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Published: March 31st 2010
from restaurant
top of hotel, sunriseCHAPTER 23- HOI AN -CENTRAL VIETNAM
Hoi An in Central Vietnam, where it starts to get a bit more tropical; humid but no rain and pleasant mostly so far. A bit like home, really, except for the buildings and people.
Hoi An is very popular and a great place for walking and taking heaps more photos. Its’ a small town about 2 or 4 kiometres (depending on which map you read) up a river from a long white beach. It is an old river port from centuries ago with Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Dutch and most recently (ie a couple of centuries ago) French influences. A world heritage area with faded pastel colored houses, lanterns, dark colored stained wood among tropical vegetation; A nice place with friendly, but not too pushy sellers and great food.
The day trip to Marble Mountain was different again. Mountains or more like ‘vertical rocks’ (Karsts) with many caves and many temples, pagodas and temples inside neat long white beaches with many new resorts under constructions. Unfortunately, I lost a lot of photos when downloading, so some of those photos are borrowed.
The final destination is Saigon and then home.
Chinese New Year
celebrations (Tet) have complicated things here a bit. The holidays are about to start so travel and accommodation could become a problem. I have had to simplify my travel plans and instead of seeing more on the way, I have had to arrange to fly to Saigon sooner than expected to avoid getting caught in the crowds (but, I’ll be back in future ‘teaching holidays’). I must spend about six days IN Saigon City before my flight home. I am not looking forward to being a big city for that long, but I can’t afford to miss my flight.
Final chapter on Saigon coming soon.
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Sue
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I'd love to go back!
Hi John Looks like you had a pleasant time before heading back to Oz. I must put Central Vietnam on my list of places to go. I've been to the North, but didn't have time to venture any further on that particular trip. Hope to catch up before you head off again. I'm flying to China on May 20, for my holiday, so hopefully we can at least "skype it" between now and then!