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Published: February 23rd 2007
Tho Bon River
The view from our balcony. After our mini beach break we headed upto Nha Trang via open bus with the Sinh Cafe. Nha Trang is the Blackpool of Vietnam, its neon-tastic and was not really our cup of tea, however its in an amazing natural setting tucked between mountains and a part of the south china sea that has clear waters, islands and coral reef systems. Most people stop here for the cheap scuba diving and boat trips and because of their popularity the town has boomed, in a tacky touristy way. We only had one night here so we can't be fair on Nha Trang as we didn't get chance to explore the amazing natural setting. We stayed at the Nice Hotel which lived upto its name and there was a decent bia hoi just round the corner!
We were only really here to catch an internal flight up the coast. So on the 17th of February at 13:00 hours we flew into Danang (how good does that sound). Danang gets overlooked by tourism as the place we were headed draws the crowds and is just to the south. We did drive past Danang's famous Marble Mountains and China Beach on our journey to
The River
The view accross the river towards the old town. Hoi An, had we time these would have been worthy of further investigation.
Hoi An is a beautiful town steeped with history, its been around since the middle ages and is famous for its "old town" a portion of the town full of historic buildings, narrow streets, restaurants and of course Tailors. The town sits on the very picturesque Tho Bon River, whilst we were there the Tet festival finally started.
We stayed at the Pho Hoi Riverside Resort which was really really nice, although maybe too posh for us it was still a smart place to spend four nights.
Whilst here we checked out a boat trip on the river which showed us the local shrimp fishing industry and some of the local islands. A trip was also taken to the Champa Ruins at nearby My Son, these are a collection temples started in the 4th Century AD , they are now ruins thanks to time and US bombing during the war, still impressive though. Like Vietnams Angor Watt.
The TET fair was a true local experience, every year at this time the locals gather to get merry due to the Lunar New Year festival.
Shrimp Nets
These are everywhere, fishing is a huge industy in Nam It consisted of a big karaoke stage and loads of old style carnival games, that are impossible, i.e. throw a very bouncy ball into a tiny angled plant pot, homemade roulette and throw the washing up bowl over the bottle of pop! Maybe, a demonstration of how poor the country is but the atmosphere was really good with lots and lots of happy people. That’s another thing that makes Vietnam so great its the locals, always seem to be smiling, a fair few of them will try to sell you things but a large amount just want to say hello, especially the kids.
Whilst here we also had some cloths made at one of Hoi An's many Tailors, they are everywhere here nearly every street corner is a tailors and they are very cheap. I had a suit Tailor made for 30 Quid, that's shirt, jacket and pants. You can get cheaper but this was better quality material. It only took less than 24 hours for it to be done. Wow.
Claire had her stiches out at Hoi An, ouch, another basic hospital but first rate treatment no waiting around in Vietnam.
We leave our fellow travelers
Narrow Streets
One of Hoi An's many narrow streets in the old town at Hoi An as they have to head south to fly out of Saigon, but its up North for us to Hue, the Ancient capital of Vietnam. All in all an excellent two weeks with the folks and Lynda and Warren, thanks very much. See you in 11 weeks. Time is running out!
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Dad
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Hoi An
I agree, Hoian was special, the boat trip, arranged through a cousin of the bloke who did our laundry was amazing. Loved the fair and the danny beers. Great pics as usual. love dad