oFebruary 12 Quy Nhon to Hoi An
A very frustrating day as the bus sped past so many opportunities for photographs, real photographs that is, not the touristy postcard snapshots I have of necessity been taking so much of the time. One opportunity in particular will be forever etched in my mind and how I wish I could paint to record it. There was an old house, concrete or stucco, that was once very colourful but is now faded to pastels and chipped and worn in many places. In front of the house and off to one side crouched an elderly lady who fit in perfectly with the house. I would have readily paid a good sum to have the bus stop but we passed it so fast there was no chance to do that. I felt that would have been by far the best photo of my entire trip.
Our first, and only save two toilet stops early in the day, was at the site of the My Lai massacre. We watched another video which was only marginally better than the last one we viewed. I couldn't understand the female narrator so didn't get much out of it other than the obvious. Ditto for the female guide who walked us around after the video. We then looked around the museum containing artifacts recovered from the burned huts and some photographs of the actual killings. Overall pretty depressing.
Vu said that there were no clean and good restaurants in the area so we had a picnic lunch at the My Lai site. Sardines in tomato sauce (no thank you), sliced cucumbers, sliced tomatoes, those triangles of cream cheese, baguettes, bananas and tangerines. I built three submarine type sandwiches from the baguettes, cheese, cucumbers and tomatoes and quite enjoyed them. The only problem was they sold no beer there. LOL No breakfast or dinner today.
After that it was a tedious three hour bus ride to Hoi An. I hoped that there would be at least one brief stop but no such luck.
I have no idea what I will do tomorrow. I said no to all options offered - bicycle tour, Cham ruins tour and Vietnamese cooking lessons and meal. I declined the latter because I don't particularly care for fresh spring rolls, already know how to make the fried spring rolls and the steamed fish. I asked again about fishing as this is where he said he thought it might be arranged. I also said that I would be interested in going out with a fisherman at 4:00 am and helping to bring in the nets, etc. but haven't heard whether he was able to arrange anything. Now the group is out walking around meeting reliable tailors and shoemakers who can produce their goods in less than a day. I decided that I didn't need any of those things and didn't particularly want another group dinner so remained behind. If the fishing doesn't pan out I will try to arrange a trip around town by cyclo or taxi.
o