Shopping, Budgeting, and an Absence of Mind

Today was the day I chose to go out and buy some ties. I also just realized I've taken no photos today with my DSLR. Welp, you get to see the leftovers. Some of the little things I've seen over the last few days. My time in Hoi An may be coming to an end, and I may be heading off to Hue, Ho Chi Minh City, or even all the way to Siem Reap. I'd love to be either at Hung's homestay or Anna's hotel for my birthday, but I may find myself far away from even those I've begun to know here.

Ah, well, I planned this trip knowing I'd be away from family when my birthday came around.

I'll survive.

I think he didn't ride with her there. I think.

I just decided this will be a large post. I've selected a half dozen extra photos to put in here, so there won't be a whole lot of rhyme or reason behind it. They're just some more pretty good shots and examples of the variety I've experienced, despite being something of a layabout. I hope to get up tomorrow morning, as usual, but it is eight o'clock now, so if it takes me two hours to write up this post, I'll still have about eight hours of sleep until I wake up. Geez, I've got to get this down.

Anyway. Here goes.

Today began like any late night and early morning combination does; sleeping in. I slept in late enough that I completely missed breakfast, and so the first meal I ate was lunch. And, now that I think about it, I'm still hungry. But whose fault is that? Mine! Sort of.

Having eaten lunch, I first handed Hung my laundry, and then lathered up with sunscreen again, heading out to the town. I knew I wanted to buy bow ties today, but I'd made the fatal mistake of putting my new dress shirt in the bag with the rest.

Since buying both of these, I've seen at least two other designs. Buy what you love, not what you "like."

As a man, I think, there's a certain attitude of not doing a job until the absolute most benefit comes out of the job, and that's what continually happens whenever I think about doing laundry. Am I wearing something that should be washed? I guess I should wait 'til I take it off first. At some point, you can't take anything more off, so you either spend the day in a swimsuit (I've thought about it), or you decide something doesn't need to be washed immediately. So I prioritize my laundry; the lone orange T-shirt and the orange dress shirt are prioritized because they're orange, and the shorts and pants are prioritized by appearance, really.

So I was going out to get a bowtie with neither the shirt to try it on, nor the knowledge of how to tie it. I've done neckties for years now, but I've never worn a bowtie in my life. Thus, I was unprepared.

For a late lunch dessert/cooldown, I stopped back at Nhà Hàng Nhân Nghĩa. I have no idea what that means, but it's the restaurant at which I was so cruelly spurned a week or so ago. I was spurned in equal measure today, but I got a pineapple-banana shake and a banana pancake out of it, so I'm ok. Don't worry about me. I'll survive.

After I ate, I went back to the Ancient Town on my bike, and just rode lazily around for a couple hours or something. Maybe I bought the ties before I lazily rode, maybe after. I rode too lazily to be concerned with such details.

Anyway, I bought some ties! Four, to be specific, all of them 100% SILK, HAND MADE.

I'd scouted around town for other shops selling ties, and found a couple other shops, but this one had the greatest selection of neckties. I was, however, disappointed to find she had precisely zero bow ties. Her prices were far better than the others', so I preferred her shop to them. Also, she had a greater selection, and a large portion of the ties were in boxes, with handkerchiefs and cuff links to match. I ended up choosing a couple blue ones, an orange one, and a light one with blue stripes. I have yet to take photos of them, so you might or might not actually get to see them in this post. I'll probably do a photoshoot for my loot from Hoi An.

I only hope I can actually fit all of this in my backpack when I leave Hoi An.

One thing I've particularly enjoyed eating in Vietnam is all the things you put into rice paper and consume. Today, as I was biking around, I saw this place near the river, in the Ancient Town, where lots of Vietnamese were eating. I kept biking around aimlessly for another thirty minutes, people-watching and trying to find the tie shop with bow ties and everything, but eventually, I returned to the river's edge and tried to find a place to park my bike. 

The sidewalk (if you wish to call it that) was covered with street vendors and people eating street food, so that wasn't really an option. However, being eager for new customers, one of the waitresses (if you wish to call them that; they neither own the eating space nor wear any sort of uniform) directed me to a place I cold park, and a seat I could take.

Dinner was basically lettuce and a couple other kinds of greens, grilled pork, and both sticky and normal rice paper. I paid for a second plate of pork, because there was so much paper and green. Maybe I was supposed to use a sticky and a normal with each roll, but it was still worth it. All told, 160,000 dong. $7.49.

Theoretically this could be shared with a group, and you could double it, but in my opinion there's not enough if you share it between more than two. Even sharing it with a second person would basically make it a snack and not a meal. Some of the meals here in Hoi An are quite absurdly cheap, though. I wouldn't be surprised if you could get a bowl of noodle soup for ten or twenty thousand dong. We must all remember, though, how young and naive I am. My expectations have been shattered before. This could be no different.

Hằng

At this point, I got up and paid. I realized about halfway through my meal that I had only 5,000 dong more than the price of my meal, so anything else was out of the question. I really wanted to top it off with a donut or something, but I don't think even my expert bargaining skills would make such an exchange happen. I don't know. Maybe I should try it tomorrow morning before getting more cash.

Thảo

When I returned to the homestay, Hung and his mother had me sit down (kinda worried), and he explained to me that his mother had left my pants in some cleaning chemicals too long, and they'd been discolored in a couple places. I don't really have an option but to continue wearing those pants, and I forget things all the time myself. I was not and am not angry at either of them for it. I'm just saying that here because Hung's been following my blog. You're fine, man.

Linhh

Anyway, I finished writing a whole two hours early. Now all I have to do is sleep well for seven hours and wake up in time for the sunrise. Wish me luck. I actually have a chance this time. At least that's how it looks right now, before I've slept.

I'm well, and still really enjoying the whole thing. I can't help but want to move on, for some reason, but I really love being wherever I stay. Would it be so wrong for me to spend the majority of my time in one place? I guess the people I've met are both reason to stay where I am and to move to new places. 

Oh, the confusion that is thought.

Thanks for reading, guys. I made over 1300 pageviews during the month of February. That's about a thousand more than any month before, and while I don't know specifics, monetizing my blog becomes closer and closer to possible the more people read this. I especially appreciate those of you who've been along since the beginning. There probably are some of you, still.

Until I stop cogitating,


!Noah!