Tuesday, January 1, 2008.We made arrangements the night before to visit the nearby My Son ruins. After the shocking humidity of the last few cities we had visited it was surprising to see how cool Hoi An had become. The tour bus picked us up at our hotel and took us to the My Son ruins about half an hour away. Rain had been predicted and it was drizzling by the time we arrived at the site. Laura had wisely held on to her $5.00 REI poncho the entire time. Alas, Charles did not. (Fortunately, cheap, crappy garbage-bag -like ponchos were available onsite for .50!)
"The Champa people are ethnically the same Malay-Polynesian people as the Khmers of Angkor Wat, Cambodia - with dark skin, wiry hair and sunken eyes their physical appearance is very different from the Vietnamese."
I'm not sure if we met any Champa descendents. But it all makes sense when you look at the ruins and compare them to the temples of Siem Reap. Unfortunately this area was heavily bombed in the Vietnam war. The guide said that U.S. shells destroyed most of the temples and we even got a shot inside of Charles standing by one...
This was not the most ideal tour as several other tour groups were there and every group had to patiently take turns entering each structure single file, take photos, listen to the heavily-accented guide you could barely understand, exit single file for the next impatient group, etc. It would have been more interesting to just go off on our own and take photos and video/film but the guide didn't seem to want any independent activity!
Nevertheless, it was an interesting tour and we were among the last of our group to leave, filming on the run, trying to catch up lest we get held back. On the plus side we got to ride back to the tour bus in an honest-to-God U.S. of A. army jeep that must have been left behind! Alas, no photos...(at least none by us, but it looks like another traveller did the exact same trip and took a shot of it here. Actually, if you've seen any episode of MASH it's really not that interesting after all!)
Upon our return to Hoi An Laura immediately checked into booking a table at the restaurant we were denied entrance to the night before...Brothers Cafe...
Brother's Cafe, 27 Phan Boi Chau, [4]. Open daily for lunch and dinner. Probably Hoi An's nicest restaurant, with a lush landscaped garden in a wonderful riverside French colonial house. The fresh spring rolls (ch? giò) are excellent, and priced to match at US$4.50 a plate. The 6-course US$16 set meal for two is a good value though.
To our good fortune they had a table available at 7:00 pm (this is late by Hoi An standards), right by the water!
We had some time to kill so we wandered about. Since this town was known for its incredible deals on custom-made suits Charles wanted to check this out. An inquiry at the front desk of our hotel led to (surprise!) the recommendation of one shop which was run by the manager's sister. The guy desperately wanted us to patronize this shop which made us a bit suspicious... We wandered about and after noticing a great looking wool jacket (like the kind you'd see at the GAP or Macy's for a couple hundred) in one shop Charles inquired as to the cost. The guide books swore that you could get custom-suits for $25.00 but that seemed a little extreme. Nevertheless Charles was able to bargain the price for a wool jacket down from the clerk's $55.00 quote to $35.00 after walking out of the store and having the salesperson run out into the street to grab him back! We were leaving the next day at 2:00 pm but the store owner swore that 
it would be ready by 10AM! I guess they are used to that kind of pressure. More last minute shopping ensued. There were some great silk scarves available for our respective co-workers. One obnoxious lady at a shop by the waterfront insisted on some ridiculous price -- Charles tried the walking away maneuver and it worked again! The woman grabbed and pulled him back into her shop, laughing that she must have made a mistake in her original price. Ok...whatever. We got some good deals, probably got a bit ripped off in others but overall made out pretty well...We arrived at the Brothers Cafe to find our table out by the pitch black river and immediately ordered two local specialties -- their version of Cau Lau (very good -- but not quite the level of the Cargo Club version), and another tasty traditional dish, White Rose dumplings. By Hoi An standards this was an expensive meal (probably around $20 USD) but well worth it. Excellent service, atmosphere and food. Alas...it was getting cold by the water so we had to make an early exit...
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