Got the shuttle bus into Hoi An with a view to exploring more of the lovely old town. Rain came on. At first a light drizzle then a steady wetting rain. Never to miss a trick, within minutes vendors were hawking cheap plastic coveralls. John was agin such a naff purchase bit this was one of the very few occasions when I have overruled him. Bought 2. Girls, do you remember the book you had as children - The Big Orange Splot? Well that's what Dad and I were. He was the big orange splot and I was the big yellow splot! It was hilarious, we just had to laugh at ourselves.The style and colour of the coveralls multplied by the number of people who were wearing them made a wet Hoi An look like a Ku Klux Klan fun day out!
Despite the grey day the lanterns still added plenty of colour.
We spent the afternoon dotting between bars during breaks in the rain. In the process we discovered the delights of bia hoi which is probably the world's cheapest beer at about 14p for a 250 ml glass. We took the opportunity to wander round backstreets that we would not normally have seen.
We were still bar hopping when happy hour came. Thank goodness for that as I was well and truly beered out. Margaritas? Yes!
We ate in town and returned to the hotel for our luggage. They got us a taxi for the train station in Da Nang. Here we had some excitement. The taxi didn't take us to the station, he took us to the airport. Drama! Shouts! Eventually lots of dong later we got to the train station. He demanded his full metered fare for our excursion. I think not! But we were locked in and our luggage was in the boot. I don't often get angry but when I do I do it big time. Gillie - do you remember your Mum in action with the French woman at the velo rail? I was even worse but the big problem was that I don't speak Vietnamese. In the end we paid him slightly less than the meter said and left shaking with fury. How impotent we felt. It was not a huge sum of money and we had had such a wonderful stay in Hoi An that we determined we would not allow this charlatan of a taxi driver to sully our memory of Hoi An.
Have you kept your rainwear for future rain?
ReplyDeleteRaining here today,but nobody selling splot rainwear.Would have loved to have been a fly on the wall/window of the taxi when you were locked in with your luggage in the boot.Will the
beer addiction still be with you when you come home?
Wot! No photo of you as splots with all the other colourful splots? There is nothing like negotiating from a position of strength. And there is nothing worse than being in the weaker position - but why am I telling you that?
ReplyDeleteWish we had photos of us splots but didn't have cameras out in the rain. The images will have to stay in our heads.
ReplyDelete