: beef, shrimp, crabmeat, stuffed mushroom, green pepper, asparagus, duck, eggplant, cod roe, whole prawn, whitefish (with tail), and Japanese yam. That, plus a glass of sake each, and some brown sugar jelly dessert.

Back at the hotel we relaxed and counted down with some crazy-huge Japanese pop star on TV, and got to see the Tokyo Tower light up with 2009 out our window. We considered going out, then thought the better of it as we had a 9am train to catch and David’s eyes looked like he’d been punched multiple times. You’ll notice no pictures of him tomorrow. This whole sleeping on planes, trains, and moldy mattresses catches up to a brother.

Happy New Year!

TOKYO, 1/31

Tokyo is absolutely amazing. It’s like the super clean, quiet, asian, incredibly weird cousin of New York. It’s filled with neon signs, strange foods, cool buildings, nigerian men who want you to come into their club, and Japanese people. Which I guess is a given.

Yesterday was spent wandering around first in Ginza for a toy store, and then on to Shibuya tomeet up with David’s friend Brian who he hasn’t seen in 10 years. Brian has been living/working here for 2.5 years now, and took us wandering around Shibuya, Harajuku, and Ikebukuro , where we capped the day off at Sunshine City.

Shibuya is super cool, super crowded with a bunch of narrow streets, neon, restaurants, and shopping. Everywhere, shopping. It’s how Tokyo rolls. There’s a massive intersection that’s supposedly the busiest in the world where every couple of minutes the floodgates open and people pour into the streets. It’s pretty cool to watch. Harajuku is where all the teens are hanging out, dressing in strange attire with awesome colored hair, and anime costumes. It’s like the east village with more colorful fashion sense. Quite unsurprisingly, with all of the cool shops there, one block away is expensive shopping to rival Ginza. It’s a really swank, big wide street with brand name shops. It’s a total opposite to Harajuku.

But the highlight of the day was Sunshine City, and Namco Namjatown. It’s a food theme park. There’s Gyoza stadium, where they pit regional gyoza against each other and you can eat all different sorts. There’s the dessert kingdom, where you can eat all sorts of wonderful sweet delights. And most importantly, ice cream city. A city of ice cream. Every flavor you’ve ever heard of, a bunch you havent, and some you’d never consider eating are all here. Alli and I shared 2 4-scoops, for a total of 8 flavors. They were: Sea-salted Vanilla (good on it’s own, bad with other flavors), Pudding (tasted like a pudding pop) Wasabi (at first it was a pleasant surprise, then it was vile), White Peach (delicious, much like the other fruit flavors it was light and not ice creamy, just good), Apple (really good), Grape (also, delicious), Chocolate (decent chocolate, but a great transition flavor), and Adzuki Bean (which we really wouldn’t recommend to anyone, ever. It was a great learning experience, in that we finally got to see how ice cream can also be a unhappy experience. We had no clue.

Off to have a day in Tokyo, culminating with New Year’s Eve, which promises to be like any other night. They really aren’t into it here like we are, they go to temples and say their new years prayers rather than party. So we may go check that out and then get back to bed as we have a 9am train to Kyoto in the am. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

TOKYO, 12/29

This one may be shorter than expected, as we’re a bit tipsy on sake and really really tired. But we’re trying b/c otherwise our parents worry.

So we left Vietnam. HCMC worked out better than we expected, and while we enjoyed our trip there, we weren’t unhappy to leave. More in person, I’m sure. We did have the unique experience of being in the country (and driving to the airport) during the celebration around Vietnam winning some Asian Soccer tourney. We’re not sure if it was the World Cup qualifier but they tied Thailand in stoppage time, and they had already beaten them in the previous game, and, well, the country went NUTS. Pretty fun. Motorbikes filled the streets (not unusual) honking (not unusual) and carrying/selling/furiously waving Vietnamese flags (somewhat unusual.). it was fun.

Our flight was a bit delayed, so we hung in the airport for an extra half hour, and boarded around 12:15 am. In business class (what we fly b/c we’re high rollers) they give you a “Good Sleep Kit” which David took full advantage of. He spent the whole flight sleeping in his SARS mask, his eye cover mask, his ear plugs, and slippers, and removed none until 10 minutes before landing. Alli, on the other hand, slept occasionally, probably due to the fact that she never put on more than her slippers and eye patch.

Into Tokyo and through customs we hopped on a train line, transferred to a subway, and ultimately made it to our hotel in about an hour and fifteen minutes. The hotel is really nice, we opted for a serviced apartment that was well recommended on tripadvisor, and it gave us a 1 bedroom apartment 3 minutes from the Roppongi stop. Great location, great room, a washer/dryer, and a bidet. What more can two people ask for. Note: David used the bidet and when it felt like a child super soakering his ass, laughed uncontrollably for a solid 3 minutes. We’re very mature. Also, learning to appreciate bidets, though it’s so silly. We also managed to push buttons that required the front desk people to come up and shut off our emergency alarm. Japan in full of wonderful buttons to push, and in our case, they accidentally call police and not, as they claim, the living room.

