Towards the end of that week, reality started to sink in. Nona, Grael, and Conrad would be leaving soon. We had final meals at their favorite restaurants, and picked up the (multiple) additional items that we all had ordered from the tailor. My days were spent at work, and you can bet I took a cab home every single time.
When I was gone at work one day, the water in our house stopped flowing. So I checked the expat Facebook group, and we were hardly alone. It was unclear if this was an accidental outage or scheduled repair, but the expat gossip network said that crews would be working on it for a couple of days.
Now, let me put a plumbing outage in context. 80% of the food that I’ve consumed here has come from a street corner. And 100% of it contains visible chili flakes. Needless to say, I have really come to depend on a functioning plumbing system. So call it resourcefulness or desperation, but I learned that it is, in fact, possible to flush a toilet with bottled water.
The water came back overnight on the second day of the outage, two hours before the power went out. But I still love this country.
The night before Nona and Grael left, we went down to An Banh beach for their last visit (at least on this trip, we kept telling ourselves). Mimi was taking a long nap, so we sent them down ahead of us. By the time Aimee and I got there, Grael had met another couple from Arizona and was relaying all the food tips that I gave him on his first day. I was so proud.
We all got up early the next day to see them off. I picked up one last round of banh mis for the road, but even the world's greatest sandwiches couldn't lift our spirits.
So what do you do when your friends leave paradise, but you're still there? You Treat. Yo. Self. As it happens, all of the treats in that video are very easy to find in Hoi An.
Nguyen, our cooking teacher was conveniently opening a spa that weekend. Seriously. Can't make that up. So, I mean, we need to support our new friend, right?
And this was no ordinary spa. It was located in the rice paddies outside of the city, in Nguyen's childhood home. His family had all moved into town above his restaurant, so his home overlooking this little slice of paradise was sitting empty.
Since one of us needed to watch the baby, we took turns getting massages. Aimee went first, and Nguyen showed me around his home.
He pointed out the banana and mango trees that he would eat from as a kid. He noted that the chicken coop is now the public restroom. And he showed me the first motorbike his family could afford 15 years ago. "Before then, only bicycle."
He was beaming with pride, and took a big breath as he looked around. The spa had clearly taken months to get ready, and Nguyen said that his first day was going well. In Viet Nam, there is a lot of luck wrapped up in first customers. An early first customer at a local shop brings good luck for the day, and is often thanked with a small discount. Having several people over to his spa on the opening day was a similarly good omen. We were happy to do our part.
Nguyen looked at the newly renovated houses all around us. "The houses are much bigger now," Nguyen mused as we looked out over the rice paddies. Like most of Viet Nam, Hoi An is booming, and that growth is bringing a lot of families out of poverty.
(As you can tell from the photos, Aimee also had a little walkabout. She had been wanting to photograph the rice paddies at sunset, and this was the best possible excuse.)
I continued my walk after Nguyen had to go back to work. As I went through the neighborhood, I saw farmers heading home and families gathering for dinner.
One of the homes had several chairs sitting out, and had made a little cafe in their front yard. As I sipped my coffee (served by dad), grandma brought home the pots and pans from her food cart in the city, and mom came home from her job at a hotel.
We casually chatted a bit (mom spoke English well, as do most hotel employees), and I told them what I do and why I was in town. The mom immediately asked me to take a look at a rash on her two year old, and of course I was happy to (it was a harmless rash, and mom appreciated the reassurance). The entire experience was another nice peek into life in Hoi An. The massage was great, too.
The night before Nona and Grael left, we went down to An Banh beach for their last visit (at least on this trip, we kept telling ourselves). Mimi was taking a long nap, so we sent them down ahead of us. By the time Aimee and I got there, Grael had met another couple from Arizona and was relaying all the food tips that I gave him on his first day. I was so proud.
We all got up early the next day to see them off. I picked up one last round of banh mis for the road, but even the world's greatest sandwiches couldn't lift our spirits.
So what do you do when your friends leave paradise, but you're still there? You Treat. Yo. Self. As it happens, all of the treats in that video are very easy to find in Hoi An.
Nguyen, our cooking teacher was conveniently opening a spa that weekend. Seriously. Can't make that up. So, I mean, we need to support our new friend, right?
And this was no ordinary spa. It was located in the rice paddies outside of the city, in Nguyen's childhood home. His family had all moved into town above his restaurant, so his home overlooking this little slice of paradise was sitting empty.
Since one of us needed to watch the baby, we took turns getting massages. Aimee went first, and Nguyen showed me around his home.
He pointed out the banana and mango trees that he would eat from as a kid. He noted that the chicken coop is now the public restroom. And he showed me the first motorbike his family could afford 15 years ago. "Before then, only bicycle."
He was beaming with pride, and took a big breath as he looked around. The spa had clearly taken months to get ready, and Nguyen said that his first day was going well. In Viet Nam, there is a lot of luck wrapped up in first customers. An early first customer at a local shop brings good luck for the day, and is often thanked with a small discount. Having several people over to his spa on the opening day was a similarly good omen. We were happy to do our part.
Nguyen looked at the newly renovated houses all around us. "The houses are much bigger now," Nguyen mused as we looked out over the rice paddies. Like most of Viet Nam, Hoi An is booming, and that growth is bringing a lot of families out of poverty.
(As you can tell from the photos, Aimee also had a little walkabout. She had been wanting to photograph the rice paddies at sunset, and this was the best possible excuse.)
I continued my walk after Nguyen had to go back to work. As I went through the neighborhood, I saw farmers heading home and families gathering for dinner.
One of the homes had several chairs sitting out, and had made a little cafe in their front yard. As I sipped my coffee (served by dad), grandma brought home the pots and pans from her food cart in the city, and mom came home from her job at a hotel.
We casually chatted a bit (mom spoke English well, as do most hotel employees), and I told them what I do and why I was in town. The mom immediately asked me to take a look at a rash on her two year old, and of course I was happy to (it was a harmless rash, and mom appreciated the reassurance). The entire experience was another nice peek into life in Hoi An. The massage was great, too.
