We had really fallen in love with that town, and not just for the ancient history and amazing food that make it famous. It was always such a treat to run into people we knew, and the city was starting to feel like a second home. Even the beach vendors knew us by name. One of them actually wanted to take us out for coffee when we told her we were leaving soon. Where else in the world do beach vendors take you out for coffee to say goodbye?
But we still had a few days remaining in Hoi An, and we were excited to show it off to Tom and Helen. First stop: Our riverfront cafe of course.
Oh, you thought I meant with Tom and Helen? Who would have watched Mimi while we got our coconut coffees?
They didn't seem to mind.
First stop (with them): Biking around Old Town, with a requisite stop at the tailor. We had a few more of our own garmets to pick up (we were now working on winter attire), and we figured that Tom and Helen may want to have a few things of their own made. When we dropped by, all but one of the staff members were on vacation in Thailand. When I made a joke about us sending them there with all the clothes that we bought this month, the tailor laughed just a little too hard. Sounds like this relationship was a win-win for everybody.
We then swung by our usual food stands, and the Diehls jumped in with both feet. They were even determined to learn how to use chopsticks!
We knew that their first day on the other side of the international date line would be mostly spent recovering from jet lag. So we dropped them off at the spa while we put Mimi down for a nap (and grabbed another coconut coffee, if memory serves me). We also signed them up for a cooking class to orientate their tastebuds.
We spent the next couple of days touring more of our favorite spots, and we fell in love with this city all over again.
We went by the tailors to pick up Tom and Helen's clothes, and the rest of the staff had returned from Thailand. They sincerely asked us to bring Mimi by on our last day so that they could say goodbye. I really hope they can manage without their bi-weekly visits from "Mimi! Mimi! My baby! My baby!"
For our last night in Hoi An, Helen offered to watch Mimi so that we could say goodbye to the city. It was a nice treat to experience it at night.
Our first stop was the downtown riverfront. It's lined with women (who I assumed to be the wives of fishermen) offering to take tourists down the river in their boats.
Thankfully our captain was very reasonable when she named her price. There's no way that I'm negotiating with an octogenarian paddling us down the river by hand.
A common practice is to write down thoughts on a floating candle and send it down the river. We launched a couple from the halfway point of our cruise.
We passed under the tourist bridge that spans the river downtown...
Where I took what may be the best selfie of my life.
We also saw several Vietnamese couples taking engagement and wedding photos.
After the sun went down, we walked among the waterfront vendors selling more river candles, and grabbed a bowl of cao lao, a classic Hoi An dish based around noodles made with water from the historic well in Old Town.
It was such a treat to walk around the city one more time, and we feel so lucky to have lived here for two months. We'll really miss this place.
Until next time, Hoi An.
