Advertisement
Published: June 24th 2010
Monday, June 21st It is strange how we went from sleeping in the majority of our time in Shenzhen to being up before 7am everyday while on vacation in Vietnam . Today, was no different we needed to be at Sinh Tourist shop by 7:45am to get a bus to Hoi An with the departure at 8am; cost 100,000VND for 2 tickets=$5.26 on a comfortable AC bus. Not too shabby for a 3.5 hr drive.
We knew it was about a 4 hour ride so we had breakfast at our hotel before we left. The Waterfront Hotel was a new hotel as it was 4 months old. The service was great as they waited on you hand and foot. Downside to the hotel was the lack of a generator to keep the hotel cool while the power was off. It was $20USD a night, included breakfast, wifi but the wifi only worked in the lobby as the signal was too weak in our room, unlimited water and great service.
On the bus we arrived at our first stop at a guesthouse around 10am for a break to use the bathroom, buy drinks/food and probably for the driver to have
a free meal. While at the guesthouse for 20 minutes a lady from our bus got locked in the bathroom. After about 5 minutes of trying to get her out the door/lock finally allowed her escape. We got back on the bus then made our way to Danang where we made 2 more stops for people to get off the bus.
Between Danang and Hoi An there was LOTS of development going on with Mega Resorts along the beachfront, including a Hyatt resort. After passing the resorts we turned down a little road which led to a souvenir area of marble. The Marble Mountains are in the area and they wanted us to by anything I guess. Even though we just stopped an hour earlier I needed to use the restroom again. This time I had to pay 1,000VND for a toilet in the open or 2,000VND for a toilet with a door. I chose the cheaper of the 2 since it is very common in Asia to pee in a not so private area. Of course I needed to provide my own tissue even though there was a fee to use the bathroom. Can’t wait to be in
the USA after 11 months and have my own privacy and tissue while in a public restroom.
Back on the bus after 20 minutes and we arrived in Hoi An at 12pm. Pete found An Hoi Hotel for $20 a night including AC, swimming pool, breakfast, bath tub and a generator for the fan while the power was off. Once checked in we went down the road to a restaurant a man pointed out to Pete, his sister worked there and also pointed out the tailor next door where his other sister worked.
After lunch I wanted to visit the tailors so we had enough time to get things made as we didn’t know how many days we would be staying in Hoi An. We went to visit Hung Thinh located at 37 Nguyen Phuc Chu St right at the end of the bridge to An Hoi Peninsula. We met T and I had picked out some material to have convertible pants made and a strapless sun dress. Pete also wanted 4 short sleeved dress shirts made, 1 pair of shorts copied and 2 shorts he already had to be taken in as they are too big for
him now. We got the price and bargained of course. Then we told T we would be back as we needed to check one more place to make sure we got a good deal. She said if we find a lower price let her know as she is for sure she gave us an unbeatable price.
We walked across the bridge to Long Silk located at 172 Tran Phu St. They had the exact pants I wanted made and also showed them the dress I wanted. The price was cheaper here and we liked the material. So we ended up getting stuff made at both shops. T at Hung Think lowered her prices a few dollars when we told her what the place across the bridge was charging us, she was for sure my dress wouldn’t be lined for that price but it was.
Final Bill:
Long Silk-2 strapless lined cotton sundresses $16 each
- 2 pairs of convertible pants/shorts $15 each
Hung Thinh- 1 strapless lined cotton sundress $17
1 pair of convertible pants/shorts $16
1 pair of lightweight shorts $10
4 short sleeved dress shirts $9 each
2 shorts waist
taken in FREE
GRAND TOTAL $141USD
There are over 200 shops to get clothes tailor made but only 10 tailor shops in the town. So each shop sends there work to 1 of 10 tailor shops to have made. If you go to Hoi An shop around. Both shops were great in making adjustments to the clothes after our fitting for no extra charge. They won’t let you take or pay for the clothes until you are completely satisfied.
While in Hoi An we ate all but 1 meal at the An Hoi Restaurant, remember we were there for 2.5 days/2 nights. Breakfast was at our hotel as that was included but lunch and dinner we loved An Hoi restaurant. We ate the local cuisine which was cheap and lovely.
Cao Lau-doughy flat noodles with croutons, bean sprouts, greens with pork slices&broth
Fried Wonton-Our FAVORITE see photo
White Rose-petite steamed dumpling stuffed with shrimp
Tu’s restaurant had great fruit shakes and glasses of Fresh beer for 4,000VND=21 cents(we had many of these)
In Vietnam each area has their own specialty or local cuisine so it has been fun sampling all the food as
we make our way South.
Tuesday, June 22nd Bus tour to My Son temple, lunch and boat ride back stopping at woodcarving village $8USD per person charged by our hotel or $6USD if booked at the tour company. Why haven’t we learned not to book at our hotel yet? Sometimes it is just easier to pay the few dollars extra to avoid going out in the heat. We weren’t that impressed with the tour except we did get to see some Cham traditional dancing and the AC bus was actually a well AC minibus. Thanks for being honest this time tour.
All the temples start to run together and look the same after traveling around Asia for the last 11 months. I think we are temple and pagoda out. Good thing we will be back in the USA 2 weeks from today. YIPPEE!!
Wednesday, June 23rd Our last day in Hoi An. We took it easy in the morning by hanging around the hotel reading and catching up on our blog. Around 12pm we had lunch then rented bikes for 50 cents each and rode the 5km to Cua Dai beach. It was a very relaxing afternoon
as we drank beers at a little beach side shack, read our books, took turns cooling off in the water.
Around 4pm we headed back to town to swim at the hotel, shower, eat dinner for the last time at An Hoi Restaurant and walk to Sinh Tourist office to get on our 7pm night sleeper bus to Nha Trang. We should arrive in Nha Trang at 6am. Cost for 2 sleeper bus tickets 400,000VND=$21USD. This is our FIRST overnight sleeper bus EVER we will see how it goes. Crossing our fingers it treats us well.
We didn’t take the train as there is no station in Hoi An. We would have to get on a bus packed full of locals and no AC drove 35 minutes north to Danang then paid for the train to go back south to Nha Trang. The train tickets were going to be over $25 each so the sleeper bus was a great deal and easy decision.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.089s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 12; qc: 31; dbt: 0.0479s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
