Last flight outta 'Nam

Today we had to check out of Hoi An Chic Hotel at noon, but the hotel was kind enough to let us use showers and hang out in the lobby until we left for our flight. This was VERY helpful, as we weren't going to fly out until after 9pm. We asked if we could pay for a late checkout, but at 8am the people who were going to be in our room had ALREADY CHECKED IN!! We tried to get all our stuff packed and out of the room before 10am, when the shuttle would take us to town to pick up the last of our special orders, but we had bought too much stuff to fit in our two carryons. :)

After breakfast I wanted to take some nice pictures of the AMAZINGLY tailored stuff we bought while we still had access to the beautiful gardens of Hoi An Chic. Gavin didn't want to put on all his suits, so it ended up just being a Justine fashion show. :)

Royal blue peacoat.

 

Navy blue cocktail dress, a combo of this front from one catalogue picture...

...and the back from another dress. :)

 

Handmade shoes.

A summer dress - cool cotton on top, flowy silky material on the bottom. :)

 

From the back.

 

Tailor-made leather jacket. I can't even believe how well this fits!

 

I picked a contrasting red liner.

After our valient attempt to pack, we decided we needed to buy some luggage in town before we could finish. We took the shuttle to Old Town and first headed for the lantern store to pick up our lanterns, then found a shop that sold a large rolling duffel bag, which I will reuse as a snow skiing bag. Next we picked up Gavin's tailored leather jacket, then it was off to the first fitting for the dress I ordered yesterday afternoon.

First fitting it was way too big, they basted and marked the alterations. The sample dress I fell in love with on the mannequin is hanging over the bench in front of me.

I seriously don't know what I will wear this dress for, but I really love it! I'll wear it for the next formal event I get invited to (ha ha) or Gavin and I will dress up for dinner sometime, I guess. :)

After the dress fitting we rushed back to the hotel to finish packing and check out of the room at noon on the dot. We had lunch and hung out in the hotel restaurant for a couple hours, then headed back to Old Town on our scooters to do the final fitting of the formal dress, which was much more successful than the first try. We did some final wandering around Old Town, stopping for one last Vietnamese coffee (strong coffee with sweetened condensed milk!) for Gavin and a mango lassi for me. Then we returned the scooters and headed back to the hotel.

Last Vietnamese coffee for Gavin.

 

A note on driving the scooters for a couple days. Traffic patterns and driving habits in Vietnam are pretty much a free-for-all. People on scooters run red lights, pass whenever they feel like it, go the wrong way in the road, and park wherever there is space, including the sidewalk. After only one day, we started to absorb the driving manner of Vietnam. On our last day we ran two red lights, squeezed ourselves between two moving vans, parked on the sidewalk, passed whenever we wanted and used our horns liberally. :) We'll have to tone our driving back down when we get back to the US. :)

After more sitting in the hotel passing the time, we gratefully used their shower to freshen up, then headed to the airport to begin our 30+ hours of transit back to the US, starting with the short flight from Danang to Hanoi. We caught the last flight out of the country from Hanoi at 11:55pm, barely making it due to a comedy of errors. First, our original flight out of Danang was canceled and they put us on a later flight, then that flight was delayed by an hour and a half, giving us only 45 minutes between our arrival in Hanoi and our flight to Tokyo. We had been unable to check in at all for the Tokyo flight, online or at the Danang airport, so couldn't check our bags through. The lady at the Vietnam Airlines counter in Danang upgraded us to business class and put priority stickers on our checked bags to help speed us up. Once in Hanoi, we had to collect our checked bags (first ones out due to the priority sticker) and then as we were running through the airport desperately looking for the Japan airlines check in counter, a security guard told us we had to take a shuttle to the international terminal. This terminal was about a mile away, and we had to wait for the shuttle, pack our bags under the shuttle and head over at a snail's pace. Once at the international terminal we made a mad dash for the Japan Airlines counter, arriving less than a half hour before the flight was supposed to take off. The people working the counter took one look at us and all our bags and said that the flight was closed, we were too late. I protested that our flight from Danang had been delayed 3 hours, and those seemed to be the magic words. Suddenly all three of the people at the counter were willing to rush and work to get us on the flight, calling the gate, checking our bags and printing our passes. We then were sure we would make the flight, despite still having to go through immigration and security. I still really can't believe we made it, AND our bags made it with us back to the US!

I am sure we made quite the picture running through the airport with me pushing a trolly full of bags and Gavin carrying a huge bag of Chinese lanterns. :)

Thus ended our trip! We had an amazing time and hope to return next year!

