Lucky Vatican

4/28

Yesterday we went to the National Roman Museum, ventured around the city getting lost in the back streets and eating lots of gelato.

We got up and out early this morning to get in line for the Vatican Museum, we read that lines are extremely long in mornings and on Saturdays. Well we proved Rick Steve's wrong yet again, got in line at 815, it open at 9 and by 910 we were inside. We immediately went to a courtyard to sit down and get a lay of the land when I heard an eruption from the sky, I looked up and see a pigeon making a u-turn. I then look to Michael who is now standing with half his body covered in pigeon poop! This bird got a double score hitting his shirt and pants. I try to stay calm and not vomit in my mouth for Michael's sake but the runny multicolor stains are making me gag. I told him I thought I saw somewhere that it was good luck to get pooped on and it must be extra lucky since it was a holy pigeon. We located a bathroom where Michael tried to clean up. When he comes out he's has a wet pigeoned pooped outfit.
He said he had to remove his shirt to try and clean it off, I can't even imagine the dirty looks he got. I try to be good sport but if this had happen to me we would have left, Michael was a trooper and walked around ALL day in his stains clothes. He did have a mini freak out about the chances that the acid from the poop would stain his new Italian pants (I have no idea where he came up with this one).

I've come to realize that when a guidebook or other travelers say you need 2 hours for a museum I actually have to plan for 5 or more because most travels don't read EVERY plaque, piece of art work or exhibit. The Vatican took us 5 and that was with me speeding things up, how many body less Commodus does one person need to see? We did use Rick Steve's trick for getting to St. Peter's Basilica although it felt like we were cheating, enforcement was non existent. When you leave The Sistine Chapel (A-mazing!) there's a door for regular people and a door for groups. The group door takes you right to St. Peter's which is the one we took.

There's a beatification ceremony this week for Pope John Paul II, well we think he was already beautified, this says veneration of The remains of Blessed John Paul II but we're not sure what that means. It in our list of things to look up. Anyway they are already setting up for it so touring St. Peters was a bit hectic and confusing as we couldn't follow the tour we downloaded and a lot of sections were blocked off but even with all that it was still absolutely stunning.

From there we found some gelato and pizza and along the way popped in some other beautiful churches where we saw a wedding and a concert and a nun practicing her organ skills. Did some piazza hopping and ending the evening at Trevi Fountain people watching. We were there yesterday but read its a great sight at night the problem is (ok this is bonus in all other cases) it doesn't get dark until after 2100.

It was another wonderful day in Rome! So sad that we only have one more.

Pics:
Michael and one many body less heads this one is Socrates

The Vatican has its own post office!!

Michelangelo's Last Judgement at the Sistine Chapel and yes this was a no photo zone but Michael saw everyone else disobeying so he thought he'd join too.

Catching up

4/26/12:

Let's recap the last few days shall we:

4/24/12 --- our flight left Hanoi at 1725 which meant we had a small window in the AM to see Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. We grabbed a taxi from our hotel for about 70,000 dong and then stood in line for 20 minutes to see Ho Chi Minh. The mausoleum was probably the coldest place in all of SE Asia (it was about to snow in there!) The Vietnamese are masters at 3 things: propaganda, rushing you through a national site and annoying the snot out of the Blues. This place combined all 3 of those qualities! Anyway we saw Ho Chi Minh laying in a glass case under a ratty blanket with some guards furiously ushering people through. Can't say it was awesome but we figured we should go see it since we'll never be in Hanoi again.

Grabbed 2 moto taxis for the ride back which was super quick, terrifying and cheap! Grand times. Checked out of the hotel, took a real taxi to the airport shuttle and waited an hour for the shuttle to leave. By the time it left we were drenched and miserable. The airport wasn't much of an improvement but once we got on the plane everything was great! We flew Qatar airways and I have to say they know what they're doing!

4/25/12: Arrived in Doha, Qatar for a 2 hour layover then left for Rome around 2AM local time. Slept a little on the plane and got to to Rome at 8AM. Took a bus into Rome for €4 each and walked to our hotel (Hotel Gabriella). We booked this hotel with airline miles so it's free except for a €2 tax per person per day. Can't have everything I guess. Took a nap and then walked around our neighborhood looking at the sites.

