Easy Rider

After a short but deep sleep I got up just in time to go down to the shop and get my shoes by 10 am. They now fit perfectly but I chose my normal shoes to go back to the hostel. Breakfast just finished but we had our next appointment already lined up. At 11 am we were suppose to be back at the tailor.

The shirts fit well but my jacket and the pants had to be altered slightly (that's what the tailor told me at least - I thought they don't look bad).

So we were scheduled to be back again around 6pm and had nearly a full day to do something. What to do?

We got scooters for 5$ and rode out of town. The plan was to visit my son. Sorry.. My Son (this is the name of an ancient temple area, similar to Angkor Wat).

It was the first time for me on a scooter, or any motorized, two wheel transportation device, at that.
Since these things are automatic it wasn't too hard to pick it up. Also riding through the busy streets (where there are not any obvious traffic rules) with all the other scooters was more fun than scary.

A little wobbly at the beginning it became a lot of fun very quickly, and after a couple of kilometres out of town I even started enjoying the scenery and the way you experience your surroundings much more intense, when sitting on a bike, rather than in an air-conditioned bus.

We saw the rice paddies with farmers planting or harvesting their crops, water buffaloes, palm trees, huts and boats on the rivers. We heard and smelled our little 110 cc engines whizzing along, mixed with the sound and smells of other bikes, cars, animals and anything that was around us while having the wind blowing in our faces (the helmets were not exactly first class).
It was really exciting.

The freedom we got with these bikes we used by stopping of at a random little, very local restaurant with only one dish to choose from (but it was nice).

After about 50 km we got to My Son, and could explore the ruins. Unfortunately a lot of these temples was destroyed during the American/Vietnam War.

Some of the holes in the ground were pointed out to be created by B52 bombs.

The whole area had five or six separate groups of temples, all very close together and as compared to Angkor much smaller. On the positive side, we were nearly alone and could freely roam around.
However we did feel a bit wrecked after the ride and the long days and nights before, so that the temples could not excite us that much.

After we checked them out very quick we decided to ride home, also not to arrive in the dark.
When we passed through a larger town on the way back, it seemed the entire town was riding around with their scooters and it was crazy do join them in their way home from work or wherever they were going. It felt like being an ant in a large ant colony, but we made it out of there safely and soon were back in Hoi An and just on time to visit our Tailor again.

Apparently there was still something wrong with my jacket so it was also necessary to ride over to the little factory place where the suits are made, so the master tailor can have another look himself on how it fits.

Some of the tailor guys were more interested in following the football game in TV. It was Vietnam : Philippines which Vietnam won 3:1.

Anyway, it was suggested to come back after dinner around 10pm. No problem, so we walked around the central market and got some Pho and a walk along the river with the nice lanterns. We found a little place far down the road, with no one sitting there but the owner.

He was really happy to have some customers and we enjoyed the view onto the dark river.

We also used the time to book scooters for the next day. The extra kick with this was that we were going to take the scooters up the coast about 150 km to Hue and return them there. Our larger luggage was going to be brought up by car and was suppose to be waiting for us at our next hostel.

We didn't have a hostel booked yet, so we did that quickly over the hostelworld app and all was set for tomorrow.

We picked up the perfectly fitting suits and thanked the lovely tailor team for doing such great work and then headed back home, Not before dropping into a little Hawaiian Music Bar that charged crazy amounts for a beer. So we only stayed there for one and then got back to stuff our newly acquired suits into our backpacks. It all fitted, but just about.

A busy day was over, with another adventure waiting for us in the morning.