Cheer Up Your Bum
Hoi An, Vietnam
May 04, 2009
We watched a documentary about Indochina on Discovery. It was very interesting.
We went to breakfast and missed the second half of the documentary... But it was worth the sacrifice! I had a muffin with coconut spread with mandarin and lime marmalade, whole wheat bread with salami, cheese, tomato, basil and a bit of balsamic dressing with lots of garlic, crepe with banana, sapodilla, mango and cinnamon and sugar. Bill had watermelon, a croissant, cheese salami, crepe with cinnamon and sugar and juice. We both had some tea.
It was raining so we played a few hands of Rummy. I beat Bill this time... We borrowed 2 bikes from the hotel for the day and headed into town.
We went to the clothing shop and tried on our new clothes. The silk top fits me like a glove!! There is one minor adjustment required to the top, the winter jacket is perfect, I would like a small adjustment to the silk jacket, so it lies flat in the back and the shorts are too snug. Bill's shirts look great, but the sleeves are too short. We will be able to pick everything up later this afternoon.
We crossed the bridge and saw the sculpture park. I liked the nylon sculptures on the water better than the permanent ones in the park along the water. We crossed back to our side of the river and stopped at a riverside bar for a Fresh Beer - Ba Ba. The waiter said that "Yo!" means cheers.
There was a bit more rain and then it cleared. We rode the 5 kms to the beach and were stopped as we were almost there. I went sailing by, but the guy stopped Bill and would not let go of his bike. We have to pay 5,000 dong each to park our bikes and apparently we can not take them any further. I am not sure why I just saw people go by on the water with their bikes....
We walked down the to beach and selected some lounge chairs to relax on in front of a restaurant. We ordered a mango shake (which I did not like - chunky, not ripe and not cold) and Saigon Beer. It eneded up costing 125,000 dong ($5) for drinks and $4 for chair rental. What a rip off!
The beach was nice and fairly clean. The waves were coming in pretty good and the undertow was strong. Bill had a great time in the waves.
We had a snack of taro chips before heading back into town with our bikes.
We went back to Dem Hoi and had prawns wrapped with potato strings deep fried (yummy) , squid with 5 spices, skewers, rice, LaRue Beer and water. It was all good!
Bill enjoyed the chalkboard message that they had in front of the restaurant. It said:
Cheer Up Your Bum
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie
Oi, Oi, Oi
Come in and get your bum on seat
Wet your whistle. Take a load of
your feet. Bar None for Groovy
Grub, crack a coldie, Ice Cold
Tinny Stubbie. Menu Please
I'm So Hungry I could eat a
Scabby horse and chase the rider
See you later Aligator in a
while Crocodile,
On the reverse it said:
Back Come in and get your
Bum on ass seat
Very amusing!
Back at the wet bar at the hotel (not to be confused with the pool bar) Bill beat me at Rummy.
I went to my reflexology appointment (originally they had given us 15% off and then bumped it up to 20% off). They have also given us a 15 minute complimentary massage. We are both burnt from our trip to the beach, so we are going to save it for tomorrow morning.
Mai gave me a head, shoulder and neck massage along with a foot bath, leg massage and reflexology. It was wonderful. I think I should bring her back to Canada and open a spa! It did not hurt that she said I was beautiful and had a nice shape (figure). Either she was hitting on me or she wanted me to use the 15 min massage tonight so she could make some more money??
Since Bill was very red, I purchased some aftersun lotion from the spa. It was expensive, but I think it is necessary.
We picked went to pick up our clothes and my shorts, top, jackets and Bill's shirts all fit great. We are very happy with our purchases!
We went to a restaurant nearby called, White Marble Wine Bar, for dinner. Bill had the pork in the clay pot with carmalized soya sauce and mushrooms and rice. I had Cha Ca, fish on skewers with noodles, dill, peanuts and garlic. Bill had coke and water, I had water.
During dinner Bill started to get the chills from his sunburn. We are both burnt, but Bill is really hurting.
We went back to the bar at our hotel and had another bottle of Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc with peanuts. Bill ordered another dish of vanilla ice cream with fresh mint. We had a Rummy rubber match and Bill won quite easily, of course! I checked the internet while at the bar, we found out from Lou that my dress from Chaing Mai has arrived safely. Hurray!!
We went back to our room and found a gecko on the wall. Bill tried to chase him out of the room, but he hid behind the mirror. Yikes!!