Side Note: we instantly changed from backpacker bums to fashion superstars! Everything we wore today and yesterday was tailor made in Hoi An (including out shoes, but not including my underwear). This fashion change happened after Carolyn got a look of pure disdain from a tourist helper person. I guess they don't get too many peeps rolling in from Viet-Friggin-Nam!

Grabbed our first pizza and gelato before 5:00 PM! Had a bit to eat at a sammich shop and grabbed breakfast and lunch stuff from a nearby grocery store. Passed out about 10:00 PM.

4/26/12:

Stop the press cause I got up before 7:30 this AM! Out of our room by 9 and took the metro south to local market. It seems we misjudged the the temperature and our fashion needs so we made our way here to see about fixing that problem. I got a pair of pants and Carolyn got a new bag. Headed back home and had lunch (bread, cheese and olive oil ... YUMMY!!!!).

Side Note: at thanksgiving this year I plan to let everyone know how thankful I am that I not eating fried rice or fried noodles or some sort of filthy noodle soup with chicken organs and feet floating in it!

This afternoon we hit the colosseum, Forum, Palatine Hill, Capitol Hill and the Pantheon. Amazing. You have to see it to really appreciate it all. I wish I had the words to describe it all. So much history, so much beauty. Wonderful. I could fill pages with what we saw but you can google it and read a gazillion other accounts.

We had the best gelato EVER just before the pantheon which was perfect cause I was just about to go into convulsions from lack of sugar! After the pantheon we had dinner at a place behind the pantheon and thoroughly enjoyed it. Pecorino cheese, penne pasta, gnocchi and wine. Yummy!!!!!!

Got breakfast and lunch from the grocery store again, and one last gelato before heading to bed.

Tomorrow we'll probably go see the Vatican and whatever else we can fit in.

Pics:
1) colosseum.
2) Pantheon.
3) Bye Bye Vietnam! Pray never to return!
4) The Blues entering Italian airspace!!!!!
5) my first pizza :)
6) Piazza Nationale.
7) Someones looking ravishing!
8) Arch of Constantine.

Halong Bay

4/24
We survived Halong Bay. It actually wasn't that bad except that we were scammed yet again and given the run around. Like most of our SEA experiences this one was all about the people we met. An American couple living in East Timor and Canadians! We have yet to meet a Canadian we didn't like. We met a brunch of other people too and it was great because most people were on the last leg of their trip and were also very ready to leave Vietnam so we didn't feel so bad about hating it. One couple had already basically given up and didn't see any sights in Hanoi. We had that attitude but figured we should make the most of our time. The cruise was pretty lame but we got to kayak and see some caves. Because of the money hungry Vietnamese way there is a constant flow of people on the boat. They mix one, two and three day tours. Like all cruises we ate well but I don't think anyone we met would go back.
It's been crazy since we got back. We found a different hotel, got some supples, dropped off laundry, exchanged books, went to some museums and just this morning we went to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Michael got a haircut, we packed and now we are heading to the airport for our flight to Rome!!

Farewell Vietnam!

Pics:
- At the entrance to the Temple of Literature
- on the grounds of the Temple of literature which is a university founded over 1000 years ago, we could learn a thing of two from Confucius
- they took us to an island where we could get a good view of the bay...after climbing 436 steps this is about half way up
- the last day of the cruise they took us to Surprise Cave...this was the surprise! Funny because the rest of SEA is pretty conservative but Vietnam is all about the erection.
- either they can't read or they don't care, I'm going with they don't care
- that's our boat. The government just mandated that all the boats be painted white. It has something to do with a boat sinking and tourists dying a few years ago. They were so much prettier before. We paid the same price for this cruise that we would have paid for a 3 night cruise with Carnival.
- Halong Bay
- At the start of the 400+ steps
- John McCains flight suit at the Hanoi Hilton where according to the government pilots stayed and played basketball, raised chickens, celebrated holidays. Surprisingly there was no mention of water boarding.

Rome

We made it and we instantly love it!

Afghanistan > Vietnam

4/19/12:

Can't really put a finger on one particular thing that makes this one of the worst countries on the planet. Today kinda sealed the deal in our deep and utter hatred for this country. If we could move our flight up to now we would.

Hanoi reached deep into its pocket full of dog sh*t and hurled a gob so foul we almost caved and called our moms. But we're tough and can surely take a punch so we're driving on with italy only 6 day away!

