Hoi An ... town of lanterns and tailor shops

Hoi An … a beautiful town …

We stay in a hotel out on the road to the beach. It is nice, not too big and the rooms are large, beautiful and quiet.

We meet people poolside and have nice chats. First day, Cedric from France, Paris to be precise. He lives in Sai Gon; he is a project manager in video games for mobile phones. He likes it, work is good, living standard for him is better here than in France, lives in a house, rent is US$ 900, and in Paris he paid Euro 800 for a 30 m2 flat.

Uli wanted to buy another book in Sai Gon, but it was difficult to find something. Lonely Planet told us about a second hand bookstore in Hoi An. It is run by an American, he lives here now for five years.
We got talking and he told us how he came to settle in Hoi An. Randy travelled around east Asia when he got sick. At Hoi An hospital he told them to check for everything … and sure enough they found that he had a rare stomach bug which was causing the stomach to grow bigger and pressing against his heart. The doctor gave him 3 different types of antibiotics and ten days later he was slowly getting better.
In the states Randy had heart surgery three or four times, but his heart was still racing like a mad machine. His heart specialist gave him a year to live. Randy sold everything he owned and planned to travel for a year. Six month into his trip he got sick in Hoi An … and this is now nearly six years later!!!

Very interesting guy … bought two books of him.

Today, we were swimming when we met three guys in their thirties. A big mud wasp came and wanted to have a drink. One guy got very nervous about the wasp. Matt told him it’s only a mud wasp and explained that it needs the water to build a nest.
Half an hour later we were still in the pool talking, first about Australia starting with mud wasps; then about Norway and Viet Nam. We compared notes where they stayed and what we were doing. When Uli mentioned that we are staying in HCMC / Sai Gon for over 4 week the immediate question we always get is: WHY ??? Uli explained … and we talked about our mission and the different projects. We handed out our new business cards and the boys said they will check our website and blog.

This afternoon we were planning the meetings and appointments we have to arrange for the last week, so we are still on the ball!!!