Hué - Hoi An - Nha Trang

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From Hué we travelled 4 hours by coach to Hoi An. The coach journey was only supposed to have lasted 3 hours but in true tourist bus style it decided to stop twice, in a 3 hour journey, for 20 minutes! Anyways, we finally hitched up in Hoi An and started the accommodation search. Considering the quality of accommodation that we had had in Hanoi and Hué we were quite surprised by the high prices in Hoi An for not that much. We settled for a windowless room with A/C and en suite for 15 dollar; it was clean and pleasant. We realised later that the higher accommodation prices was most probably due to Hoi An's hosting of the Japanese and Vietnamese festival that weekend.

Absolutely ravenous we walked into town to grab a bite to eat. As soon as we entered the older part of town we couldn't believe how beautiful it was and the place reminded us very much of Luang Prabang in Laos, which is also a UNESCO world heritage site. The little streets were absolutely teeming and packed with tailor shops, Rach and I couldn't believe our eyes! We decided to spend the afternoon scouting around the tailor shops, checking out prices for coats and dresses so that we knew whether we were being well overcharged in one place compared to another. Both Rachel and I knew we definitely wanted a coat and Rach was definitely sure that she wanted to get some suit trousers made as well, I wasn't completely sure at that point. As we were checking out tailor shops we came across shoe shops, I had no idea that they also sold tailor made shoes there. As soon as I walked into one shop my eye was drawn to these suede cowboy style boots that were exactly the same as ones that I had seen in Office that were about 100 pounds. I was quoted 25 dollars for the pair made to measure (feet/legs) in a dark grey suede. Just to make sure that it was a good deal I checked another shoe shop who quoted me 50 dollars for the same pair so I decided that it was a definite steal at 25 dollars! Rach had a purple wool coat made and 3 pairs of suit trousers at this one tailors, but I didn't like the style of this particular coat I was after in that tailors so after she was measured up we moved on to another one, called Tam Tam. Here I had my olive green wool coat, with silk lining, made as well as 2 dresses.

That evening we found a nice restaurant that was down by the riverfront. I had a gorgeous banana shake and we shared some Vietnamese spring rolls (Rach's slightly addicted to them). For main I ordered 'shrimp' steamed in coconut milk - wow when they came up I couldn't believe how big there were! Since we've been in South East Asia shrimp have just referred to king prawns, not these absolutely huge creatures! I never order the large tiger prawns, especially anything that is shelled, but I didn't want them to go to waste so I just went for it. They were actually really good, they didn't taste very fishy, they just tasted really fresh and I really enjoyed them.

The next day we decided to spend the day walking around Hoi An, visiting some it's historical sites as we needed to be around there during the morning for fittings at our respective tailors. After Rach was fitted for her suit trousers I decided to get 2 pairs made as they fitted her perfectly and hung really well. When we arrived at my tailors my coat still hadn't arrived so we sat and chatted with the two young girls who worked there. One of the girls, who we later learnt was only 16 even though she had told she was 24, was trying to learn english so we were helping her with some basic conversational vocabulary that she could use in the shop. They also told us some things about their Buddhist practice and how the protestant church help the community more than the catholic church. One of the girls also told us how they prefer to be buried in Vietnam as opposed to cremation which is the usual Buddhist practice. Eventually my coat turned up and it and one of the dresses needed a couple more alterations so I was to return the next day to pick it up. Rach and I left Tam Tam, grabbed some lunch and had a look around town some more. About 4pm it was time to go to the shoe shop and pick up my boots and Rach's shoes. Unfortunately they had mixed up Rachel's order and had used suede instead of normal leather, so after much commotion Rach ordered another pair in leather but with a different colour trim. It was a shame and Rachel was really gutted, especially after having such a good turn out with our other items from the tailors earlier in the day. Oh yes and I forgot, we both bought Chinese silk lanterns earlier in the day for 3 dollars, we couldn't believe how cheap they were and that we would be able to take them home as they were collapsible. I managed to get mine especially made as I wanted a plain off white silk rather than the more traditional patterned silk. That night we decided to get some street food that was by the day market - it was ridiculously cheap and was really really tasty. We had some spring rolls, noodles and the Hoi An specialty of ''Wontons'' that can only be described as Vietnamese tacos/nachos.

