Tailoring in Hoi An

Greetings from the old world of Hoi An. We've been here for about
three days now and it's been lovely how the pace of life has slowed
down. After jumping from place to place having a home is truly
exquisite. And the Hoi An food has been fabulous - we have yet to find
a vegetarian restaurant but we're still looking! Truly hoping to find
a place with vegetarian dumplings for Jessica - it may be that they
only exist on the full moon of each month.

Hoi An is also famous for it's tailors, and it's very true - it's
crazy here. I unfortunately love getting the best so the suit I'm
getting is not that cheap - cheap by Canadian standards but
ridiculously expensive here - 400 usd. That's for a cashmere/silk/wool
blend with a patterned silk lining and silk lined pants and a vest -
very excited. I decided that I would go for quality instead of
quantity. The place is called thuthuys, and they've even made dresses
for queens - quite impressive. For all three of us I was able to
bargain down to the "cheap" price of $888 usd - at least it's lucky!
Paul has been the most prolific of us all, having things made from
three tailors and getting a total of two suits, one sports jacket, and
like nine shirts. His total cost is somewhere in the 400 dollar price
range - shirts are a great deal at 10-15 dollars a shirt!

Just for reference, at most places suits should cost 40-80 dollars,
shirts 10-15, dresses 10-25. The place ID recommend, which was
recommended to me by Randy in Hoi An who I met through couchsurfing,
is Lan number 9 - the shop owner is a lady named Lan who is great to
work with and quotes reasonable prices right away - much more pleasant
than working with many of the other tailors. Just remebee to shop
around and don't pay full price up front - aim for a low deposit and
don't pay until you are happy with what you get - Jessica
unfortunately got ripped off by our first tailor - she was charged 85
for a dress that should be no more than 30, paid upfront and didn't
get what she asked for, and they are being very reluctant to make the
alterations. Very very unprofessional - I'll be posting their name
soon once we pick up her dress for a buyer beware.

The plan is to celebrate Canada day tomorrow - still looking for a
watering hole. Jessica is also making a red and white dress that we're
hoping will be ready in time!

Unfortunately, picked up a little virus the last couple days - just a
cough and stuffy nose, and no fever that I can feel right now - hoping
that it will heal with some rest and fluids. Having said that, it's 11
pm so time for bed. Sweet dreams world, and happy Canada Day!

DOCNIC on the go...

The Valley of Nha Trang

Clarification: Nha Trang is not a valley. It's actually the most popular beach tourist destination in vietnam; however, it's where I felt a little lower on this trip. After leaving beautiful Mui Ne and the peace and calm and good people we met, we were greeted once again by the bustling city life of Nha Trang. I have to admit that every vacation starts off wonderfully before hitting a bit of a brick wall, and this was it. There was no air conditioning on the bus for about an hour, which was exhausting. All the hostels were booked up at first so we took a double room for three people. Fortunately the food was good and cheap. I think the lack of sleep and the heat and the people were just getting to me.

And how true it was. Yesterday was an amazing day full of coincidences. Ice cream for breakfast. Looking for a tour guide we met in Mui Ne, who we finally found. He was a bit pushy Mr. Huy but he did take us out of the city a little into the traditional "canoe" - it was a round boat with a heavy paddle - not very maneuverable at all - fortunately we had canoeing expert extraordinaire Paul Lore with us - we made it to a little Buddhist island. Just before we finished touring the island and as we were preparing to leave we ran into a lady who told us all the food was vegetarian and it was all free, since yesterday was a full moon. We sat down for a "snack", which turned out to be something like 20 dishes for the three of us!! And while we were eating we met a Nha Trang university student Thuy who invited us to tour her university.

After leaving the island via the boat and paying off Mr Huy - 30,000 Dong each, which was way too much but we were ready to move on at that point (it still only translates to about $5 USD for the three of us). Nha Trang university was nice, and we met Thuy's friend Vien and also another vietnamese english teacher Thu, who turned out to be our interpreter. After some drinks we agreed to meet up for some dinner that night - our treat, they being students and all.