The morning started out around 4 AM when the poltergeist who lives in our room started screaming. I clutched Carolyn for a bit before falling back asleep until she (the poltergeist) returned around 7:30 AM. She must be a bad poltergeist cause she's always crying ... probably getting her ghostly arse kicked for keeping the other poltergeists up. At this point we were too tired to care much so we rolled over and fell back asleep.

Fast forward a bit. We leave our room and go to the front desk to pay for our halong bay tour ($350 ... Cringe). We're already pretty annoyed with the price since we were quoted in USD $ but can only pay in Vietnamese dong. So the guy gives us some stoopid sob story about the boat company only wants USD $ and has to exchange from dong to USD, so therefore we get a crappy exchange rate. This translates to the tour costing us $358 instead of $350 because of the exchange rate. Anyway, the hotel guy is extremely accommodating and accepts our exchange rate. However as we try to pay him he realizes that one of the bills (500,000 dong - ~$25) has been taped up and repaired using a piece from a 10,000 dong bill. WTF!!!!!! They are silly strict about the quality of their bills here. Generally they won't accept a bill with any tears in it. Of course we got this bill from the ATM last night and don't look at the money. After some discussion he agrees to take it but I'm sure he's gonna loose some $ because of it.

We leave the hotel looking for food. We decide on street food and find a place with some other whitey's eating there. We sit down and order scrambled eggs and bread, a sprite and iced coffee with milk. My iced coffee comes with a glob of condensed milk at the bottom and won't mix. They didn't use fresh coffee, instead they poured old cold coffee into a cup with condensed milk. Strike 1. Then our food comes. It's 2 baguettes sliced down the middle oozing disgusting mayonnaise and filthy cucumbers. We look at each other, I vomit in mouth and then we ask the guy what he just gave us. He explains the bread has scrambled eggs and all the other nastiness inside the bread. We ask if he can atleast get rid of the mayo and maybe bring another plate. He takes the food away and comes back 3 minutes later with the exact same thing. Clearly there's a giant breakdown in communication so we cut our loses, pay our bill and leave.

Finally found a decent breakfast which ended up costing about $10 if you factor in our first breakfast. Walked to a cafe and hung out until the water puppet show started at 1530.

We bought 2nd class tickets to the show which were 60,000 each. This put us in the last row which didn't matter since the place is tiny. What did matter however was the size of the seats and the amount of room. If you are under 5'8" then you would have enjoyed a fabulous, comfortable show. Carolyn and I are not under 5'8" and consequently we had a miserably show. I moved to an aisle seat after a fewer minutes which helped me and gave the mrs more room. Besides that, the show was super cool. A band plays some music and sings while puppets come up out of the water and dance around (http://www.thanglongwaterpuppet.org/?/en/Home/). Super cool!

After the puppets we did some walking trying to find a supermarket to get some supplies. Never found one but we did find a minority people photography exhibit which my wonderful wife nicely narrated for me!!! We also found the US ambassadors house. More walking around followed by some much deserved ice cream. Ran into some people at the ice cream place with a guide who said you can't come to Hanoi without coming to that ice cream shop. We couldn't agree more! The place is called Kem Trang Tien (http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g293924-d2207854-Reviews-Kem_Trang_Tien-Hanoi.html).

Decided on a vegetarian restaurant for dinner and were not disappointed. It was in a creepy back alley with some old guy in his pajamas but the food was delish!

Grabbed some agua on the way home and perused the 1000's of shoe shops around.

We're heading to halong bay tomorrow AM at 8 and won't be back until the evening of the 22nd. Hope it's a great time.

Pics:
1) Carolyn with our delish vegetarian meal!
2) water puppet theater.
3) Carolyn at the water puppet theater.
4) us at the ambassadors house.
5) water puppet show.
6) best ice cream in Hanoi!
7) these minority people suck your brains out if you have a headache! According to my interpretation of course.
8) carolyn narrating the minority people's photos.

