Mike In China

I next hopped on a night bus (which was blasting obnoxious Vietnamese music videos for the first hour of the ride) to my next destination:HoiAn. The bus dropped us off at a hotel and I was a little hesitant to stay there initially. I had read some precautions about these bus tours and that in return for having a really cheap bus fair you would be shoved to all these expensive touristy places. After checking it out, I could get my own, nice quality hotel room with bathroom and everything for $7USD a night which is what I spent on my hostel in Hanoi. I'm sure I could have searched and found a nice hostel or guest house for $3 per night but I realized that when I'm only spending a day or two in a town its not worth it to spend half the day carrying around my backpack searching to save $4. I spent my first afternoon/evening walking around. The older part ofHoiAn is filled with little restaurants and tailor shops. The tailor shops were crazy. They had tons of recent catalogs and any fabric you could imagine. All you had to do was pick out something from a book, pick a cloth and get sized, come back the next day and pick up your clothes for 1/8 the price you would normally pay. I ended up getting a swimsuit and a shirt made and they both turned out pretty well. While wandering around I stumbled upon a sign offering Vietnamese cooking classes and that was something I had read about and was interested so I went in to ask. For $9 she would take me to the market and teach me about some of the things they sell, pick up a couple of ingredients and then teach me how to make three different Vietnamese dishes. I said sure and we headed off to the market! I learned how to make Vietnamese spring rolls, lemon grass and chili fish and Vietnamese curry chicken. The girl was really nice and a good teacher. I wrote down the recipes and everything so I will have to see if I can successfully make the dishes back home (assuming I can find all the ingredients). After dinner I went back to the hotel and realized what the disadvantage of staying in a hotel was, there wasn't a good way to meet people! It was ok though because I decided to call it an early night due to the fact that I got very little sleep on the bus and I had already made reservations for a day trip to My Son the next morning. The next morning I took atour of the My Son which is the ruins of temples made by the Chang people. They were pretty cool to see out in the jungle but someone what depressing. During the Vietnam War theVietnamese troops used the ruins as a base in hopes that the Americans wouldn't bomb it. Well, we did and as a result the largest, best structure was destroyed and the ruins are scattered with large bomb craters. This was really my first experience with anti-American feelings in Vietnam, but by no means the worst (just wait to you hear about my "feel bad for being an American" day in HoChiMinh City). After the ruins we took a boat cruise back to HoiAn stopping at a "local" island to look at how they make "local" crafts, aka tourist trap to try to get you to buy stuff. That evening I went to a tailor shop and went to bed early again. My last day inHoiAn I walked around a little further trying to see some more temples and sights in the Lonely Planet. I ended up getting talked into taking a boat ride with this old woman paddling me around the river for an hour. It was nice to see a little bit of the town from a different angle and the woman was very nice. I really likedHoiAn, it was a very laid back and relaxing stop on my tour. That evening I hopped back onto an overnight bus to head to Dalat. I definitely spent my fair share of time on buses during my travel (more than I want to add up) and it took quite a while to get used to sleeping on them. I found the best way to go was an all out offensive of ear plugs, eye mask, sleeping pills and complete disregard for the person sitting next to you. It sounds kind of mean but I realized after my first couple of bus trips that unless you stand your ground on what is your part of the seat you will be taken over by greedyaggressors . But if you initially take a stand and make the person realize that they are invading your space by sitting next to you then they feel lucky to be left with their fair share of the seats and arm rest. Thebuses also stop every two or three hours all night long because there is no bathroom on the bus. I'm also pretty sure its because they get paid little incentives by the restaurants and snack bars they stop at because the places are always packed with tourists waiting around to get back on the bus. I would try my hardest not to buy anything as a form of protest against the commercialization but after staring at a can ofpringles for 15 minutes I would eventually cave and feast. To get to Dalat I had to switch buses at NaTrang and hastily pushed on a bus and assigned a seat. I ended up sitting next to a girl from D.C. and we became friends and talked the whole three hour bus ride toDalat. Upon arrival we decided to continue hanging out because travelling is better with someone else.