March 8th the Hoi An part

March 8
Which is either Women in the world Day or Women in the war day? Or Mothers Day and i forgot?

Hoi-An Sweatshop Capitol of the world. I’ve been hearing a lot of “c’mon into my shop and buy” and “Hello motorbike” They are a little pushy on the You buy You buy over here, but you just smile raise your hand like you are about to wave and quickly flip your hand. Palm forward, palm backward and say “ thank you, No” I was unable to say No a few times and ended up with a suit, that i will probably never wear. I figure i am 37 and i have worn a suit once at Nathens wedding, but you never know? Two short sleeve shirts, three long sleeve shirts, two pairs of britches, and a jacket. I think i paid about two bills for all. Johnny tripled what i got.
We left Saigon via bus and headed north to Mui ne, which is a little beach town. No more busses for me. We sat in the middle in the very back, this is a city bus sized bus I had plenty of leg room and it looked like we were going to be alright for this 3 hour bus ride. As soon as we got underway the co-driver came back and yelled at Johnny and i and some old man with his son. He made us move forward one seat. He then started doubling people up even though the bus wasn’t nearly full. He did leave Johnny and i each in our own seat. I tried to tell him that my leg was broken and i need the space, but he was having none of that. A couple minutes later he laid down in the back and slept the whole way. I on the other hand found that the distance between my knee and my butt in sitting position is about 4” shorter than the distance between the back of my seat and the back of the seat in front of me. So i spent 5 hours quietly bitching and squirming around in search of a comfortable position. Johnny, who was sitting in front of my wasn’t too into it either. For fun every time he would switch positions he would look over his seat and i would shut my eyes and pretend that i was totally asleep, just so that he would think “ how can Bob sleep through this” We took the night bus so about 2am i tapped Johnny when we passed a hotel that i recognized from the book (the lonely planet guide to Nam) We stopped soon after to drop off a few people. I had over heard them earlier in the night talking like the lived in Saigon and came to Mui ne ever so often. They stayed in the same place every time. I expected to drive a bit further then be dropped in the center of town. Now that we stopped the bus wouldn’t stop, it is not a real bus ride unless your bus breaks down. I was about to get out and see if we could just walk from where we were, but as i headed down the passage way the bus started and we were on our way. We passed quite a few hotels and soon it looked like we were far away from anything. At about this time the co-driver came back to where we were sitting and asked if we were going to Mui ne. Yeah, that is what our tickets said, the ones you took 5 hours ago. He gave us a look like we should have said something as we had already driven through Mui ne. He yelled to the driver and the driver stopped and we ended up paying $20 to stay our first night a few Klicks outside of where we wanted to be. The next morning came very early when the Vietnam music started up at full volume. We went to internet and found out where Malika was staying, she had come the day before. Johnny and were both ready to hop a train and get out of there, but once we settled into where Malika was staying we found the place quite nice. Malika had ridden there pain free, but she is maybe 5’ tall. She met Hanita from florida so now the four of us are hanging out. We spent most of our couple of days on the beach. One day we went to some kind of cool sand dunes, they were not really that cool, but after a quick climb through scalding hot sand the view out over the China Sea was pretty amazing. We also climbed up to some kind of cool red mud cliffs.
We decided to book a train ticket to Hoi an. This proved harder than expected mostly because i kept getting quoted different prices. We argued about 30 minutes with these two girls about prices. It ended up being all in jest. We had to sit there while they waited for the train station to call back anyways. The argument revolved around Rich Americans and poor Vietnamese. They didn’t understand that the costs in the USA are much higher than Nam, therefore even though we make more $$ it is hard to live in the USA. Whatever, it is an old argument that we will never win. We ended up in a not very comfy sleeper. We did meet a couple guys Chris from Berkeley and Eaan from Australia who are English teachers in Japan. We hung out with them in the bar car. They are both very funny and we had a good time, went to sleep and woke up in Da Nang. We shared a mini-bus to Hoi An and split up there. We met them two nights later for drinks and dinner. Johnny and i earlier that day stumbled across a cafe that offered .18 beers on tap. We took them and Malika, Hanita, a Japanese girl whos name i forget and Jenene from Florida there. We emptied the keg and then went for great tasting Indian food. We ended up at some bar. Neither Chris or i can handle our liquor so we both headed out first. The rest stumbled home much later, but i felt fine the next morning which was nice.
We have one more night here in Hoi-an. We are going to meet Chris and Eaan again along with Wayne and Dimi who we met in Saigon. Then it is on the train to Hanoi..Oh Boy!