The day of the Xe May.

Today consisted of me on the back of a motorbike zooming around the country side of central Vietnam. I spent the night in Hue, a city very close to the DMZ. I arrived pretty late from Hanoi after a last minute decision to take off for this new adventure. The OpSmile folks set me up in a really great hotel about a mile out of town. I had made reservations for the bus down to Hoi An, so I only had 4 hours to visit Hue in the morning. This is why the Xe May (mortorbike taxi) came into play. I had a lot to see and a short time to do it.

I highly recommend this way of travel because for a little less than $2/hour you get your own transportation and a defacto tour guide. One hint i learned this time is to bring gum or a breath mint. There is nothing worse the riding downwind of a man with terrible breath. Imust have looked like Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura hanging my head off the side of the bike.

So having paid $2/hour for a private chauffer, i began to get a lil worried about the bus I was going to be on for my trip to Hoi An. I was told it departed at 1:30p and would take 2.5 hours to reach Hoi An. That would get me in at 4 right? WRONG!.

What they don't tell you is that they drive around Hue for close to an hour and a half picking people up from their hotels. So we finally leave Hue around 3. Then they must have worked this deal with a restaurant in the middle of no where because our bus and several others stopped for a half hour break. Oh Joy!

Then we stopped a couple places in DaNang and dropped some locals at their houses in Hoi An before being kiced off the bus in front of some random hotel about a 4 kilometers away from where I was going.

This is where the second Xe May came in. This one was comical because I had my big backpack on and was holding my daypack. For the first time, I felt like a local...putting WAY too much on a little moped.

Finally at 6:30 I get to my hotel. I am staying at the Ancient House Resort. This place is amazing. Anywhere in the states this would cost 4 to 5 hundred a night (or more). Again Thanks OpSmile.

So, Hoi An is known for it's tailors and the ability to whip out suits, shirts, whatever.
Two of my favourite shirts had reached the end of their useful life so I thought I would get them copied. Well, 6 custom designed shirts, a 3 piece grey pinstripe suite, and 2 hours later, I foundmyself eating a local meal with the people that worked at the store. They were so nice and being able to design my own clothes was really cool. Oh and by the way, I spent less on all of that than I did on the two shirts I brought in to be copied. I can't wait to try them on tomorrow night.

What a way to start and finish a day. The middle part I would skip next time and hire a private car for $30.

Cheers to all. I promise I will post pics tomorrow night.