Hell-noi

We made it to Hanoi and the bus trip wasn't quite so bad, we paid for the best bus and did get a little more leg room and it had a western toilet. Because we were arriving at 0800 we decided to pre-book a hotel which we haven't done at all in Vietnam. It was a short walk from where the bus dropped us off and they were kind enough to let us in our room when we arrived! It's not a bad hotel but it is not what it advertises to be. After cleaning up we talked to the front desk about options for Halong Bay. We are most likely going to take a 2 night/3 day tour. There are numerous companies so it's not easy to narrow them down. We know we don't want a party boat as even our young partying friends didn't like it.
Did some sight seeing in the morning and upon first impressions we really don't like this city. We had heard that the north was rude and that is true. Someone tried to scam is into buying red cross toothpicks and then turned ugly when we declined, the same fruit vender try to scam us twice!!
The icing was lunch. I've learned to deal with the ants but today my lunch came out infested with live ants. Nothing like having your rice move! It was cold, soggy, covered in ants and then wouldn't take our money because it was ripped. Ugh!
We booked our Halong Bay tour after some slight issues. Pick one its booked, look at another, try to see how the reviews go. We finally pick one but they quote the price in US dollars so we ask how much in Vietnamese Dong since that's what comes out of the ATM and this IS Vietnam but the guide is not happy, he wants dollars. Dude we don't have dollars so he gives us the price in Dong with the worst exchange rate we've seen. We are not happy. We venture out to get dinner and we've been told by numerous people that the street food is really good. The issue is that pre-American war of destruction the north was extremely poor, therefore they ate everything they could find. They eat every animal you can think of, eyes, intestines and a favorite: dog! When we explain that we don't eat meat the general response is 'we have chicken' or 'we have deer.' Hmmm last time I checked that was meat. We found a place and had tofu. Then ventured to a local hangout for some amazing coconut ice creams with every teenager in the city. On the walk back to our hotel we stopped at a make shift dog park and watched 30 or so dogs playing. We ran into a Vietnamese devil child, he started hissing at us and then hit us and tired to steal Michaels water from his pocket. Strange kid.

Pics:
Devil boy hissing
Ice cream!!
Hmm I think they made the globe a bit disproportional?

Tailored out

4/16/12:

Done and done. We finally completed our fashion extravaganza here in Hoi An. After all is said and done, we don't like everything we had made but the stuff we do like is awesome!

Here's a final breakdown:

Carolyn:
jacket - 1
casual dresses - 3
smart dress - 1
shirt - 1
shorts - 2
pants - 1
boots - 1
Flip flops - 1
sneakers - 1

Michael:
jacket - 1
Linen (short sleeve) shirt - 2
Long sleeve shirt - 1
Pants - 2
sneakers - 1
flip flops - 1

We initially set a budget for clothes and I only through sheer determination did we stay under by 20%!!!! Good job us! Actually we probably would have hit our budget if we'd liked everything.

Anyway, after a quick fitting this AM we made our way to another beach a but further away. It might as well have been 10 miles away. It seemed like it took forever to get there. It may have been the 147 degree heat and the giant buses zooming past us (smashing the horn of course) that made the journey seem so long. Coming to the beach we're greeted by several Vietnamese ladies on either side of the road yelling for us to park our bike in their yard. It was like riding the gauntlet, ladies yelling 'here, here, park here!!!' Anyway we parked and paid the going rate of 5000 dong per bike and walked over to the beach. A few more ladies started yelling from the beach asking if we'd like to sit in their chairs. We decided on a particular chair and were told if we ate at her restaurant the chair was free. No problem.

The beach was lovely, soft yellow sand, clear cool water and a decent breeze. The boss and I made our way into the water only to be greeted by the 2nd grossest creature on the planet ... Jellyfish (roaches being #1 of course and onions being #3). Giant ones. And they were stinging us. We were immediately not happy. Ohwell, back to the chairs.

We had fruit shakes, read a little and fought off the numerous locals trying to sell us random crap ... Everything from newspapers to tiger balm to chop sticks. We did buy a couple postcards and a coffee brewing thing. Anyway, we realized later that the whole 'eat at my restaurant an chair is free thing' wasn't a great idea. 2 fruit shakes and an order of spring rolls were 100,000 dong (about $5). This may not seem like much but it's a small fortune here. Ohwell.

Later back in Hoi An we had our final fitting, I got a crash course in the Vietnamese language (I can now say 5 phrases! I'm almost a local!!!!), we stocked up on snacks for our trip and I found the best tasting Dr Pepper I've had since San Diego!!!!!

We had dinner with our great new friends (Marisa and Carly) and said good bye, then upstairs to pack.

We're at the point where we need to repack for Italy and send unneeded things home. Our room looked like a plastic mess bomb exploded. After some serious organizational origami, we got our Italy packing sorted out and readied some things to ship home.