We showered and headed to the Tsukiji fish market for lunch. Didn’t get to see asmuch of the market as we’d wanted as we spent an hour+ waiting on line for sushi. Thankfully it was wonderful, we finally tried uni (sea urchin roe, delicious) and spent a million dollars. Did we mention Japan is expensive? It is. As cheap as Vietnam is, Japan is not. We’re going to blow through at least 250k before leaving. And that’s just on the subway.

After our lunch we headed, like any good nerds (David may have gotten alli a little nerdy on this trip to Tokyo) to Akihabara. It’s the electronic capital of the world. Back alley electronic stores, stores selling wires, cameras, and most importantly, asian anime porn all happily coexist. There are maid cafes where ugly japanese girls (seriously busted) dress up in french maid costumes and serve you cookies. It’s a weird place. And after buying souvenirs, we left it for Ginza. The exact opposite.

Ginza is the 5th avenue of Tokyo, and it’s really nice. We’ve never seen so many stores, department stores, clothing stores, stores selling other stores, you name it. And they’re all really expensive. We played in the big Sony store where they show you all their new products, and ooh’d and aah’d at their Blu-Ray 1080p brand new LCD tv as it showed the opening of Casino Royale. Good times.

Back to the hotel, exhausted and found an izakaya not too far from our apartment. We ended up sitting next to other gaijin (the only other ones in the restaurant) at the counter (like a sushi bar). We told the chef omakase, or to bring us whatever he felt, and that we’d like a Junmai Ginjo sake. Well, the food was spectacular, we tried new things like oden (a Japanese soup) and a bunch of other things. We met the owner of the restaurant who had decent enough english, runs 3 restaurants, invested in 30 more, and by his own admission, is famous in Tokyo. It was a great night. We closed the place down talking with him and the chef, and now we’re dog tired. Off to sleep in a non-communist country for the first time in a while and to brush our teeth using the tap water. This freedom thing is pretty sweet. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

HO CHI MINH CITY, 12/28

Well, we’re back. Take 2 of HCMC has been a much more successful journey, though we haven’t done nearly as much. We got in yesterday, spent a hour trying to find a hotel, and settled on a place that was a bit too pricey, but had rooms. Doesn’t seem to matter how cheap a place is if they’re full.

Grabbed a steaming bowl of Pho for a quick lunch and went hunting for something to see in the city. We looked and realized we never walked Dong Khoi, which the books speak highly of so we checked it out. It’s like the 5th avenue of HCMC, clean, wide, pretty streets, with the Opera House at one end and the waterfront at the other. It’s a totally different HCMC. All the fancy hotels are here as well as some nicer restaurants.  We stayed that way for dinner, then had a walk back along Le Loi, all covered in xmas lights and FULL of people taking pictures. Ultimately, we had also forgotten exactly how nuts it was to cross the traffic circle (especially at night) but in a moment of strength we charged headfirst into oncoming traffic. And still we type. Suck it traffic, we’re tough enough for you.

We slept in for the first time in 2 weeks today. And then headed to Chinatown. Which really is a typical Sunday in the Levy house, except we didn’t get dim sum, and we don’t live in Vietnam. Also, you can’t differentiate chinatown by the locals. Walked around the Binh Tay market, and some of the chinese pagodas in the area. We saw cages of incredibly adorable food (they eat hamsters and bunnies. adorable, sweet, innocent, caged bunnies. Delicious?) Alli struck up a conversation with a 13 year old girl who was incredibly eager to use her english skills, which were quite good.

We went to see the awesome shopping mall. Awesome not in what they sold, but in their super great, amazing, air conditioning. Thank whoever you pray to for airconditioning. This city is muggy. And hot. And dirty. And muggy. And to walk into a clean a/c filled building is like manna.

Hopped a cab back to our hotel area, wandered into a crap market, then got stuck in a downpour, which forced us to where we currently sit: Milwaukee Cafe. We’ve been to Milwaukee. And we don’t know what inspired them to name their bar after it. Killing some time until some friends get into town for dinner, then off to the airport around 9, and onto Japan where we will put our victory/peace fingers practice to good use in our pictures. See you in Tokyo.

(Also, there are a few Hoi An pics in this photo album. Don’t get confused, we’re not having that much fun in HCMC.)

DANANG, 12/27

We could get used to the lifestyles of the rich (forget famous). Having clothing custom tailored for you is fantastic, and really makes you feel like a million bucks. We don’t look too shabby in them, either.

In addition to wandering around all the pretty streets and old merchant shops and homes of Hoi An, we kept dropping back into the tailor shop to try on our new stuff, making any alterations as needed. Amazingly, we really didn’t need much changed – just hems set.

We ate really well in Hoi An, too, which has been great. One night was a 6-course set dinner (spring rolls, seafood salad, grlled squid, beef, fresh fruit, prawns) all for $8 a person. We could get used to that. We  took the Aussies with us back to the same place for our last dinner in Hoi An to get more of the squid – it was cooked perfectly.

