The next morning, we asked our host Quyen (which sounds like "Kwhin") if he would like to drive us back to view the houses of consideration and drive us around an area that we thought would be of interest to us. He jumped at the chance. Unfortunately, there was some kind of miscommunication. We managed to find the first house, but I think he was expecting to be able to look inside and go through the house. Quyen asked "What price asking?" and he told us "I think too much!". We drove through Ba La Market and asked to go to Cua Dai beach. We wanted to see how far a bicycle ride it would be to both. Sadly, Cua Dai Beach was a disappointment. It was washed away in 2014 and it looked unlikely to return any time soon. Then Quyen drove further north and pointed the direction towards An Bang Beach, which we will explore some other time but today we had to meet up with our real estate agent and we wanted to take Quyen out to lunch. We asked him to pick the restaurant. He asked what type of food? We (in unison) shouted Vietnamese food! We were taken to the BEST Mi Quang in Hoi An and it was a fabulous lunch. Five Mi Quang, 4 beers and one 7-up for 200,000 dong ($10)! We were stuffed! Mi Quang is fresh rice noodles, similar to fettuccine in size with pork, shrimp, and a broth sweetened by tomatoes. It's garnished with grilled rice crackers, lettuce, and herbs. We were stuffed! That's when we all realized our first bowl of soup was not at all good! God only knows what we had that day. After lunch he dropped us off at the agents office and we ended up putting in an offer for the first home. We caught a cab home and wondered what to do for dinner but during sundowners, Quyen asked if we would join him and his family, his extended family and his friends for tonight's Annual End Of Year Party. Our attendance would bring his family good luck in the New Year. 5 young Chinese students, all of whom spoke excellent English, joined us at our table. Between their helpful advice and Quyen's regular visits to our table, and some additional willing help from his family, we didn't embarrass ourselves too badly.
Lets just say, tonight's dinner and drinks solved!
