To begin today's day, I slept in rather late, and then stayed in late as well. Why? Sunburn, baby. I had to make a game plan for the day, and I hadn't yet done that. I guess when I got out and ate breakfast, it was probably nine o'clock or something. Hung's family cooked sunny side up eggs (actually chicken eggs), which were accompanied by baguettes, as well as cucumber and tomato slices, and finally Cha sui pork, which had been cooked in soy sauce, "five aroma powder" and some other spices (I know because Hung told me so). It was delicious.
After breakfast, I went back to my room and spent far too much time doing nothing. It was afternoon before I properly got prepared and went out. I'd read a story or two about sunscreen in Vietnam at some point today, and I read someone else bought what sounds suspiciously like this St. Ives 90 SPF stuff I got; their experience was, in fact, more decisively bad than mine. It turned out they'd reapplied liberally while in the sun, and had ended up burnt rather badly regardless.
So I determined that I really needed to find some proper sunscreen here in Hoi An. There's a proper supermarket in Da Nang, but that's thirty minutes by motorcycle; I decided I'd go into town and check the pharmacies. Hung, however, recommended I search the mini-marts scattered through town, which are surprisingly well stocked. You can still expect exorbitant prices, though. I spent about fifteen dollars on a six-ounce canister of spray-on Banana Boat, which I'm 99% confident is actually legit.
Within ten minutes of finding said sunscreen, I walked into another mini-mart selling the same product for less than thirteen dollars. That was frustrating. But at least the product is (probably) real this time.
Before I went searching for the Banana Boat this evening, I actually served as something of a leader in a boat race. Not quite a pilot or captain, as there were people at both the bow and stern sort of more in control, but our conglomeration of Aussies, Americans, and a stray Frenchman resulted in nearly zero coordination. I really shouldn't take too much credit, as we lost horribly, but look at the kind of guys we were up against!
Anyway, we were basically at Hoi An's Tet Olympics for boat racing. We finished, which I'm quite proud of myself and my team for achieving. We thought initially that it'd be a single relay, but then the other boats went around another two times. It was quite strenuous continuing after the first lap, but I maintained the count of "ONE, TWO, ONE, TWO" that I began at the start of the race. By our third lap, the locals in nearby boats and on the shore were raving for us.
Eventually we got out of the boat (my butt was really sore by that time), having unanimously agreed that another five laps weren't really in the cards.
Hung and another of his friends had a sort of Vietnamese drink/dessert thing, which consisted of ice, a variety of beans (think kidney beans and baked beans, plus a really big bean of some sort), and a bit of sugary sauce on top. Hung also paid for that, which was exceptionally cool of him, and then we returned home a bit before four o'clock.
After getting off the boat I probably should have reapplied sunscreen, but I was covered in 1. Sweat and 2. River water. I also managed to get a blister on my right thumb, which shall irritate me for the next week or so, without any doubt. Despite the fact that we lost the race, we were all of us given a present for our effort. The present is a sort of lantern, which I'll make sure to take tons of photos of when I finally light it/turn it on. I'm not even sure if it's electric or conventional.
After a bit more lollygagging around at the homestay, I started reapplying sunscreen and went out to find sunscreen. Google Maps showed eight mini-marts in Hoi An, two of which ended up being shameless duplicates, and most of which sold a great variety of products (Doritos, Pringles, Johnson and Johnson products, Head and Shoulders, water, pop, etc), most or all of which were sold at rather absurd prices.
Having found sunscreen at what seemed like an okay price after perhaps an hour or two of searching, I decided to eat my second meal of the day; it was already something like six or seven o'clock, and I wasn't feeling particularly inventive. I returned to Nhà Hàng on Cua Dai. I first had a wonton soup, then some fried rice with shrimp and vegetables, and finally (sort of dessert), I had a banana pancake with chocolate syrup on top. I also ordered a large bottle of water, but I forgot that entirely when I left the restaurant, and as of now still haven't reacquired it.
Oh, well. They'll either give me another one for free, give me the one I left, or I'll have to get a new one. I'm not worried.
As I was biking in, people were taking photos along the side of the road; the sun was casting shadows from behind a cloud upon the atmosphere above. It was both beautiful and unique. I managed to take a pretty good shot with my camera outside town as I was riding in.
I'm well as a sunburned, cold-recovering man can be, and I'm happy to be in Hoi An...perhaps a few days longer.
Please check out the post directly before this; blogging is going well. Also, I'm curious if any of you have ideas or critiques of my blog. I'd love to improve this crazy place in any way I can.
Thanks for reading!
!Noah!
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