Fili’s world

My second marriage proposal in three days, this time from the receptionist in my Hotel. The guys from the Hue hotel I was staying at suggested they’d book me this really neat hotel with a swimming pool for 15$ in advance, but I wasn’t sure I’d like the room. Coming down with the tourist bus into town a man got on the bus and starting introducing us to a hotel tour, the first one being this really crappy nothing-inside 6$ hotel. I was annoyed by the whole thing, so I took off my big bag and left the tourist bus heading to the recommended place from Hue, which turned out to be a comfy big clean place just across the street. As I got there, leaving my bigbag outside the hotel, the going price was 10$ (already 5$ less than booking in advance). After Tam showed me the room and I said - “Hmm… I’ll go get my bag” she replied “No, no, okay, for you 9$”. I wasn’t sure what just happened but it seemed like she thought I was bargaining. Now, I’m really bad at bargaining, feeling bad for the locals, and I was really just going to get my bag and settle for the 10$, but she thought that her future husband is going to leave her alone. “No, it’s okay, I’m just going to get my bag” I said to which she replied “okay, for you - 8$, very cheap”. I smiled at the irony of the situation, but stopping her for making me cheaper offers I suggested - “Why don’t you go sign me in with THIS passport, while I go get my bag”. Tam gave me a huge happy smile and ran along back to the frontdesk.

Only a short street walk from my hotel to the Internet place, and I’ve already counted 4 encounters. “How are you doing? Where are you from? When did you get here?” all seem quite ordinary and I’m so amused waiting for the next question - “Will you come and see my sister’s clothes?” or “Would you like to join me for a fitting?”.

Hoi An is undoubtedly a Women’s shopping heaven. There are so many tailors here, doing crazy beautiful suits for ridiculous sums of money, that you can go around shopping for weeks and still spend less than a day in the western world. Walking around the Hoi An city yesterday evening I had a big smile hanging on my face. This is the way Vietnam should look like. Chinese-French-Colonial Buildings with red lamps lighting the streets, no motorbikes or cars around the old-town, classical music playing the same melodic tune as you wonder about, load of Asian-designed Cafe’s-Bars-restaurants, very nice people. A Vietnamese heaven. I’ve spent the night with Aussie’s Justine and Whatshisname playing Pool in this shick-communist-bar. This trip has shown good progress in my Pool skills…