Day 81: November 9, 2014

Today was our free day in Hoi An, so Cate and I woke up at 8:30 and got our free breakfast from the hotel. We then decided to explore the city before it got too hot, so we headed out across the bridge and into Hoi An. We were immediately greeted by this woman on a street corner, who of course measured her height to mine. She took us to her stand ("look only, no buy if you don't want"), where I ended up getting some gifts for a great price. After our purchases, she then led us to her tailoring shop in the market, where after sitting down and looking through the catalogues we politely told her we didn't need any clothes and left.

The rest of the morning was basically just spent walking around and looking in all of the stores before it got warm out. We came back to the hotel, finished our sociology homework, and chilled by the pool for a little bit. When we were ready to go again and it had cooled off outside, Cate and I rented bicycles from a lady across the street. We biked around the city with no destination in mind and saw a lot of cool things that we otherwise might not have. Cate had a dress made, I bought a pre-made dress, we stopped because I wanted Cate to try banh beo from a street vendor we just  happened to pass, and we rode through some more residential areas. We went to the riverfront and biked along it for awhile, stopping when Cate saw a quaint little coffee shop. We headed up to the top floor, sat in wicker chairs overlooking the river, and she enjoyed ca phe sua da while I enjoyed a banana smoothie. The floor was a fish pond, we had a great view of the sun setting, and we took in the landscape while enjoying our drinks. When we were finished, we decided to head back to the hotel as it was getting dark.

We had about an hour of free time before the entire group decided to go get something to eat. They wanted Ganesh, but I badly wanted some street food. I biked with them to Ganesh, and then headed out on my own. I biked the surrounding streets before coming across exactly what I was looking for: chicken rice. We had been told to try this dish, so I ordered com ga and sat at the table I was directed to. Here in Vietnam, it's not uncommon to sit two separate parties at the same table if there is room, so I sat across from a man and a woman. My chicken rice came, and it was everything I had been craving. Yellow rice with shredded chicken, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and fresh herbs on top with a little bowl of chicken broth to pour over the top. When I had finished my meal, where the couple I was sitting across from advised me to use a spoon instead of chopsticks, I headed back to Ganesh to meet up with Cate.

When her meal was over, we biked around the city taking in the night views. She decided she wanted some dessert, and saw what we thought was this woman selling some sort of balls in powdered sugar. Cate bought two, gave one to me, and I bit into it. It wasn't powdered sugar but was instead flour! Cate had ended up getting these doughy balls, rolled in flour, with a peanut mixture on the inside. The outside was a little weird, but the filling made up for it. When we got back to the hotel, we Googled what we had eaten and it turns out that they are actually dough balls made with rice flour, dipped in rice flour. Rice is everywhere in this country!

After our adventures in dessert, we continued our bike ride throughout the city. I stopped at a che place and ordered che bap, or corn sweet soup. I was expecting it hot, but instead got a glass with ice and the corn sweet soup in it. It was a nice change from the warm che bap I've had. The taste was a little overwhelming, like eating cold sweet corn, but it was very good.

Cate and I biked around for a little more, taking a dark river path, going through the city, and ultimately going past our hotel to see where that road went. Although biking around was nice, we eventually had to come back to the hotel to finish packing. Tomorrow we leave for the next city!