Day 4 - Ao Dai and more Food

Yesterday morning, my mother and I got up early to go shopping for an Ao Dai - which is a traditional Vietnamese gown. It used to be worn commonly but the Vietnamese women have adopted more western-like clothes here now. The Ao Dai is now considered more formal attire, although you can still see airline stewardesses wearing a simplified version of it.

When I got married last year, I bought an Ao Dai from California for a little over $200. Yesterday, I ordered three dresses, specially tailored to fit me perfectly, for 3 million dong (approx $150). To top it off, I was told that everything is going to be ready for me when I return from my tour - it takes them 7 days to sew 3 custom dresses to fit. Everything here is so incredibly cheap and the people here are extremely efficient! We can feed four people for $10, which is what we did after buying my dresses.

After dress shopping, we were dropped off at the condo for what a lot of people in Vietnam do - an afternoon nap. I haven't gotten adjusted to the time yet and am still working on four hours of sleep a day but my mother seems to be doing just fine - I don't think I've ever seen her this well-rested!

We slept until about 6 before we were picked up again to go to my uncle Hung's house for dinner. He made a feast, consisting of pork/egg stew (Thịt kho hột vịt), mustard leaves, seafood stirfry, a salty dried fish salad (Gỏi cá khô dưa leo) and a lettuce soup. I was sad that I couldn't eat more because I was still full from lunch. So many times this week, I'd wish I was in the back kitchen taking notes because the food is amazing. I haven't come across something that I didn't like.

After dinner, my cousins and I went around town on the scooters to look for a place that will take all seven of us at once for glamor shots. There is a huge market for photographers in Vietnam and I'm impressed by the amount of stores that offer the fashion-type studio photo sessions here.

The one thing that I'm learning about Vietnam is that the people here are very hard-working - it is not uncommon for stores to be opened from 6am to midnight. Since most storefronts are set up on the front veranda of the homes, families often work together and take shifts taking care of the business. We called it an early night because we had to be at the airport for 6am to head to Hanoi.

And so now, on Day 5.. the tour begins!