The rest of the night was spent booking our first 10 day in Italy. More in that in another post. Suffice it to say traveling in Italy is so far the complete opposite of how we like to travel. Planning every single day is so stressful and not fun that 2 nights ago we were wondering if Italy is a mistake. But we'll soldier on and take one for the team :)

Ok, bed time for us. Tomorrow we make our way to Hanoi. This trip is going to take 20 friggin hours! We leave Hoi An at 1300 and arrive in Hanoi the next morning at 0800. I'm going to be grumpy smurf.

Pics:
1) me with the tailor at Peace.
2) me enjoying the heavenly taste of Dr Pepper.
3) me with the tailor at Lana.
4) all of my clothes!!!!
5) is it hot out here or is it just me?????? Who is this minx??
6) we bought these silly pillows in Thailand for the slow boat trip and never used them. So after 2 months we're finally giving them a new home ... The garbagio!
7) An Bang Beach.
8) our view of An Bang Beach.

Happy Birthday to me!

Here's my clothes and shoes from Hoi An, some stuff is a hit some is a miss but it was fun. I needed my personal fashion consultant Marisa with me but I think she'll be proud of a couple of the pieces:

4 dresses
2 shorts
1 pair of pants
1 shirt
1 jacket
3 pairs of shoes

Sweating

Another day another fitting...or three or four. We went to our morning fittings and had more this afternoon. In between we planned for Italy and hung out by the pool. We are using Rick Steve's guide book and although its great I don't think it's the right book for us. He basically wants you to plan everything months in advance and that's not how we like to vacation. A layout is necessary but what fun is it if you can't have any randomness along the way? Our friends did the good ole American backpack through Europe not that long ago and we were astonished at their planning, every second down to restaurant choices was pre-planned, it worked for them but isn't our cup of tea. It gives me heartburn thinking that I have to know how long I want I be in a city before I even get there.

We met some girls at a fitting yesterday who are also staying at our hotel and they asked if we wanted to join them in a Vietnamese cooking class so we headed there after our last fitting of the day (our shoes are done!). It wasn't anything like the one in Thailand because we didn't actually do any of the cooking but it was still a grande time. Spring-rolls, aubergine clay pot and fried noodle was the menu and we left with full bellies and headed to a bar to chat with our new friends into the wee hours.

One thing we did a lot of today was sweat. I know in two weeks I'll be complaining that's it cold but right now it's hot hot hot!

Pics:
- Michael is wondering why he even bothered to shower
- Lady at tailor who is happy that we just put here kids through college
- Cooking class!

Who needs a tailor?

4/14/12:

Let's talk about Hoi An and what it's famous for. Picture yourself walking along a typical SE Asian street: 67 shops selling water, Oreos, train tickets and soap, 24 massage parlors, 7 motorbike repair shops and the occasional guest house. Now throw in 600 tailor shops and you have Hoi An!!! Of course the road is clogged with millions of scooters, cars, trucks and buses all mashing on their horns at the same time (can anyone say annoying?).

They're really are 600 plus tailor shops here in Hoi An. They all look the same (a smattering of men's suits, dresses, pants and shirts surrounded by stack after stack of fabric) and have very similar names. So how on earth do you select the tailor of your dreams out of this madness? We turned to some friendly advice, asked our hotel and snooped around before deciding on a place called Peace. The shop is nothing special and has the same selection as anywhere else but it was highly recommended so it was the winner.

We've ordered a few things so far and I suppose we're happy with everything but I can't help but use what I like to call the 'Old Navy Test' on the clothes here. It goes something like this: I look at a particular item to get tailored and them think to myself 'can I get this at Old Navy and for how much?' I use old navy because while the quality probably isn't runway model material, the clothes tend to last (for me anyway), look ok and are generally priced right. Tailored clothes on the other hand are supposedly top quality (this is doubtful since the sweatshop slaves making the clothes probably recently escaped the Vietnam branch of the Old Navy clothes factory), should fit perfectly (false, after multiple fittings we can both attest to this) and are a great deal (also false though this depends on where you go).

Anyway, using my Old Navy test was a bad idea since it resulted in me not wanting to get anything made and that's just not much fun. Part of the tailor thing is the experience. So I bit the bullet and had a few things made. Most dudes get a suit made here which probably is a great deal (think $100'ish for a full tailored suit) and some 'smart' clothes to go along with the suit. I'm a self described LL Bean man myself. This means I generally detest suits, anything called a 'slack' and those silk nooses called ties. My real middle name is 'Sweat' and for some reason anything you wear which most people call 'nice' or 'smart' tends to have an insulation rating which the US Dept of Energy normally gives out rebates for. So in other words I had a couple of linen shirts, a thin jacket and a pair of pants made. They're not amazing but the experience was cool so in the end its a win.

