I've been in Hoi An the past several days, my last real stop in Vietnam. Tomorrow I take a bus headed to Laos, we stop for the night near the border and should get to Vientiane in the afternoon. Then it's a week in Laos, hop a flight to Cambodia, and I'll spend the last of my sightseeing time at Angkor Wat, have been looking forward to going there for a long time.
Hoi An is all about shopping shopping shopping. There are more than a hundred tailor shops where you can get anything made that you want- I've got shoes, a suit, a dress, and a shirt, so am feeling good in the shopping department. The town is cute, lots of nice cafes and restaurants to hang out in, but the sightseeing was a bit dissapointing. You buy a ticket to see several sights in the "old town," but what that really turns out to mean is that you pay to go visit glorified souvenir shops in the form of museums and old houses. But the temples and convention halls were nice, and you get to watch a music performance- a very touristy one, but the playing was still nice. They have a Japanese covered bridge here too- that also doesn't look Japanese to me- but the one in Hue was nicer, and had a better setting.
Today I went to My Son ruins, they were very nice, and in a mountain setting that was gorgeous. Smaller than I expected, but lovely anyway- lots of red brick ruins and a few statues still around that have lost their heads, I think its so sad that people stole the heads off.
Anyway, looking forward to Laos. I don't have much time there, but I wanted to go because everyone who's been loves it. I had thought about continuing a bit down south in Vietnam, but the visibility is pretty bad now and time is running short, so maybe next time.
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