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Published: October 26th 2007
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Taken while waiting for my bus...
I just think it's champion that I managed to include in the photo: a bicycle, a tailor shop and a woman in a traditional Vietnamese hat. After a long train ride, I eventually arrived in Da Nang station, and caught a taxi into Hoi An. I had remembered Hoi An as being sunny, with boat rides of the river and a day spent by the beach. Trust me to go back there while it was raining. In fact, were it not enough that I was wet from getting out at Da Nang Station, as the taxi was driving along with the window wound down, presumedly to stop the windscreen from misting up, we drove through a massive puddle. Totally missed the driver, but gosh, I felt it.
Yet it was in a good mood that I arrived in Hoi An- afterall it was the location of many a fond memory. I settled on a hotel, which while being rather expensive (well $10 a night is for me), no cheaper accomodation was offering itself in my search of the town, and plus, it had a bath. That's top notch luxury in a backpacker's books. A hot bath after a day of rain. Fantastic. Seeing as I hadn't slept much on the train, it was an early night.
The next morning, as I figured I had already
The view
From a balcony at the back of my hotel. Why don't they serve dinner? I'd pay for that view... pretty much done the main things to do in Hoi An (i.e. get a tailored coat made and do a cooking class), I thought I'd head down to the beach. Especially with a morning of sunshine after a night of pouring rain, I figured I should utilise it to it's fullest extent. No motorcycle drivers were jumping out to offer me their services, so I decided, it being such a nice day and all, and still 10.30am, I could just walk to the beach, it was only a couple of kms. Well by the time I actually got there, the clouds were rolling ominously ahead, the splatters of warning rain were hitting my head every now and then. But still, I was determined to make the most of what cloudy sunlight and warmth there was. The sea had much bigger waves than last time I was there, and it was quite a bit colder so I didn't go in for a dip. Instead I read some of my magazine, listened to some music... and then, was attacked by some more splatters of rain. It was nothing too serious, so I thought I'd wait for the cloud to pass over. It
Deck chairs on the beach
Get one banana shake and you get one of these for the day. The hassling to buy other things is the only bad part in that deal. did, rather quickly, so I got back to my leisurely activities.
It was only a matter of minutes before raindrops bombarded me once more. I gave it a little bit of time so that it could pass again. It didn't pass. It got stronger. And stronger. I was drenched before I could even gather together everything I had and run for the (pretty dodgy) shelter of the palm trees. I managed to find a motorcycle driver to take me back, so I thought I had one last oppurtunity to make the fact that I was drenched not totally for nothing. I wanted to ride on the back on the motorcycle with my umbrella. No mum and dad, it's not dangerous, Vietnamese women do it all the time. It looks really cool. But unfortunately I have yet to master the skill, and within a few seconds my umbrella was inside out and slightly embarrassed, I put away.
Another hot bath (all water restriction habits of back home forgotten) rendered me in better spirits. Unfortunately that particular adventure left quite a few of my clothes dripping wet. Without the ability to leave the fan on while I wasn't in the
Tailors are EVERYWHERE in Hoi An
This is the one across the road from my hotel. room, well let's just say there was a bit of a damp stink lingering around some of my clothes that only really got rectified when I got laundry done in Dalat.
Anyway, that night I had a late dinner, then went to Tam Tams, which is a cafe with a bar ad pool table upstairs. I had my first ever Australian beer- Fosters and sat watching some incredibly good pool players having a few rounds. I was planning to head down to Seamile, which was the nightclub that had been such a good night out last time I was in Hoi An. Not for $4 to get there one way. Because I know very well they at least double the amount you have to pay on the way back, and even the lowest I could get out of them would have taken at least $7 out of my pockets all up. Considering I had a bus to catch the next night, and wasn't planning to have a massive night out anyway, I though, sadly, that it would be best to skip Seamile and go to bed.
I was kind of glad I did. I had to wake up some poor lady at reception to get into the hotel, because the doors were all locked. Then I had to wake up someone else down the back to get water. I felt kind of bad. And it wasn't even midnight!
Next morning it was bright and sunny again, and I did not make the same mistakes of last time. I walked straight into town where I knew the motorcycle drivers definitely were, and I caught one straight to the beach. The convenient thing about that was my driver dropped me off at a restaurant along the beach, where if you buy a shake or some lunch (in my case both) you can occupy a deck chair for the day. Being hassled by old ladies trying to sell you useless junk was annoying (and even more annoyingly I gave into one and bought a bracelet), but the weather held up pretty well and it was a nice relaxing day.
My bus to get to Dalat was supposed to leave at 6pm. So I was having a casual dinner at the Banana Split Cafe across the road from my hotel. I was going to have a banana split, considering the name of the place I was eating. But as I was trying to order, this Vietnamese man walks into the cafe and has what seems to be a domestic with the woman running the cafe. Turns out it's the guy from my bus, and my bus was actually supposed to leave at 5pm and I was late. I felt kind of bad. Lucky I had packed already. So yeh, unfortunately no banana split for me. I made up for it with some tea cakes bought at the first bus pit stop we had. They were awesome.
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