We also signed up for a cooking class. It starts with a guided tour through the market, so we finally got to learn what some of the unusual looking things were. When in doubt, it’s some sort of melon. Some fish still remained nameless, and we never quite identified all the forms of meat that were put out and butchered, but it’s probably better that way.  We were, however, able to identify the heads of the meat. There’s a picture. We also got to enjoy the best infomercial ever, live. Part of the tour was a demonstration of how to make food flowers, or turn spring onions into curly fireworks. At the end of the demonstration, we learned that all those tools used could be ours for one low price. And for only a little bit more, we could get two sets of all those wonderful tools. For an even better price – we could get 5 sets of tools. Who knew, they make great gifts for sisters, brothers, parents, and friends (so we were told). I kept waiting for what it would cost if he added in a full set of Sham-Wows, too. No luck.

After the market tour we took a boat ride – that might’ve been more pleasant if it wasn’t raining – down the river to the restaurant and cooking school.  We learned to make home-made ride paper – possibly the coolest part – and other local specialities, and got to eat them all right after making it. We have all the recipes with us, so we can recreate them for a Vietnamese meal at home. Most likely, this will also totally destroy our kitchen, but what the heck. We’re renters.

We’re back at the airport now in Danang headed  back to our old nemesis, HCMC. We’re much more prepared to battle the madness this time, so maybe we’ll like it better. We’re not keeping our fingers crossed though. And if we still kind of hate it, we get to leave. Bonus!

HOI AN, 12/25

Merry Christmas.

When last we left (pre-spider) we were headed to Hue on a 10:10 am flight. When we bought our ticket, the woman told us to call and reconfirm 24 hours in advance. We sorta forgot until before we left the hotel, and figured we should check. Turns out the flight had been booked for the day before. Awesome. All the flights to Hue for the day were also full. Awesome. They were able to switch us to a flight to Danang, and we would head straight to Hoi An. Given that we were really just going to Hue to take a silly picture dressed up as Vietnamese royalty, it didn’t seem such a loss. We hung out in Hanoi for the morning and headed to the airport.

An uneventful flight later, and we met two australians waiting in the taxi line headed to Hoi An. We decided to split the cab and away we went. Airport taxi is the only taxi company with a kiosk inside the airport, but they’re far from the only taxi company. So when you leave the building, even with your driver, 7 different taxi companies start yelling at you to come with them. It’s like baby races.

A couple minutes in the taxi and it was obvious that while all Vietnamese drive like psychos, ours was passing those same psychos. And laying on the horn (they’ve replaced good driving and brakes with horns here). He’s flying around motorbikes, bicycles, cars, buses, trucks, and children. Yup, children. They were playing in the street and he flew by them, horns ablazin’. There’s really only one thing that could’ve made this more exciting, and that was really loud techno music. He kicked on the radio 4 minutes into the ride and didn’t let go. It’s one thing to think you’re going to kill a child, it’s a whole different thing to do it while Numa Numa blasts through your head.

We spent over an hour looking for a hotel in Hoi An. You just wander around and ask to see rooms and negotiate rates, and it works pretty well, except when everyone is in Hoi An for Christmas. And it’s raining with 58% humidity. And you’re hungry, since we only ate oreos, a dixie cup of ice cream, bananas, and a mini box of cereal for lunch. We checked into one hotel, and checked back out 10 minutes later because it was a bit icky. Found another, went to dinner.

Hoi An is beautiful. It’s the first beautiful town we’ve seen in Vietnam. Turns out that during the wars of the past 100-something years everyone has left it alone. So it’s one of the few places with historic wooden buildings, or history of any real sort that hasn’t been somewhat destroyed. It’s a huge tourist town, full of great restaurants, cafes, and hundreds and hundreds of tailors. This is where you go to spend money on custom made, fitted clothing. more on that in a minute.

We went to eat at Mango Rooms, what is supposed to be one of the nicest, most expensive restaurants in the country. And it was, relatively. We managed to spend $65 on dinner and drinks, which is far from the $1000 you’re spending at Alinea. Food was delicious, David got an awesome take on surf and turf where they grilled beef around shrimps. Mmmmmm. We sat out on the waterfront as it had flooded the road right outside and got to watch countless tourists try to figure out how to navigate.

We got back to the room, and if you saw our previous post, youo know who greeted us. Yes, there’s a picture in the gallery of him. He was massive, it was awful.

Woke up in Hoi An and headed out for breakfast at this killer cafe called Cargo. Great pastries, great bread and jam, great coffee, crepes, french toast, the works. We’re headed back there after this post. Wandered around Hoi An, got fitted for clothing (David’s currently on the tab for 3 pairs of pants and 3 shirts, while Alli’s getting a 3 piece suit, a party dress, a shirt dress, a shirt, and a pair of pants. We may get more.) Booked a cooking class for tomorrow, walked some more, took some pictures, ate some more, got fitted somewhere else for clothing, walked some more, took some more pictures, and headed back to the hotel.

Got a text from some Australian friends from Ha Long Bay and headed to dinner with them. Tried drinking with them, succeeded, are now hung over as all get out, and need to go eat. Enjoying being in a cozy tourist town for a change.