Shopping Heaven

After a 12 hour train ride out of Hanoi, Ngoc and I landed in Hue, Vietnam's ancient capital city. Since Hue was historically the seat of the emporer and his family, the city is chock full of historical architecture, most of which is housed in the 4 or so square kilometer walled "Citadel". I can't really do this description justice without posting the incredible pictures that I snapped (to follow!), but take my word for it, the sites were jaw dropping. Interestingly enough, half of the emporer's palace grounds seem completely razed by explosions and one could even imagine a firefight or two along the narrow corridors and alleyways...the other half preserved to perfection (or being rebuilt to resemble!). It's a strange dichotomy.

We also had a couple steaming hot bowls of Bun Bo Hue, in somewhat shady conditions (sitting in someone's house eating next to the family!), but our stomachs somehow survived, and it was delicious! We also ate at a Japanese restaurant called..."Japanese Restaurant".

So after Hue, and a short bus ride out of town, we arrive at our current destination, Hoi An. Oooh mama, this place is pure heat. Western bars and upscale restaurant, oceanside resorts with beach chair drink service, and oh yeah, lots and lots and LOTS of shopping. The name of the game here is clothing tailored to order. Wearing holes through your favorite pair of Jeans you bought at Guess for $90? Bring them here and get 10 exact replicas in under 24 hours for $15 each. Never been able to quite fit into an off-the-shelf suit/jacket/slacks/dress/jeans? I think I've been measures every which way possible time and time again over the last couple days, and everything I've had made has fit impeccably. Did I mention that you can even pick out your own fabric and create any design you want on the fly??

Ngoc and I, well, didn't exactly go "overboard" (although she might disagree), but we definitely spent more than we budgeted! A little more than $300 has netted us:

• One suit (trousers and jacket)
• One blazer
• 4 men's dress shirts
• One pair of corduroy slacks
• 3 dresses
• 2 skirts
• One women's winter coat

I think you can do the math and compare. If we can pull this off correctly, we should only need $500 and a plane ticket to Vietnam every couple of years to keep our wardrobes well stocked indefinitely.

Besides the whirlwind of shopping, we took an awesome little bike ride down the road (5km) to the beach today for some lunch (3 crabs), not-so-great coconut juice, and a nap in the shade on beach lounge chairs. It was the quintessential picture perfect white sand, palm tree'd, straw umbrella, tropical beach of every American's dreams. Don't you wish you were us???