We ended up spending our next couple hours swimming at the beach, playing with the crabs that were floating through the water and taking a much needed nap - there was no power at this time, as there are rolling blackouts in vietnam. As well, yesterday was a partial Lunar eclipse which was pretty striking as well! We ended up going for dinner at a great Vietnamese open air restaurant with no english menu - definitely a locals spot = and had amazing food and amazing company - I'll try to post some photos soon. Paul even tried a bunch of the really spicy squid -= he wasn't great with the tentacles but ate everything else! What a meal...followed by Karaoke! Asian Style! Our own room =- this was Paul's first experience with this -= and it was great. Also great to be serenaded in vietnamese as well. It was truly an epic night with some local vietnamese people who were just so happy and so much fun to be with. Great food, great company, great singing - for a total cost of about 500,000 dong - less than $35 USD to pay for everybody for the whole night...wow ;-)

So we're moving on tonight to Hoi An - I've heard they've got great vegetarian food and a slower atmosphere. Looking forward to this, and some new suits, and just being for a few days. We're realizing we're starting to get tight on time so it will probably be followed by a plane ride back to Ho Chi Minh and a bus ride to Phnom Penh in Cambodia - we unfortunately will not have time for Laos at this juncture of life. We've decided to take it slower and be a little less ambitious.

Recommendations: Pho Bien Hotel in Nha Trang - it was 20 USD for a three person room in a very nice location by the beach and great front desk staff.

Food - cafe des amis - across the street from the hotel - great little restaurant with reasonable prices - more around the corner from the hotel and across the street.

Hope all is well in world - see you all soon!

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Ho Chi Minh to Mui Ne

Greetings world!

Getting out of bustling Ho Chi Minh city and bussing to beautiful Mui
Ne to stay at the Canary Resort. Our stay was positively opulent in Ho
Chi Minh Arther Saigon Mini Hotel (102/1A Cong Quynh St., District 1,
HCMC, VN. Telephone 848 3836 1008). For only 33 USD a night for all
three of us we had a great clean room just like back home and a
wonderful breakfast of omelettes or noodles plus wonderful hotel staff
and service. They have very reasonably priced tours and bus travel.
We booked our bus to Mui Ne through them - you pay $6 USD each through
the hotel, but since we paid on the bus it turned outto be only $5 per
person.

This trip to the city was busy and fortunately uneventful - crossing
the road was once again treacherous. The main post office was
interesting - had to express something bak to Canada and I balked at
the 700,000 price tag - till I realized that was only about $35.
Phew! We had some fun streetside food with the locals, including some
deer. I had about five fruit smoothies...mmm...which I now realize may
be contributing to some traveller diarrhea - whoops! Good ol
immodium ;-)

Finally went out for a haircut with Jessica - I wanted to cut and
highlight -honger style some might say - but they didn't have funky
colours like red or blue and they didn't have the time. Somehow we
ended up getting cuts and shampoos and massages that lasted two hours.
Crazy painful massage - she was literally jumping on my back and
Jessica thought it was very amusing - unfortunately her lady didn't
have a clue what she was doing. It does feel great to have short hair
again. Mmm.

We're currently debating our future intentions. After a couple days in
mui ne we'll likely head north towarda Hoi An - it will take a couple
days via bus. After that we'll head west towarda Laos - we're not
completely sure where to go there yet. Finally we're debating whether
to head east back to Vietnam or west towards Thailand from there.

Although I started off quite distrustful of the local Vietnamese -
aided by our "friendly" host at our first hotel Xavier, I'm much
happier with the people now. I generally felt like he was overpricing
everything - which he was - his $100 dollar one day tours of the city
were ridiculous, as were his mandatory $5 booking fee regardless of
the cost of the service (for example, our bus ride now would have cost
us $10 instead of $5, a 100% increase). Since then we've met wonderful
smiling friendly people who aren't all trying to take advantage of us.
This is definitely easier to appreciate outside f the city.

The good news is that the monsoon rains means less crowds. The bad
news is tha they do happen anytime and they are massive. We were
almost caught in one yesterday, and I have never ears lightning like
that. The rain was massive. Very cool when you've got a roof over your
head and food in front of you but it could be bad if we get caught off
guard.

