Day 7 Vietnam

Hello my little Lotus Seeds…….

Another early start except we had no where to go today – another designated beach day. Felt a bit guilty that we weren’t going to see a temple or Buddha but its amazing how quickly the guilt dissipates when the sun is shining!!

We sat outside our house this morning, watching the sea rolling in and out, basking like lemon sharks in the sun, until it was time for our clandestine meeting!!! Not that we had done anything wrong, we were just feeling like we had…..meeting a man in the car park under the street light at midnight!!! Something from an old black and white movie….anyway, fast forward to reality……

We had arranged to meet Dong, the Lotus seed courier, at the next hotel along the road, which from memory of passing by, didn’t seem that far away. Laurence and I had different views as to how long it would take to get there – he anticipated that it would be a good 30 minute ride there and 40 on the way back (we were going to be tired!!) I thought it would take 5 mins there and 4 back if we sped up a bit!! But first, we needed a bicycle!!

The choice was a tandem or a regular bike….we obviously decided on the tandem but thought we should practise first before setting off on our road trip…….fortunately we did as we were pathetic……only one person can steer but both are required to peddle. I started off steering and hoped Indy would provide the pedal power…the only problem with that is if you steer and pedal you have control of what speed you are doing and you are in control…..if you have pedal power at the back – it makes it difficult to steer as he doesn’t know you are turning – disaster!!! We decided it was far safer for us and other road users to have a bike each. Off we went, leaving 45 mins to get there……4 mins later we arrived!!! What do you know! Men and size/length just don’t go together!!

That left us a 40 minute wait! Whilst we were looking very conspicuous standing alone, along the road side waiting to do the ‘exchange’ – one of the hotel cars had driven past us, saw us and doubled back to see if we were ok!! Clearly we looked very guilty and can only assume this is what it would be like if we were drug smugglers!! Worse still, did he think we were drug couriers?? He stopped, wound down his window and asked us if everything was ok. Indy told him we were resting!!!! We had only cycled 4 minutes down the road!!

Satisfied that we were ok – we waived goodbye and off he went. Two minutes later Dong arrived on his moped with the ‘stuff’. It was like something out of CSI Vietnam. The exchange went down…..he gave us the bag and I gave him the money which was folded in my sock…..all very professional! I think we were perhaps ripped off royally – these are going to be the most expensive lotus seeds ever, in the history of lotus seeds…..bearing in mind the are used with regularity in vietnamese cooking – each seed is slightly bigger than a chic pea and there are 54 on a strand and I have two strands – we gave him half a million (in used bills!! – gangster chat) which is about £15.00 – hahahahahahaha!!!!!!

We then had to cycle back and try and look exhausted as we had been gone for over an hour – having cycled less than 10 mins in total!! The hotel staff were very impressed with our stamina!! Hadn’t even broken out in a mild sweat!!

This afternoon once the sun had gone down we went off for a synchronised massage. The Spa area is incredible and all the individual spa treatment rooms have additional rooms which lead off them and hang over a very large pond with lilies. Once they had scrubbed our feet and pumice stoned them, it was off for our massages. I thought my massage man was going to snap my back in two but now its all finished, I feel like I could probably tie my legs up behind my neck……very bendy.

Tonights supper was in a restaurant called ‘Good Morning Vietnam’ – yes you guess it – it was Italian!! Owned and run by an Italian chap who met his Vietnamese wife here 8 years ago, married her and has a child. Used to live in Venice and has a whackingly large picture of Venice behind the bar…..probably so he doesn’t forget!! Excellent food – carpaccio, spaghetti bolognaise (al dente) tiramamasu, lemoncello……the works. Very nice and would definitely go their again – but it’s not very local!

Well, this is our last night here. Hoi An is a nice town, every other shop is a tailor (dont do it!!) and in between there are lantern shops obviously all the rage… why????? (we have two!!)

On that note – our next email will be from Saigon.

It’s farewell from us and farewell from Hoi An.

Toodle Oooooo for now.

Lots of love,
A xx