Hoi An with Mom

Tuesday morning last week, we go up, had our breakfast and coffee at cafe Ty and embarked upon a project. We took Hang with us to the market to buy blankets for the kids. Mehrnaz and her family donated money to buy the kids blankets for the upcoming cold fall and winter weather. So, we took the money and Hang with us to the market to get the blankets and take them to the house. The power was out that day, so just small lamps in the market. We found soft fleece blankets for the kids and bought 26. Well, since the lady only had 9 in her shop, she called and had someone bring some from wherever she keeps her extras! "five minutes" she told us. Then, another five minutes, and another five minutes. As we sweated, she would call and yell at whomever was bringing these blankets piled on a motorbike somewhere. Thus, we learned the lesson of the "Vietnamese five minute rule.". Five minutes quoted to you by the Vietnamese is easily 15 to 20. Just as I was about to give up and say we would come back later, the guy showed up with the blankets. We paid, packed them onto our motorbike, and brought them to the house. However, to our chagrin, Hien called later that day to say that they would only work for fall or spring and that they needed heavier blankets for winter. Hard to imagine in the 100 degree heat, but she knows best. So, we learned our lesson and just gave Hien the money from Mehrnaz for the winter blankets to purchase and we made the other blankets a donation from the Robertsons for Mary's house and any other GIBTK house that may need them! It does NOT always pay to do it yourself! Haha

We then returned to the apartment, it the dark, and grabbed our stuff for Hoi An. We took a taxi to relax and have some AC. We checked into the Hai Au and the ladies were great! Soooo excited to see me and meet Mom. We were given a lovely room, complete with the rose petals on the bed and the towel swans. We rented bikes from Minh and cruised into town for lunch at Vicafe and wandering around the streets of this beautiful little town. We got back to the hotel just in time for it to rain a bit and we just missed it! Hit up Reaching Out and Lifestart for souvenirs (employ and support handicapped Vietnamese young adults). Great organizations and Jen knows that they are run by good people, so the money spent actually goes to where they say it goes! Conveniently, the rain stopped and we were able to get a 50 cent happy hour beer along the river before dinner at Cargo. We sat on the upper balcony and watched the world go by in Hoi An and had a lovely meal...one of the best of the trip! After dinner, we did our requisite lantern buying along the river and took some fun pictures.

The next day, we had a nice breakfast at the hotel and biked around in the morning taking pictures and experiencing the market, the streets, and watching other funny tourists. We got several absurd shots of people carrying unbelievable amounts of things on motorbikes, got offered river boat rides about 50 times, and became everyone's best friend when we passed by a shop, "hello Madame, please come in and buy from me." The rain started a bit earlier, so we purchased some fashionable 1 dollar pink ponchos from Minh and hit the road on our single speed bikes. After all of our motorbike riding in Da Nang, mom was very well versed with the Vietnamese traffic rules...of which there are almost none! Other than driving in the right, which sometimes has its exceptions, you can pretty much do whatever works to get you from point A to point B. left turn into oncoming traffic? Sure, go for it. Pass on the left of someone signaling to turn left? You bet. It is survival of the fittest. Basically, Darwin does make the traffic rules in Vietnam. If you are bigger, you have right of way. Period. Kind of works out, to be honest. But, a lot to get used to when you first get here, for sure!

We visited Mai and Mr Sun for a fantastic lunch and Mom got a massage after lunch from Mai. We capped it off with Vietnamese coffee and it was a lovely afternoon. After a trip to our friend at the wholesale shop, we headed back to Hai Au. We arranged a driver to get back to Da Nang and made it back to visit the kids and bring them some fun toys. I forgot to mention that Mom did get the Big C experience the day prior with Minh Chau. Ridiculous loud music, hilarious translations on shirts and clothing, and many plastic toys for the kids to enjoy and immediately destroy. We stuck with then basics (balls, cars, dolls, books) and discovered that the kids really enjoyed the books! So proud of them!

Later that evening, Hien and Diem gave us rides to Ba Thoi for seafood and we had another fun feast of amazing seafood for insanely cheap prices (less than 8 dollars per person)! Really fun few days and glad Mom got to see Mai and visit Hoi An!