Hoi An

This week, our class is going on a tour of the central and Northern regions of Vietnam. This has been the week that I've been looking forward to since I first decided to go on the CET trip. We took a language pledge for the trip to only speak in Vietnamese but I think by writing my blog in Vietnamese also, I should be ok!

We started out taking the trip by train. The trip from Ho Chi Minh City to Hoi An was an impressive 17 hours but we had a sleeper car so the trip went by pretty quickly. I did a lot of work on my research project, played Chinese chess with Alyce, looked at the interesting scenery, read Harry Potter in Vietnamese, and of course, slept.

Anna and Alyce Playing Chinese Chess on the Train

We got to Hoi An around noon on Saturday and went to explore the town a bit. We rented bikes and went through the countryside a bit where we had to dodge water buffalo to cycle down the narrow roads and saw a lot of interesting village and farm life. It was very interesting that just a 10 minute bike ride from the touristy beach-resort town of Hoi An exists a completely different world.

Sharing our bike trip with a herd of water buffalo

Later that day, Anna and I explored the touristy part of town a bit. Hoi An is very famous for it's clothing and tailoring. I had to greatly restrain myself from buying about 20 dresses. However, I have to say the number 1 thing I'm looking forward to when returning to the United States is not having people yell "Madam, you want to buy!" every two feet. It seems that almost everywhere I go, it's impossible to escape. There was one woman who very enthusiastically told me that I should buy a dress from her because "I give you a discount because you have body like a Vietnamese woman. See, you short, same like me and not fat like an American."

We ended up the night at a bar called "Before and Now" which was oddly to be Che Guevera themed and was filled with foreigners. It was pretty unremarkable but Anna and I enjoyed speaking to the waitresses in Vietnamese who were easily impressed with our very basic conversational skills, as most people we meet are. Especially people who want to sell you stuff.



Tuần này lớp của tôi đi du lịch đến miễn Trung và miễn Bắc. Cả học ký tôi đã muốn đi chuyên này! Tối thứ bảy, chúng tôi từ Sài Gòn đi Hội An bằng xe lửa. Mặc dù đi bằng xe lửa mất khoảng 17 tiếng nhưng tôi thấy chuyên này vui lắm. Tôi đọc Harry Potter bằng tiếng Việt, chơi bài với Anna và Chị Hồng (Alyce), viết giấy nghiện cứu, và ngủ nhiều. Tôi xem cảnh đẹp lắm.

Chúng tôi đến Hội An chủ Nhật. Anna và tôi đi lòng vòng. Chúng tôi đi mua sắm và đi xe đạp. Chỉ 10 phút bằng xe đạp thôi có một làng. Làng có đường hẹp và nhiều con gá và con trâu.

Vào bưởi tối, chúng tôi đi quán cà phê tên "Before and Now." Chúng tôi uống bia và nói chuyên với những người phục vụ bằng tiếng Việt.