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Nov.1 It's pouring down - & we are on a bus to Hoi An. We're trying to make it down there before the typhoon so we won't make any stops on the way. I got stomachache so I don't care. The road over the marble mountains is very scenery - but we're in a hurry!!! The Vietnamese people are something else! When their fields are flooded - they'll make fishing nets & go fishing instead. All houses are made of concrete - & in this wet humid country they all look damp stained. Nov.2 We're in Hoi An - it pretty much looks the same - with a lot more tourists & tourist industry. The sewing ladies from the central marked all got their own shops now. & are very eager to make sure that YOU will tell other westerners about their shop. No matter how good or bad they sew. We had heard about a very special on one le Loi st. (yes there's a le Loi street in every city in Vietnam) & went down after booking in on a hotel (built on the football field we remembered from 93 - when there was only 1 hotel in Hoi An) - the sewing lady took our requests & drawings - measured us & told us to come back the following day (I doubt she sewed it all by herself - she must had someone hired to do the boring job.) Then we had some food in one out of 100s restaurants - met a Swiss/Italian guy named Jennaro & drank some beer. The rain arrived. Perry & BirgitSusanne are leaving tomorrow. We share a dorm room with David & most important my raincoat is not waterproof!!!!!!!! Nov.3 David - Jennaro - Annemette & I hired bikes today & drove down to the beach - 2 years ago it was a beautiful beach but because of the typhoon it was covered with washed up garbage - a dead dog - trees - & a lizard - a man came with a bag & collected the lizard (I wonder if he ate it for dinner). On the way back we stopped at the bus station to check when the bus was leaving for an inland trip - (5am we were told). Then we went to the bank & down to pick up our clothes - my dresses were stunning! (The only problem I got now - years after - is that when I had them made I had lost at least 7 kilos from stomach diseases - At the end of my travel I had lost 15 kilo & I gained it all back after returning to Europe - nice dresses - they are hanging full of memories in my closet - !!!) Nov.4 I'd been ill all night - so we didn't take the bus - David left for Nha Trang & we moved into another room in the hotel (If we stay here long enough we can try all the rooms). Annemette had breakfast - I had a coke. Then we bought some "stop" pills - & took a small walk around Hoi An - went in to see a mandarin house & ended up buying some thing there are so "easy" to travel with in a backpack - I bought a rice paper drawing of a cyclodriver - some Chinese coins & an amulet made of jade. Later Annemette became ill too & we were both happy for not sitting in a local bus in the middle of nowhere.