(Irina) The guidebook says that when you cross the Hai Van pass between Hue and Hoi An it is as if you are entering another world. If the weather in Hue is crap, it is sunny in Hoi An. Absolutely true and it feel so good.

We have pagoda-fatigue, however...

This is a strain of the church/catherdal fatigue you get when travelling around Europe. When we got to Hoi An we just agreed without much discussion that we were going to drop out of the tourist circuit for a couple of days. So we found a nice spot: View image View image

Hoi An is a small, quiet and very pleasant town. It lives on tourism and is full with shops, cafes and restaurants catering to tourists. But if you stop for a moment and disregard the obligatory tourist activities, you can see and feel the rhythm of local life. Not to be melodramatic, but I think this is where I really fell in love with Vietnam.

We grabbed two bicycles from the hotel and rode around town, juts looking around. At one point Huey's bike broke down and we got some help fixing it: View image Then some more: View image

Picking up laundry - 65 cents per kilo: View image

The streets are lined with cloth and shoe shops where for less than $10 you can get anything made. They can copy any article of clothing you have or they can copy one from a picture in a magazine. And you want you favorite Puma sneakers cloned - no problem at all, takes a day.

But may favorite part was just walking through the market - not where all the souvenirs are sold (although we did a good bit of shopping there as well), but where all the fish, vegetables, teas, etc. are sold: View image Ihad never seen som many kinds of eggs before: View image

Here's how you make the rice "tortillas": View image

The question is whether we should buy a lifesize Budha statue - what do y'all think? View image