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Published: April 4th 2008
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Hoi An
Lady selling herbs at the market Ok, next stop: Hoi An.
One more long bus drive down the mountain from Kon Tum brought us to a rather uninviting and rude Da Nang... Getting the local bus from there to Hoi An was a mission too but we made it. I was in a rather upset and annoyed mood but soon changed my attitude as I discovered that Hoi An was nothing like Da Nang. We shopped around for a cheap hotel room... not that easy. Found one for USD 7 but the night turned into a struggle. The walls in the room and bathroom were full of mold and the room was filled with a stuffy toxic smell... The next morning we found another hotel, Phuong Dong, that had a fan room with TV and hot shower in the attic for USD7 as well. Much better deal so we ended up staying there for 5 nights. Definitely a very good deal as it is very quiet, very clean and the staff is friendly and helpful at any time!
I have to say that I have totally enjoyed myself in Hoi An. It was a welcome break after 7 weeks of traveling, great to slow down
Hoi An
Ladies on the river trying to sell boat trips for cheap cheap... and just relax. There's no touts trying to sell you this or that, it's actually against the law, and that makes a stay here very attractive. You have to try not to look too closely at certain things in the shop fronts otherwise you will get pulled into the shop and it is hard to get back out without buying something. Everyone says "You buy something?", "Come have look in my shop", "I have many color" and I figured it's best to know exactly what you want to buy before you enter a shop. Best bet is probably also to bring a picture of the piece of clothing you want, otherwise you'll sit and look through stacks of catalogues and magazines for hours and hours and end up being talked into buying more than you want. Also, "you buy just one thing" is an all time favorite here. Hardest thing for me was to get out of a shoe shop without buying anything. The lady just didn't understand that I didn't want to buy shoes... very persistant! But that attitude put me off and I wouldn't go back to that shop now. In fact, ended up getting shoes some place
else...
But apart from all the looking around and trying to figure out which shop is a good choice (you never know until you've got your stuff and are happy with it anyway), Hoi An just has a very nice feel about it. You can sit down in a cafe and have your breakfast without loads of women walking past with stacks of Lonely Planets "cheap cheap for you". It's just a very relaxing place, things just move slower here, hardly any cars (yet still heaps of motos and bicycles). It's almost quiet in the streets sometimes, especially around lunch time when people seem to just lay down anywhere for a snooze...
A great place to eat is "Green Moss". Food is prepared fresh on the spot. You might wait a bit longer for your meal but it's worth the wait! Been there twice and will be going back!
This weekend was full moon and Hoi An celebrates with a lantern festival. Some of the streets in the old town are blocked off for motorised traffic so it's easy to just stroll along the back streets and watch the pretty lanterns on every building at night. There was
Hoi An
a good thing about Vietnam is that many restaurants have a menu out the front so you can have a look and decide if there's something on it for you. If not, just move on to the next... they all serve pretty much the same anyway. also some Martial Arts performances last night which was pretty cool. The place had such a welcoming and relaxed feel, it was beautiful. Old men sitting on the footpath playing chess by candle light, kids playing ball in the streets, old ladies in the gutters selling yummy treats out of their baskets etc. And in between all that was us and about 1000 other travelers looking all amazed. It was really interesting. And how lucky are we to be here on the full moon weekend to experience all this???
The trip to the post office with the 'goods' was a rather annoying one. It took ages there! They are all so unorganised and jump from one customer to the next and back again and the sending of 2 parcels turned into a 1.5 hour long process... And it's all not that straight forward there either. You can pick up a price list (in USD) that tells you how much per kg you have to pay for each country but in the end you will pay about twice the amount. Don't know how they calculated the final price but it ended up being very expensive!
Oh well, about a
week later we had to finally move on and did that by sleeper bus to Ha Noi. We went with 'Camel Travel' and the beds were actually quite comfortable I have to say. Not that I got much sleep but it was better than sitting on my bum for 16 hours! It was overnight, as the name sleeper bus would suggest, and it was a smooth ride until about 3am, when the bus just stopped in the middle of the motorway and was surrounded by police looking guys. We couldn't make out what the problem was but it seemed like the guys on the bus were transporting/smuggling stuff they weren't supposed to. Any attempt of the police to open the luggage compartments ended it fighting and yelling. One of the men actually came onto the bus searching through the beds obviously suspecting to find more of whatever they were looking for. Very bizarre and didgy situation. You never know what's being taken from A to B along with your backpacks... scary thought! And about 2 hours later we were once again on the road...
We arrived in the outskirts of Ha Noi at around 8am-ish. Everyone was asked what
Hoi An
ladies at the market hotel they were staying at and told that we would be taken to the hotels... 2 taxis arrived and took off with people that didn't have hotel bookings... and the rest of us were just left there standing, looking like idiots, surrounded by bloody touts and motos. What a great way to start the day. From there on, it only got worse... Check back for Ha Noi stories.
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