Hoi An Day 2

Friday, September 16, 2011
Hoi An, Vietnam
Woke up early and went on a Pho hunt through the old town. Not through the main streets, but through the back lanes. What a treasure this place is. The photo's I took give you some idea of the narrow streets and activities. Right behind the main street are paddy fields with women in conical hats tending the rice, I also passed a sawmill of some sort and a school. The kids peered out the window at me laughing and pointing. A couple of ancient ladies stopped when I asked how to get back to the main street and chattered away to me in Vietnamese as by this stage I was totally lost.
Every house seemed to have a dog and they were good guard dogs, when I approached the boundary of the property they barked and when I stepped over the boundary the other side they stopped . Finally found my way back via the unofficial city dump (see pic) and found a friendly Pho shop the Lame Cafe. Got into a broken conversation with the daughter of the proprietor and she taught me Tam Biet, (Good bye) and also that one other phrase I had saved up was incomprehensible to her.
Dripping with sweat and footsore I made my way back and was hassled unmercifully by a motorbike taxi (Xe Om) who drove slowly alongside me giving me many opportunities to say Tam Biet.

Sallys birthday today so they were staying in a luxury resort at Cai Dai beach so I went there at 4 to have some beers and watch the footy, Hawthorn v Sydney. Quite a few Aussies at the bar watching but a scrappy one sided game so we packed up at half time. The resort, Golden Sands is financed by a Swiss group who have hotels and resorts all over the world. Strangely it seems that no Vietnamese work there, all imports from Thailand and more staff than is needed and very inefficient staff at that. But it boasts a swimming pool over 100 metres long which adjoins the beach and seems to say, why get sand on your feet when you can laze away here and drink while you're doing it.
Some observations: Often you see schoolkids riding pillion on pushbikes, the pillion passenger always helps with the pedalling.
Vietnamese are hopeless with car gearboxes, they leave the car in one gear, top or 3rd and let the engine struggle. Why no automatics?

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