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Published: February 12th 2009
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We arrived in Hoi An after an easy 4 hour journey from Hue (we are hardcore bus journey .. people now!!) We found a little bar where Lee sat and guarded the bags (while drinking a beer) and Michelle ventured off to find some digs.
It's much easier than both of us walking around with our backpacks on, and Michelle actually has found this process a nice way of replacing her shopping habit back home!!
Michelle ventured down the street checking out a few rooms until she came to a place called the Hoa Binh guesthouse (which we ended up staying in) after being shown the room by the owner she agreed to come back (it was on the shortlist) and then went around the corner to look at a few more. After doing a left and left again she came to another guesthouse and went in to ask about the rooms, only for the owner to tell her that she had just been in THAT guesthouse 2 minutes ago....'you want to see room AGAIN'!!! Michelle argued the point that she had not, and had in fact come from a different guesthouse... the owner went on to say it
was certainly her and she had actually gone around the block and into the 'other' entrance (there were 2)!!!
After checking in and dumping our bags we went out for a walk around Hoi An and discovered that it was like being in a European city!!! Everywhere was perfect!! the streets were so clean and well kept, cars and motorbikes are not allowed through the main bit (the old town), classical music was coming out of the many art galleries, lantern shops lit up the streets at night, people smiled as you walked past... we really liked this place.
Hoi An is very famous for its tailors, and certainly has many to choose from (we didn't count but it must be close to 250 shops in a very small area!) Michelle has some pants made and Lee shorts. Michelle held back from buying a whole new wardrobe due to 2 factors... there's zero space left in both our our rucksacks, and... well... we are on a budget! You can get a suit tailor made with some dappa fabric for around $80 USD (Michelle has just scoffed at the word 'dappa'... maybe its not a scouse word but we
certainly use it in the good old East Midlands!!) ... anyway....
Foods great here too. We managed to find a couple of little cafe's. We found one which was actually in a front garden of a house. They had converted it into an eatery... well stuck in a few tables and chairs, but the food was amazing!!! - (Special mention to Friendship cafe and Cafe 339)
We hired some bicycles for a day and heard that there was a beach about half an hour away. As we haven't seen a beach for aaaggggeesss we frantically cycled until in the distance we could see the ocean and then.... sand!!!!! (what's the weather like in the Uk at the mo guys???... we heard its ... SNOWING!!!) ... we parked our bikes and walked briskly towards the beach and then suddenly..... warm sand under our feet, the sun beating down on our faces, the ocean lapping on the shore!! We only stayed for an hour as we didn't want to waste our bike hire time and headed back.
We managed to visit the Japanese bridge (see pics) which was nice and spent most of our time walking around town and
taking everything in. It's certainly the most prettiest place we have been to so far.
Spending 2 nights in Hoi An was the perfect tonic after travelling so much and we didn't really want to move on. With so much of Vietnam to see we had to get going .. only to be thrown a little by Sinh Cafe who we were counting on to get us to our next stop Nha Trang. Buses were full for the next 2 days so they recommended another company who could take us that night. We booked the 12 hour bus journey (our 2nd sleeper bus) but it was a bit of a nightmare. The bus was ok, but the beds were awful and the journey very twisty so we both got no sleep at all. Among all of this the bus stopped constantly to pick up locals who slept on the floor in between sleeper beds!! (we were the lucky ones and had top bunks)
NHA TRANG
We usually (as you may of noticed) write a blog for each location we have visited... but we both agreed that Nha Trang was not worthy of such a thing!!
Sorry
to slate the place but it was Benidorm revisited. Concrete high rise buildings, hungover kids trawling the streets, litter, dead rats on the beach, sh*t in the sea (we didn't go in) and being constantly harassed by dodgy looking thieves. We left the very next morning and headed into the highlands of Dalat, feeling rather relieved that we left Nha Trang unscathed!
Catch up soon,
Lee and Michelle
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Tracey Ball
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CONGRATULATIONS
Congrats on the engagement!!!!!!