Carolyn on the other hand had a few more things made which all look AMAZING on her! A few missteps in the fittings and some misunderstandings with the tailors caused some issues but it's all working out and her clothes look great!

Today we had a couple fittings at Peace and a fitting for our shoes as well. I won't bore you about the shoes but suffice it to say getting clothes made is much better experience. However Carolyn may have finally found the holy grail: boots she actually likes :)

After our morning fittings we fiddled around our Italy guide book trying to get a handle on Italy (which is overwhelming and stressful!) and then grabbed a couple bicycles and headed for the beach. The beach is called Cau Dai and is only a 15 minute bike ride from our hotel. It was awfully beautiful but super windy. We saw loads and loads of locals sitting under trees, fully dressed complete with face mask. The beach itself was nice soft sand that stretched as far as you could see in either direction. The water was freezing though. Ok maybe not freezing, more like just below bath water which is freezing in SE Asia. So we braved the cold water and crashing waves, watched kite surfers and jet skiers and people watched the local Vietnamese swimming in full outfits (like jeans, button down shirts, face mask, dresses, etc).

Had dinner at a sweet little place in town and walked around the old quarter. Watched all the chaos of Vietnam and then made our way back to the hotel.

Tomorrow is probably going to be a pool day but we'll see.

Exciting note: we've been able to catch 3 (yes 3!!!!!) Yankees games so far this season. Our hotel gets ESPN which televised quite a few Yankees games .... WINNING!

Pics:
1) Carolyn's casual dress
2) Cau Dai beach
3) me with 16 million Dong! We're millionaires!!!!!
4) Carolyn's special dress.

Vietnamese storm trooper

4/14/12:

This lady came into the tailor shop we were at. I snapped this pic to show you what ALL the women look like here in Vietnam. Notice the complete lack of skin showing and keep in mind that it's 95 degrees out, clear sky and about 87% humidity.

The people here think the whiter your skin the more beautiful you are. Consequently everyone (well all the ladies at least) wear full face masks, hats, long sleeves and a jacket or hoodie and long pants. This is to keep them as white as possible. Also, most cosmetic products tout their whitening abilities. Crazy.

Crank pot

I had one of those day, if it can go wrong it do go wrong. Laundry wasn't done and I had sent in everything, iPod wasn't working, flights we looked at last night tripled over night. I ate a kit kat watched Zookeeper and pouted for a little while then we went to get pampered a bit. I got a pedicure which wasn't that great (a reoccuring theme in this country) but Michael went to get a hair cut and came out a changed man. Haircut, straight razor shave, nose trimming, back shave and head, back and chest massage for $11! He loved it!

After that we headed to our first fitting. Everything was fine with me, I'm not super happy with my pants but I told them to make them a little loose so that when I gain the weight I've lost back they will fit. Michael's clothes looked great. Finally a pair of pants that actually fit him! He got a jacket made but they only have girls zippers here so Michael will be wearing a ladies jacket by American standards. Since we were already in town we walked around and checked out the chaos that ensues when the kids get out of school and when the workday ends. Street venders pour out of back streets, boats arrive on the river to load up a million motorbikes and take workers home. The city comes to life. We also realized that the people here live well because this is the first time in SEA you see overweight locals and lots of them, especially little kids.

We ventured to a book store that we read about and met the American who owns it. He said his house has flooded 3 times in six years. They have many dams in the highlands that we passed on the way here, he said during monsoon season logs filled the dam, the government freaked out, opened the dams which flooded Hoi An and then didn't have enough water for the hydroelectric plants so the people went without power every other day for the entire summer! Apparently the government was unaware of the amount of illegal logging that was going on in the highlands that started the whole chain of events.

Had a second fitting and it was chaotic in the shop but it was good to see what other people ordered. Then we had a shoe fitting and we each got another pair of shoes. From there we had a cheap dinner since we spent all our money on clothes and shoes :)

Tomorrow after another fitting we are venturing to the beach!

Pics:
New boot phase 1
Michael getting a shave
Hoi An at night
Street seller who asked us to take her picture