Beautiful, wet Hoi An!

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Day 24 - Wednesday 10th November

So here we are at Hanoi airport waiting for a flight to Da Nang. There should be a taxi waiting to take us to our hotel at Hoi An. It’s a bit of a cop out for a backpacker to get a taxi I know, but in order to find the accommodation we have booked, it has been much easier to ask the hotel to arrange transport. If you don’t, you normally get ripped off by a taxi driver who quotes a price and then drives the long way to your hotel so that you pay extra anyway! Generally speaking we have found the people pretty genuine here in Vietnam. They don’t seem to pressurise you when you are shopping and are prepared to barter with you over the price. In fact, we have usually only paid a quarter of the first price quoted. Having said that, a woman at the cafe in departures has just tried to pull at fast one. When Stuart paid with a one million dong note, she only gave change for a one hundred thousand dong note! He spotted it straight away and she looked quite sheepish when he clocked her!

So, we have arrived in Hoi An at the Hai Au Hotel. It doesn’t bear much resemblance to the photos on the internet! It’s supposedly a boutique hotel that has been rated at 9.5 on Booking.com! To be honest I cannot see how that is possible! It has the look of an old communist office block! It is old fashioned and has incredibly high ceilings. The girl on reception, whose name is Ninh, is so tiny (and the desk is so high) that she has to climb up to see us over the top! She is so friendly that I can’t help myself and end up being really nice to her, telling her how wonderful the room is! There are two towels on the bed, folded up to look like swans - very artistic- and rose petals scattered around! Not that Stuart thinks it is very romantic. And it’s raining, and has been for days apparently. The river is lapping over the steps of the restaurants and shops on the front and the forecast suggests that it will rain again tomorrow! Oh well I will have to fish around at the bottom of my backpack for my plastic mac. At least the beer is cheap. 3,000 dong for a small beer - that’s about 10p. So if nothing else, we can get drunk for under a pound! We dine in a small restaurant on the river front, where they are playing 70’s music that I haven’t heard for years! The Carpenters, John Denver, Olivia Newtron Bomb and Tom Jones to name but a few golden oldies, and where the waiter seems to know the name of every player in the English Premier League!

Day 25 - Thursday 11th November

Today I have woken up with a stinker of a cold. I have been sneezing all night, so don’t feel much in the mood for walking around Hoi An. But we only have one full day to see all the sights so we have to get moving. Besides, the bed feels a bit damp and the room isn’t very inviting! But it’s not raining at the moment! The sky is grey but it appears to be dry. So let’s hope it stays that way so that we can get everything done.

Nope! Too good to be true! And by the time we have breakfast and get ready to go out, it is pouring down again! Just as well I kept the plastic macs after our Mt Kinabalu climb and bought that brolley in KL! I am sure that on a lovely day Hoi An is a very charming little place! It is full of beautiful old buildings that are very “shabby chic”, temples and bridges, as well as hundreds of tailor shops, shoe shops and souvenir stalls. The market is full of Vietnamese ladies in sampan hats and they are so tiny - no more than 5 feet tall! The food is incredibly cheap too! We have just had a lovely lunch, two beers and a coca light for 98,000 dong - that’s £3! You can’t say fairer than that!

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