One Get, One Free

Big man on a little train.

Heyo!  It's been a while because I was taken down with some tummy issues - (Chipoodles withdrawal? We may never know) probably from two weeks of foods I don't usually eat.  I am feeling much better today and Dr. Sarah Wild prescribed a beer to help - and I think it is working.

We took a night train down 16 hours or so from Hanoi to Hoi An (weird, right?).  With names like that I was afraid I was on a train going in a circle, but this town is much different from the one we left.  We also thought this would be a great experience - you get to your cabin, fall asleep for a while, and wake up in a new town.  That isn't exactly what 16 hours on a hard pallet felt like - and the bathroom on the train. (shudder)  Which led to me not eating or drinking much for about a day, which led to the tummy issues - and here we are!

HoiAn is a very touristy town and seems to be the place to go if you want something tailored to you (suits, ties, dresses, pants, shoes, sandals, you name it).  Since it is a touristy town, and now that I'm feeling better we decided to get massages!  There was a place proudly boating "one get, one free" - and even if our guide book advised against such places, we thought heck, let's roll the dice.  I would maybe equate the experience to me giving someone a massage for an hour if I was also multi-tasking and yawning a lot.

Basically I got walked on a lot by a small woman, Jefferson (from the sounds of it two feet away) got slapped around a lot, and there was an important phone call or two my lady had to take.  I assume she received dire news on the call because the massage got a bit aggressive after that.

Because of my tummy we haven't gone more than two blocks from our hotel so we've done a lot of what we do best - sit around and read.  That has been great but means no pictures - boo!  The only ones we have are from Jefferson taking a half day cooking course on Vietnamese cuisine at Miss Vy's school.  He enjoyed it and got a ton of food to eat.  Oh and of course, we had some Mexican food while we were here (not enough beans).  We're venturing out further tomorrow so we promise more pictures!  G'night!

Jefferson made cabbage soup with shrimp dumplings.

Hanoi beer, mmmmmm.

Jefferson made this Vietnamese pancake (savory).