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Published: February 23rd 2012
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Wednesday and it was time to travel to Dong Hoi which is a small city on the coast about 375 miles South. We had checked all the options with a very long overnight coach trip, an overnight train journey or fly an hour and 15 minutes! We choose to fly and got tickets for £30.00 each. Dong Hoi is off the normal tourist route so that is why we wanted to come here to see what it would be like. It is going to be boom town Dong Hoi soon as they have just discovered the Worlds Largest Cave which is about 25 miles away. We arrived at Hanoi Airport and the check in was really easy and were aboard before we knew it and off in the air bang on time. Just over an hour later we were arrving in Dong Hoi in small airport built in 2009 and only 10 minutes from the city. It was amazing because our bags were off the plane and in the arrival hall within 3 mintues! In fact we had collected our bags and were in the bus going to the hotel in 5 minutes flat. So well worth the £30 to Vietnamese
Airlines.
Our hotel is spilt into a 4 star and 5 star, called the Sun Spa Resort which is in a stunning location with the sea on one side and the river on the other side. It was only 15 minutes from the airport, and we were greeted by 13 staff!! Amazing greeting. We were given a nice large room right in the centre of the complex overlooking the pool and sea. We ate in the Hotel that evening and it was a beautiful meal and not badly priced at all. The waiters and waiteresses are so attentive and they get on with the job quietly but super efficiehtly. The hotel is spotless from top to bottom, there are staff everywhere. The only thing would be it is huge and quite quiet, but according to the staff they are full in June July & August. The Five star part of the complex is small villa's with their own private small swimming pool, they are very nice, but quite expensive at £250 a night. They also have some bungalows they are on offer at the moment but still £140 a night. But the grounds the villas and bungalows are in,
is really impressive, they have a beautiful place here. It does need a lot of upkeep though. Our room in the 4 star was £60. The grounds cover a massive amout of land and it's hard to count all the gardeners, there has to be 30 plus. In fact the staff must number well over 100 per shift and I think there were about 60 guests stopping first night, but that was down to 20 the next night! But you can't fault the staff at all they are always smiling and pleased to help, you can't really go wrong here, the only thing would be it is quiet out of season, but if you like that, then it's the perfect place.
Thursday morning we got a taxi for £1.50 into Dong Hoi to visit the fish market, whow what a place that is, amazing to see all the fish sellers also others selling meat, vegatables, chickens, spices, and frogs. The sellers were so funny they loved seeing someone different and were quick to smile and shout Hello. They loved having their photos taken and were all laughing between themselves. Although it is obviously hard work for them, you don't
have to feel too sorry for them, they were obviously happy and they ALL had wads of money! They did look funny though as most of them just kept their crash helmets on all day. It was an amazing experience and they made us feel very welcome indeed.
Someone we spoke to went to the caves today, but they did say they had to walk up about 500 steps inside the cave, and that's not something we are really into, the trip was about £45 each for the day, so we are not going to go, as I say it's not our cup of tea really but I know a lot of people will go and have a great time. But you need to be aware of the steps I think.
When we got back to the hotel the sun was out it was about 24 degrees so we crashed out by the pool, and later went for a long 5 mile walk down the beach, it was more or less deserted and looked amazing. Well that's about it for now. I will blog again once we get to Hue on Friday.
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lyn grimshaw
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hi you 2 sounds fab. and pictures look good. well go enjoy some more sights and look forward to next enstallments xxx