Blogging Is Suspended Temporarily

We are fine...just limited PC time as power keeps going out

Day 5 - Conclusion

This had to be one of the highlights of our trip so far. The evening cooking demonstration at the cafe. While volunteers could have a go at doing some of the cooking it was mostly show and tell. The demonstrator was delightfully funny, the people at our table fabulous company ( Herbert and Walter a gay couple from Holland and a guy from Israel, name escapes me).

The Dutch guys were quite irreverent and we tried to convince them to come to Australia. Herbert was an ex KLM pilot and had been to Australia only for 36 hour stop overs, and that's just not enough to see the country..

The demonstration had lots of sexual innuendo, marital advice and snippets of what the Vietnamese felt about the Chinese. There was also identification of cooking utensils, Asian fruit and veges and what aluminium foil is called in Vietnam*.

In good cheer we went to the tailors for a fitting. Dawn's trench coat is a triumph and my suit needs taking up and in.



Yum in Vietnamese means horny


* rubbish

Day 5 - Continued

The Vietnamese people have suffered terribly at the hands of westerners and the foot massage is how they return the favour..

It started with an electronic footbath in clean water. When the machines were switched on though, what appeared to be pond scum floated to the top. The small girls then bought out a bucket of what appeared to be semi processed sewerage and tipped half into each bath. This placated Dawn as she could see that that explained where the pond scum came from. I, on the other hand started to freak out. I had hurt my foot on the way to the beauticians and though I had had a tetanus shot before coming over, there is more to be caught from raw sewerage than just lockjaw.

We asked the ladies what was in the bucket and they bought out a small pack of secret Chinese herbs and spices that in Chinese said something about to be used for feet. Hurrah the scum was legit!

Next it was into the back room for the massage proper. I like to think I can handle pain but agony in the name of relaxation is beyond me. Now I was prepared to give the girl the benefit of the doubt. My feet and calves were quite tender from walking around in the heat, that could explain the pain right? I peeked over at Dawn to see if she, too was suffering. She lay there serenely, maybe even smiling a little. I gritted my teeth and decided to endure in silence. The massage went on and on. The gritting went on and on.

Finally it was over.My pain brought on a nice endorphin rush and as I stepped through the doors of that House of Pain and Beauty, I started laughing. To my surprise Dawn did too. What I had thought was almost a smile was actually a grimace. She told me she was reciting a mantra of "go to sleep body, go to sleeeep" to survive.

Day 5 - Hoi An And It Is Raining

Woke up and listened to the hotel come alive at 5am. Had a great sleep till the airconditioning turned it self off some time in the night, the room then became very muggy and Dawn had to use her engineering skills to press the "on" button on the remote control because I was too out of it to be able to figure it out.



The rain was persisting but Dawn and I soldiered down to the Hai Scout Cafe to get breakfast and to ask about the cooking classed that they run down there. Breakfast was fun and we booked a course for the evening as well as the half day course the next day. Pho 20,000VND, Hot Chocolate 12,000, Sweet Coffee (Vietnamese Coffee and Condensed Mild 8,00



Our laundry had piled up to such an unacceptable level that we had to do something about it. With the rain stuffing up the air drying who knows when we will get out clothes back! So we dropped it into the concierge and hope we will see it again before we leave.

Dawn choofed off to check out what the go was with getting shoes made and I had a rest in the room then went down to the internet. In checking the 5 day forecast I found this news on the impending typhoon that is headed right for here. Luckily it is slow moving and wont be here till the weekend, unluckily it means that there will be rain for the rest of our time here.

The plan was that I would meet up with Dawn for lunch, unfortunately a few wrong turns after chatting to street vendors meant I was 25 minutes late. Poor Dawn who was left walking up and down in from of Miss Ly Cafeteria 22 was accosted by a woman who plucked at her leg hairs and declared she would wax them for $1USD. Dawn declined the offer.

I imparted the news about the typhoon and we discussed our next moves. The decision was to fly to Ha Noi from Da Nang on Thursday, thus avoiding a 17 hour train trip on a possibly washed out tracks...or boulders falling etc.

The stress of a typhoon called for a relaxing foot massage....

Random Observation

Where are all the flies? Why, in a country that can have some pretty rank smelling things laying about in the street, are there no flies?

I think it can be explained by the abundance of geckos and bird life such as swallows. In fact I have seen more birds here than New Zealand and if it moves here it can be eaten...