 

My "blue steel." :D (Zoolander, anyone?)

 

Posted with Blogsy

Nothing is REALLY free...

At the Hoi An Chic Hotel.

Gardens of the Hoi An Chic Hotel.

Reception area.

The view at breakfast.

This morning after a lovely breakfast at the Hoi An Chic (see above) we decided to head to the beach, as Hoi An is also considered a great beach destination. We rode our mopeds to the Ang Ham beach, which our hotel and Lonely Planet had recommended as the best beaches. As on any beach, there were tons of lounge chairs, and many women running after tourists imploring them to sit at their "free beach chairs." When we inquired about the beach chairs, a woman informed us that if we sit in her chairs we have to have lunch at her restaurant. Not exactly free, but we agreed anyway since we were planning to have lunch on the beach anyway.

The beach was a lovely, long stretch of soft sand and nice ocean breezes. Many lounge chairs were full of Eurpoean sunbathers and loungers; we haven't seen many other Americans here in Vietnam.

Lounge chairs on the beach.

 

Fishing boats parked on the beach.

Me by some fishing boats.

The water was pretty calm, but it was surprisingly cold. Gavin and I played around in the water, and noticed that we could count on one hand how many people were actually in the water besides us. I guess everybody agreed with me on the temperature of the water. Plus the cooling ocean breezes made sure we didn't get hot, even when sitting in the sun.

After about an hour on the beach or less, we did as promised and had lunch in the restaurant that owned our beach chairs. We were the only people eating there, and the meal was unimpressive, but the view over the beach and ocean was great!

Lunch in the ocean breezes...

 

I make friends with the local wildlife. :)

After lunch we scootered back to the hotel for a quick shower, then headed to the tailor for yet another fitting.

The coat I picked, still needs a little bit more adjustment... But look! The sleeves are long enough!!

 

Gavin scooters in the rice paddies near our hotel.

 

Me on my scooter.

After our fitting we continued to wander around Old Town. We found a shop where a man was chiseling wood plaques for decoration, and we bought one for Gavin's office.

We bought a much smaller plaque than this, but this was what he was working on.

Also in our wanderings, I saw an AWESOME dress in one of the many tailor shops. I tried it on off the mannequin, and it actually fit pretty well. But because it was their "window" dress, it was a little dingy and had some discoloring from where they had ironed it. They offered me 30% off the price if I bought the one of the mannequin, but I asked if they could make it for me overnight, and they said no problem. I am a little nervous about the quality since according to Lonely Planet a lot of tailors in Hoi An aren't that good and use low quality materials, and this place wasn't one of the recommended tailors from either our hotel or Lonely Planet...

After doing our final fitting for our clothing at Yaly, evening was starting to fall, so we wandered down to the waterfront in time to watch the sunset. We also picked up Gavin's made-to-order laptop bag and my three pairs of made-to-order shoes, all of which came out really nice!

Sunset over the bridge.

 

A whole tour group on cyclos. The amount of cyclos in Hoi An made for plenty of joking about lazy tourists. :)

 

A woman in a boat calls out to tourists to get them to pay for a ride.

 

A big fish net in the river.

 

The riverfront.

We had dinner at yet another unimpressive restaurant that Gavin chose A. because it had a 2nd floor overlooking the river and B. it was completely empty. After we sat down several more tourists joined us on the top floor. This place also had a happy hour with 2 for 1 drinks, and these drinks were actually real drinks rather than watered down as has been the trend in Vietnam with our happy hours/free drinks.

2nd floor restaurant overlooking the river.

After dinner I had convinced Gavin to have a massage with me at Palmarosa Spa, the spa recommended with a big star in Lonely Planet. A 125 minute massage was only about $35!! We even got to be in the same room. Gavin is pretty uncomfortable with massages, but I think he definitely relaxed during this one as he started snoring, woke up and apologized. :) I think I fell asleep several times myself after my therapist flipped me over onto my back. :) They were really good massages!

Ginger tea and cold washcloths before the massage.

After the massages we were definitely in no shape to do anything but head back to the hotel, and barely were awake enough to drive the scooters back! We arrived back at the hotel to see that Yaly had delivered all our finished clothing to the hotel. We woke ourselves up enough to try everything on, then crashed into bed. :) Tomorrow we saw goodbye to Vietnam.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Can't. Stop. SHOPPING!!! :)

Today we headed right into Old Town for Jeff and Golien's final fittings and Gavin and my first fittings.

