1/14/10: Hoi An, Vietnam
Though we woke up at 8:30 today, we didn’t step foot outside of our hotel until after two. This wasn’t completely our fault – when the hotel’s free breakfast policy is “Eat until you’re full. Then you’re done,” well, it makes for some long breakfasts. The other problem (besides the problem of the absurdly full stomachs) was that we got caught up in figuring out what we’re going to do with our 12 days in Australia. Since our cheap/free housing fell through in Sydney, we found ourselves trying to decide if we wanted to travel a bit within Australia and go to Fraser Island or maybe Melbourne. Correction: when I say we were trying to decide if we wanted to travel within Australia, I perhaps should have said we were trying to decide if we would have enough money to travel up to Fraser Island or down to Melbourne. Conclusion: we’ll see when we get there, and if anyone wants to let us borrow a camper for free in Sydney, we’ll love you forever.
When we finally did get around to leaving our hotel this afternoon, it was too late to think about renting a motorbike and going out to My Son, which are some ruins about an hour away from Hoi An. And to be honest, after going to Angkor, I’m not so big on seeing other temple ruins. It just seems a bit – well, purposeless. Also, I think I’m still suffering a bit from Mui and Duc withdrawal. Plus it was raining. Fine, it was sprinkling. Take any of the excuses above, and please don’t let my guilty feelings reach you across your screen. So instead of doing anything cultural or enlightening, like good travelers would do, we went shopping! Less morally satisfying maybe, but more fun.
We also bought two yellow matching wine holders for about $6.
When we got back to our hotel room, I unwrapped all of our carefully wrapped purchases so I could look at them. [Here’s where I have to confess that I am one of those people who compulsively unwraps new purchases to look at and admire them even if I just have to wrap them up again. I also always wear my new clothes as soon as I can – I’ve seen people’s closets where they have clothes hanging in them with the tags still on them! That would NEVER happen in my closet. It blows my mind that people choose to live like that.] As I unwrapped the second wine holder and pulled it out, I realized that the lady at the store had given us the wrong thing! This one was yellow – but instead of cute little chicks, it had Chinese characters on it! Now, I don’t have anything against Chinese characters, being Chinese and all, but I do have this thing about matching. As in – things must match. So we went back to the store we bought them from and politely explained to the woman what had happened. She looked at the newspaper wrapping, which said “gang va” and explained, “Outside it says chicken. But inside no chicken chicken.” And with that profound pronouncement, she went into the back of the storeroom and brought us the correct wine holder, the one with the chicken chicken on it. I would say that the the way she said “no chicken chicken” made my day, but that would just be a complete understatement.
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Picture of the Day: Lanterns make everything look nicer.
I’ve never been to Melbourne, but Fraser Island is pretty darn awesome, so that would be my vote. It is one of the few islands of the world that is made completely of sand so the river that runs through it doesn’t make any noise since there are no rocks to splash on. The sand also usually makes for some obligatory bus pushing during the tour (but ya’ll have been there before). And there’s this cove near the ocean called the champagne pools, where the tide smashes in and you get thrown around into the jaggedy mollusk shells. Probably would be illegal in the US, but tons of fun. But if you go, be careful, the wild dogs on the island are known for eating children (and probably small adults, so watch out Zhou!).
Jamie of Greg and Jamie – weird, Greg’s been calling himself Greg of Greg and Jamie since freshman year and I never understood it. Better than him calling himself Nostradamus.
Thanks for the vote – it’s amazing how many people have been indifferent on the direction, but the two who’ve offered an opinion (including you) have voted go north. Zhou is super-excited about the possibility of going to Frasier Island.
Jamie would be referring to the Fraser Island dingos that eat yo babies. They say that they don’t actually do that, but it’s still a bit disconcerting when you hear them rumaging around your campsite night. I’m sure you’ve had worse in Africa, having to worry about being trampled by elephants or mauled by lions in your sleep. And the champagne pools are pretty cool, though slightly less cool when it’s cold and raining. That shouldn’t be a problem in February. And Lake McKenzie in the middle of the island is the coolest lake I’ve ever seen.
Steve, heaps thanks, but we don’t have any babies so we’re all set.
Zhou’s not kidding about the matching. Once I wore one sock into the living room, just to see what she’d do, and she literally turned the other way and wouldn’t acknowledge my presence until I had either 2 socks or no socks. I tried to outlast her for about 10 minutes, but I guess I was more tired of being neglected than she was tired of averting her eyes…
Matt, I believe she’s still angry that you did that. It’s unforgivable.
Just mild OCD =P
Kevin, the minute she starts spending all morning washing her hands, get some help.