Casual day in Hoi An

We had a leisurely start to our day, breakfast at the resort; starting to acquire quite a liking to pa414.ssion fruit, pomelo, and rambutan, not to mention Vietnamese coffee.
When I went to check on the photo tour yesterday, I came back through a different part of the market that happened to be the cloth section.  We headed there this morning for a look.....We got to the entrance and while I was taking a picture or something, Eileen had been introduced to a woman whose mother had a fabric shop inside, so off we went.  I don't think they get many westerners who are doing more than wandering through, so when they have a mark, they really go.  We got to moms section and Eileen started looking through the stacks of fabric.  Right away they sat her at a table and produced binders of samples that represented the inventory that they had.  When she commented on how warm it was, one of them started to fan her, it was all quite interesting to watch.  Shoot, I thought I had a picture of that but I did a video instead, and I am not going to try putting that up from here...They were not pushy sellers or anything, they were just so eager to get the customer what she wanted.  We came away with five metres of fabric and an almost teary hug from the seller.  But that wasn't quite the end.  One of the group of ladies also wanted her to look at her shoes.  Her booth is way back in a dark corner so she has to pull people in, and she pulled Eileen.  We got to her booth and Eileen tried on a pair of sandals that she found very comfortable.  The woman gave her a bunch of choices for colors, etc, and said that she would have them made in an hour, I think they were $14.

Todays interesting face

We headed towards an ATM that I specifically wanted to hit and made a stop or two more at some of the many clothing shops.  Gavin, if you ever let Kelsee loose in this town, you might need to add on a new closet.
We made one last stop at the silk shop that we had stopped at on the day we arrived in Hoi An.  The embroidered pictures were so intricate, that we had to take another look.  There were several that we really liked, but just could not bring ourselves to pay the cost.  The ones we liked took three months to stitch, and were incredible works of art, but were about $1,000.  Unique and awesome, but we just cannot.
We hopped a cab to the beach, an incredible stretch of sand that goes as far as you can see.  There were not a lot of people around, but of course the hawkers were still there, as well as the ones trying to get you into the "free" chairs.  Nice lunch though, that included a big dish of steamed clams, one of my favourites.  We walked the beach for quite a bit, then taxied back to town.

The kids would love picking shells here

 

The woven bamboo basket boats

 

Pulling in the net

 

Paddling to a new location

 

Being a grandma

 

The fishing boats that are used here are round bamboo boats, maybe 8 feet in diameter, half of the boat has a standing platform and half is open to the bottom for the fishing nets, etc.  We watched one guy pulling in his net, rowing (single oar) to a new spot, and then dropping the nets again, and these nets are probably 200-300 feet long.  Incredibly hard work.
We taxied back, got dropped at the market, picked up the sandals, stopped for a beer at a shady restaurant, and made a reservation for supper at the Morning Glory restaurant, which is an incredibly popular spot. Back to the resort, grabbed a couple of nibbles from their food sampling, then chilled on the deck.  Picked up our laundry that we dropped this morning, another $5 spent.
Supper was a splurge for here, $40 and half of that was for a bottle of wine.  The stuffed squid was the highlight.

Hoi An at night

Tomorrow, we have to see some of the historical building around Hoi An.  We've been walking past them for days now but have not gone in yet.  We have a sunset boat ride from 5-6  booked though the resort that comes at no cost.