Back of my cocktail dress. This was WAY too small - I had to call Gavin in the dressing room to help me put it on. :)

 

My more casual dress, also a little too tight. :)

 

Gavin's overcoat needed some minor tweaks.

While Gavin was getting fitted, I decided to order a coat and a jacket, as with my slender torso and extra long arms I can NEVER find coats that fit. I ordered a peacoat style and a leather jacket. Gavin, in the meantime, really liked the button up shirt they tailored for him for free and ordered two more, plus a third suit. We just couldn't stop... :D In the meantime, while we were getting re-measured for our new items, Jeff got a slightly scary haircut (the experience, not his hair), shave, and ear cleaning in a local barbershop.

Jeff's new 'do.

 

While we waited for our second fitting, we had lunch at the Cargo Club restaurant, which had a second floor overlooking the river. Gavin and I tried Cau Lau, a must-have dish in Hoi An, and an absolutely delicious shrimp curry served in a coconut, with coconut oil lit on fire on the outside. :)

Flaming shrimp curry in a coconut.

After lunch we went back to the hotel and said goodbye to Jeff and Golien, as they were flying back to the states. Now left to our own devices, we rented mopeds to drive into town instead of being dependent on the shuttle. I was disappointed that they were automatic scooters instead of actual motorcycles like most of the local people were driving.

After driving into town and parking "like a local" (read wherever the heck we felt like it on the sidewalk), we continued to stroll around the town and spend too much money. :) By the end of the day I ended up ordering three pairs of custom leather sandals and Gavin ordered a leather jacket and leather laptop bag. :) We also continued having fittings at Yaly for the things we had ordered earlier in the day.

Also, having fallen in love with the beautiful Chinese lanterns hanging all over the town, we decided to buy a bunch to hang from the roof of our deck. Since we were overwhemed by the number of lantern shops, we sought out Tuoi Ngoc, the place recommended in Lonely Planet. There were people of all ages in the front of the shop putting the lanterns together. We made a special order of some hanging lanterns and some desk lanterns on a stand. In case you wonder how we are going to get these home, they collapse down into a cylinder. :) We will pick them up two days from now on the day we leave.

Picking out lanterns.

Boy buying ice cream in front of the shop.

I'll have 5 of everything, I'm saying to the shop keeper. :) The old guy with the banana was very interested in the proceedings.

 

Later in the evening we went back to Tuoi Ngoc to take a photo of the lanterns all lit - beautiful!

After some additional fittings at Yaly, we went to dinner at Mango Mango, a lovely restaurant right on the river. From our bar seat in the balcony, we had an AMAZING view of the Old Town bustling with mopeds, cyclos, vendors and tourists.

 

The intersection in front of Mango Mango.

Me on the balcony.

Cocktail and Lonely Planet. :)

The cocktails had pretty flower in them. :)

Directly under us was the start of the Hoi An night market, similar to the night markets in other cities with a lot of touristy junk for sale, but there were also lots of stalls with beautifully lit lanterns.. We stopped at the first vendor we saw and bought a Vietnamese sugar doughnut, also twice fried to make it warm again. :)

Vietnamese snacks, twice fried to perfection... :)

Panorama of the night market.

A lantern stall at the night market.

 

Beautiful lanterns!

 

Souvenirs at the night market.

I had wanted to buy a nice set of chopsticks in a wooden box, and there were plenty in the night market that were "same same, but different." I finally stopped at the very last stall on the street and she must have been desperate to sell, because she quoted me half the price of other vendors, and when I hesitated she went down in price herself two times, so I bought them from her. I can't resist a deal. :)

We continued strolling in Old Town along the river, then made our way to the Japanese Bridge. At this point we had to buy our Old Town ticket before they would allow us to cross the bridge. The Old Town tickets gets you into any of the historical buildings in Old Town, and is good for the entire length of your stay. Across the bridge we got to see the Cam Pho Temple, brightly lit for the evening.

Along the riverfront.

Boats and the bridge.

Young girls selling candles to float down the river for good luck.

 

More lanterns in Old Town.

 

Japanese Bridge is packed with tourists at any hour.

Japanese Bridge from the side.

 

Gavin and I on the Japanese Bridge, with a nice view of Old Town.

 

View from the Japanese Bridge.

 

Cam Pho Temple.

After some more evening strolling in Old Town, we scootered our way back to the hotel to turn in. Tomorrow is our last full day in Vietnam!

 

Posted with Blogsy