Hue is magical because it took me back in time and amazed me with old architecture and blah blah.
This city in Central Vietnam was our last stop before heading back to Hanoi. I enjoyed our tomb visit the most; and I like our dormitel, too (which I don’t have a picture of).
And, yeah, we also got to dress up like royalty or something. Hooray for world domination!
The small city of Hoi An is pretty and charming but there were things that we didn’t get to do (that every travel guide book tells us that we should) during our visit: to attend cooking class and to order custom made shoes and suits (or any piece of clothing for that matter).
The cooking classes are probably a hit among European visitors because the process of making Asian food is like worlds apart from how they make theirs. Acquiring the set of skills offered in a short cooking class in this side of the world makes for a good experience and opens their minds for fresh culinary thinking and cooking methods.
Hoi An tailors and shoe makers are known to be very fast artisans who can copy even clothing items that you show in a picture. Quality, according to some reviews, is something that’s amiss. But that shouldn’t be a big deal, really considering that the price they charge is absurdly cheap when compared to Western standards.
Lorie and I skipped these two on our to-do list because…we didn’t want to splurge so much for the trip. Or to put it bluntly, we were broke (or pretending to be broke); she lost access to her money because her ATM card was snatched in Saigon and I am holding back from spending a lot because I had already shopped too much last Christmas in the Philippines.
Excuses, excuses. I also didn’t find the need to have a custom made suit because I’m too lazy to wear one for work and coverages anyway. Haha
But that’s not to say that we didn’t get to enjoy our trip. There’s so much to do in Hoi An other than cooking class and waiting for a suit to be made.
Check out our story in Mindanews.com
And before I forget: Hoi An is also famous for the floods that happen in the city during the rainy seasons (on October and November). This gets me thinking about how a flood-prone city can still be of great interest.
Travelfish.org mentions the resilience and sense of community that takes place in Hoi An during floods.
Yeah…that’s interesting but a little too common in the country where I come from 😉 read about flood reports in Mindanews and you’ll see for yourself!
One of the old houses in Hoi An marks how crazy the floods can were in the past couple of years.
Anyway, check out some more photos that didn’t make it to our story.
Our “backpacking” adventures is still in progress (man, I feel such a fraud saying that but whatever). Follow us on Instagram @jesiramoun and @el_ei
“Yes, you can!” a in the cafe told me during our first visit.
Acoustic Cafe in Nguyen Sieu Street in the Old Quarter seemed empty. But that was because we went there too early; we ended up there because Toby had a thing for good music ( he was looking for a good place to hang out with acoustic in the background) and I like to walk around like a dork.
“Music starts at half past eight,” she said while I mapped out what “half past eight” meant in my head.
“Oh, 8:30,” I thought to myself. I can never get used to telling time the way the Vietnamese do.
We ordered some drinks and waited for 8:30. True enough, music started playing at that time.
The girl whom we earlier talked to was a singer! Gasp! I must have seemed like a dork to her, dreaming of singing a teeny bopper Selena Gomez.
Clearly, my taste in music is a universe apart from the world’s.
I wasn’t able to sing Selena Gomez that night, though. We had to go home because Pam and OA were bound to curfew.
It took us a week or so to come back to Acoustic Cafe. This time, I had to make sure I could sing a Selena. But the universe was against me.
“The guitarist doesn’t know Selena Gomez,” this singer guy told me. I replied that it’s okay. But he insisted that I sing. “What music do you like?”
I mumbled genres that I wish he hadn’t heard. The truth is that I like pop and dance. The rest of my preferred music are uncategorized.
“I’ll sing any English song you have,” I told him, referring to their song sheets.
And that’s how I ended up singing She Will Be Loved and If You’re Not The One.
That’s me being delusional and high on Coke. I had two cans that night; that’s enough sugar rush for me to ride a bicycle back home from Toby’s place!
Gipamaol gud ko.
writing detours 