The next morning we met up with one of Rachel's friends from University who was travelling with two of his friends for breakfast. It was really strange seeing a familiar face somewhere completely out of normal context. We planned that we will meet up later after tailor fittings to hire bikes and ride out to the beach that is about 4km out from Hoi An. Rachel and I were really pleased to be back on bike and we all loved the ride out to the beach which was really scenic. We parked up the bikes and then dropped in straight at the beach and were lucky to find some shade under some palm trees. Everyone apart from me went for a swim, the laundry lady at Hanoi had lost my one and only pair of bikini bottoms - i had to swim in my underwear in Halong Bay. We grabbed some lunch and then headed back to the beach. Whilst everyone else was chatting up on the beach I strolled down to the water and stood in it for it must have been 40 minutes. It was so nice to just stand there in the warmest water I have ever felt and just think about all the things that I had done since I had been out there and about all the people at home. I felt really relaxed when I walked back up to the others on the beach. Rach and I had to head back to Hanoi as we had our bus at 6.30pm to Nha Trang overnight. The guys had just been on a sleeper bus up from Nha Trang and spoke quite favourably about it, which put our minds at rest. We rode back and were able to take a shower at the hotel for free. We had about an hour and half to kill and I hadn't been able to get skype since Hanoi so we decided to find an internet cafe for half an hour and then would grab something to eat. Unfortunately, as what usually happens, our time just flew past and we spent longer than planned on the internet and only left ourselves 20 minutes to get something to eat. We ran along to this restaurant and ordered ourselves from Wontons, which we ate in the quickest time imaginable. Ironically, we rushed our dinner and ran back to our hotel where we was being picked up only for our bus to be half an hour late!

When our bus finally turned up it was not what we had imagined or what we had been told my the guys. It wasn't as a new as we thought it would be, the Air Con wasn't very strong and there wasn't a toilet on board. Oh well we thought, it won't be too bad, and truthfully it wasn't. I managed to get a lot more sleep on it than I thought I would. The most annoying part was the fact that they squeezed on two extra Vietnamese passengers who had to lay on the floor next to where my reclining bed/chair was, so whenever they moved their hair would brush my leg or they would accidentally elbow me which was really frustrating as it seemed to be timed to whenever I was just dropping off. At about 6.30am in the morning we arrived in Nha Trang. After checking out a couple of hotels we found one that was offering us a really good room (2 doubles) for 8 dollars which we thought included air con. However, we soon realised it didn't and that it wasn't going to cost us an extra 5 dollars for the air con. Rach and I started to walk out as we didn't want to pay an extra five dollars for the air con when we thought it was included in the original price and much to our delight they turned it on for us for no extra charge, its all about the walking away in Asia!

We chilled out and watched a very old Ben Stiller film that neither of us had heard of for a couple of hours as we didn't want to head out that early nor go back to sleep. We got showered and then grabbed some breakfast. We then started the search for a bikini shop as I desperately needed to get a pair as Nha Trang was pretty much a beach resort and I really didn't fancy swimming in my underwear again. Luckily I managed to find a pair that would fit me, I had to get Extra Large! The bottoms are great but the top is made for EE size chest I'm sure so I managed to come up with a new way of wearing the tie bikini top so that it didn't look ridiculously huge on me. We then pretty much spent the whole of the day reading, swimming and relaxing at the beach. We hired two sunbeds and a wooden/straw parasol for something like 2 pounds. The beach wasn't the most scenic as it was about 3km long but it was just really nice to be beside the sea and to be relaxing rather than sightseeing. I managed to actually get a substantial way through my book that I need to read before I start my PGCE. We had a really good lunch, stonebaked flat bread with Tuna, with these AMAZING strawberry milkshakes, they were just heavenly. That night we had another good meal at this Vietnamese restaurant that was really reasonable. Before we ate we went to the travel agent in Nha Trang to tell them where we were staying so that the bus to Saigon for the following day, that we had organised in Hoi An, would know where to pick us up from. In Hoi An the travel agent had promised us that we were definitely booked on the bus 7am bus from Nha Trang to Saigon for the date that we wanted and needed. However, not to much surprise, it turned out that we weren't and all they could offer us were two seats on a sleeper bus for the evening of the same day, but this would mean that we would lose a day in Saigon and we would have to spend another day in Nha Trang which we didn't feel we needed or wanted as it was pretty much just a beach resort. I made a bit of scene and told the lady in there that her colleague had promised us and we were not in the least pleased. After a couple of phonecalls she informed us that if we got to the bus station ourselves by 6.30am the next day, when we wanted to leave, we would be on a bus. Frustrated we left and went for dinner - atleast we would be on a bus but it was annoying that we now had no hotel pick up and had to get a taxi to the bus station in the morning. In the morning we managed to get a taxi organised by our hotel to take us to the bus station. When we arrived at the bus station and showed someone from the travel agents there our ticket it became clear that some strings had definitely been pulled for us and we were put on what seemed a Vietnamese only sleeper bus to Saigon as we were the only tourists on the whole bus and no body in the company spoke any English and just stared at us if we asked them how long we were at the stop for or what time we were leaving (even with gestures with watches). It worked in our favour though as when we did stop the stops were a lot nicer than those reserved for the tourists and we had a tasty authentic and cheap Vietnamese lunch.

I'm running out of steam so i will finish Vietnam and Saigon another day.

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