Hoi An

I must say the bus ride from Hue to Hoi An was the worst thing ever. It was a coach bus and it was hot and 2 of the kids got sick on it so it smelled awful. After when we finally arrived, I walked to the hotel from the bus stop cause I'm an independent idiot. I seriously made the rookie mistake of bringing a suitcase with wheels and not actually a huge backpack like the other backpackers...who only brought backpacks. This lady offered me directions since I had no idea where I was..then when I went on my way she told me to visit her store. And I said yes with no intention of actually doing that. After I laid down on my hotel bed for like 1 hour (I'm so embarrassed of lugging that wheelie for like 10 minutes in the hot heat) I left the hotel and guess who I ran into?! That same lady who gave me directions! Her store was like basically around the corner from my hotel -_- so I walked in her store then made some excuse of bung hungry and getting lunch first. Then she was like oh I will introduce you to true Hoi An food called Cao Lau, I will have my sister bring it for you for free! In my head I was like ugh ugh ugh, my natural instinct to never turn down free food bites me in the butt. I ended up getting a tailor made top fromthem that I've been eyeing online. At least is much cheaper here and tailor made...

And I got free delicious food and cold bottled water!! This is my way of making me feel better for not being assertive.

After getting lost and walking around for like an hour, I made it to the market. Its very quaint and looks rustic and no where as briefed as Hanoi. There weren't that much to see until I realized that I've actually been accidentally following this Asian group getting into buildings for free...I stopped when I realized I was doing that because that would be the right thing to do...but then I heard this other Asian group speaking Cantonese so I followed them instead...and bought cool soy drinks when they did. Yum!

After I left them, I kept exploring the markets until I basically got herded into this crazy lady's nail place where she made me read her customer reviews and it all basically said the same thing: got attacked by these crazy sisters to get manicures and pedicures but totally glad we did it!

So I followed the customers' advice and just went with it and got a mani, pedi, face and leg threading (so painful my eyes started to water!) less than 20 bucks which I felt bad cause my feet were nastyyy. The crazy ladies were funny and want me to come back for massage..which doesn't sound like a bad idea. Then shopped around and man are the shop owners relentless!

For dinner I asked the waiter what was good in Hoi An and hr said fish in banana leaves so I tried it..uhhh I should have stuck with the cao lau. I was too busy picking out the bones that i didn't really eat it..The waiter looked so happy that I ordered it that I didn't have the heart to say I didn't like it. This was my first dinner alone and it was a disaster.

After I still walked around since the market is quite large and there was a performance in the centrr. I bought soy milk (it comes in a bag) since mom told me to try it and I think I have stomach pains now from it. Ohhh well, it was only 25 cents. And now I'm calling it a night at 830..I feel so old.