Pret a Porter (or Sashay, Chante)

Greetings from Hoi An, a quaint old city on the central coast of Vietnam, that I think may also be another UNESCO World Heritage site. (Three UNESCO world heritage sites -- ah, ah, ah, ahhhhh.) I was having problems accessing my blog since we arrived, but I think I finally figured it out.

Hoi An is famous for its tailors, so I've spent the past few days running around having things made. I'm like an addict. So far, I've had three dresses made from three different shops -- with varying outcomes. They take your measurements and you pick out the style and the fabric. Major fun. I had one knockoff of a J Crew dress made -- it turned out kind of cute, but not too exciting. (I still want the one in the catalog.) I also had a dress made out of the Hawaiian print fabric usually used for men's bathing suits. That one is interesting, as it is made to my exact measurements -- meaning, it fits like a wet suit (albeit a lovely chartreuse flowered Hawaiian print wet suit that I could wear straight from swimming in the pool to a cocktail party). I kind of love how ugly that one is. And, there's a third dress that I have to go pick up tomorrow.

But enough about dresses. Actually, I haven't done too much more than that. I dared to ride a bike into town today, which was just crazy foolish. I thought traffic in Argentina was bad, where the lanes seemed more like suggestions than requirements. But here, it's a tangled web of cars, motos, and bikes, and people only sometimes stick to the right side of the road. In that equation, bikes always lose. I thought that I was going to die by moto several times.

I think tomorrow I'm going to finally do something and see nearby attractions Marble Mountain and China Beach. (China Beach was a show that I never watched, but my college roommates loved, and now I kind of wish I had watched it...I have, however, seen Escape from Witch Mountain, which as far as I know has nothing to do with Vietnam except for the fact that Vietnam has mountains and I am going to visit one tomorrow, but that will have to do for now).

Clearly the heat has poached my brain.