Before we left Vung Tao we had another feast - our first pacific
lobster - definitely pauls first - he was thoroughly impressed. I
dissected the beast - there's lots of meat in the head and those two
big legs/claws of theirs. I did get a couple pokes before the wait
staff brought me a nutcracker. We also fried some big snails -
delicious. Finally, I have never had their veggies here, but they are
delicious, especially with garlic.

Sad news - I lost my mahna mahna ultimate frisbee tank top on the hill
in Vung Tau that we hiked up to see the cross - it just wasn't worth
trying seeing as there were monsoon rains, but I do mourn it's loss. I
need another tank top.

So far our weight challenge shows Paul with a lead of -1.5 kg at 91
kg, Jessica in second with -.75 kg at 65 kg, and me in dead last at
+1.1 kg at 68 kg. Whoopsiedaisy!

All right - have a wonderful day and we'll hopefully have more to say
tomorrow! I do realize I still need to introduce my compadres, and
hope to soon. Peace.

DOCNIC on the go...

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Sounds of a monsoon

Enjoy!!!

Trying to blog from the phone...

Hey everybody! Hopefully this works - apparently I can email in my
blog posts, which would be much better considering I never know when
I'm going to have Internet.

Day 2 of vung Tao and it's amazing here. Thundershower this morning,
then a ouch of vegetables and some sweet and sour chicken. We just
spent the last couple hours hiking up and down the big statue of mary
and Jesus - similar but much smaller than te one in brazil - and it
was hot hot hot. Then we noticed the thundershowers in te distance and
raced down - fortunately no major injuries and we didn't get caught
onthe worst of the downpour. It may only be 3 in the afternoon here
but my compadres and I are exhausted.

The scooter situation and traffic in general is much nice here. From
te top of te mountain we realized we were not in vung tao proper but
rather on the outskirts - this suits us just fine as it is much more
peaceful.

Trying to debate our next stop - either back to ho chi minh or
directly up to mui ne. It's a toughy! And trying to decide what funky
colours to highlight my hair - right now electric blue and red flames
have been chosen by jess - if you want to see something funny let me
know! Might as well have some fun while it's still all there.

Ok, time for me to Nap a little as well. Hopefully these pictures work
as well ;-)

DOCNIC on the go...

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The adventure begins - Vietnam

Hello world,

I'm writing from vung Tao in Vietnam - we just arrived at this little beach town after leaving ho chi minh city today. It is so much more peaceful and we're finally getting a chance to really slow down. The friends and family in hong kong were great, and ho chi minh is a bustling city but I was really looking forward to slowing down.

For those whom I haven't updated, I'm travelling for six weeks - from June 14 to august 1 - with Paul lore and Jessica DiZazzo. We arrived in hong kong on the 14, flew into Vietnam on the 18, and plan to see Vietnam Cambodia Laos and possibly Thailand. Our schedule is completely open so we're open to specific suggestions - the more details the better!

I'll write mor about Jessica and Paul in another post. Three thugs I'll mentions here - the food, the toys, and my new glasses.

The food is fantastic. Today we had fresh seafood - we picked them out of the tanks - prawns, some large shellfish that looks like an underwater praying mantis - slightly smaller than a lover but much bigger than a prawn - it was very very tender. Also had two massive oysters - one was unfortunately raw. We also had some fresh prawns - Paul was shocked at how good they tasted. Finally we had some veggies - they were excellent - I'll try to find the name and post it again!

Hong kong food was stunning - for another post as well.

Toys - I'll try to add links in te future but i finally found my two tripod solution. My goal is versatility with lightness. I don't needthe sturdiest tripod - I just need it to hold things steady. My two happy purchases are the zipshot tripod by tamrac. It's made of there tents poles - the kind that self assemble. With a ball head on top. Super light, looks wobbly but works find with my nikon d70s and 18-200 mm lens. Secondly I got the little joby gorillapod with magnetic feet - it can go anywhere and has a quick detach hotshoe! They've come in really handy already.

Finally, I've waited nine years to get my dream sunglasses - Oakley Juliet with blue iridium lenses. In hong kong prescription lenses are cheap so I got that done - now I have beautiful rx sunglasses and I'm ready for the day I get my laser surgery. I couldn't do this nine years ago because I just couldn't justify the cost...

Time to go check out the night sky. Wishig everyone all te best ;-)