Hoi An (to Lao)

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Long time since last update now, and we’ve come a long way since Hanoi.


Hanoi had brought many pleasures and displeasures, and it was now time to see the rest of Vietnam. In fact we only had 15 days there, and 5 of them were used in Hanoi.
We booked another flight ticket to Da Nang, which was almost as cheap as a good buss, but way faster. The morning started off with a good breakfast at the Mamay Backpacker Hostel, were we had stayed. They helped us get to the airport for a fair price, and the car was roomy and comfortable.
We checked in at the airport and went in to the terminal, which is rather small and we got the announcement that the plane is delayed. So we waited and ate some of the worst food we have eaten on this trip. Tip: Don’t eat at Hanoi Airport! Finally we got to board the plane and both of us instantly fell asleep. After a short hour we arrived at Da Nang International Airport.

From Da Nang we took an airport service taxi to “The City Of A Thousand Tailors”, Hoi An, which is located about 40 minutes from Da Nang. The university in Hoi An have a exchange program with Scandinavian schools, where one of our friends attend. We used half our first day there to try and find them. My first impression of the city was very good. It is much smaller than any of the other cities we have visited so far and much more quiet. There are a lot of tourists, but it still has its charm.
You find everything from Families w/children, backpackers, students and the older generation vacationing here side by side.
When we first met up with Ingrid in the other students they brought us to a class-dinner down by the river that flows through Hoi An. We were greeted by all 40-50 Scandinavian students. The food was very good, and the people were great! The dinner-party suddenly turned in to just a party when we were invited to Karaoke. Me and another group of people couldn’t take it any longer and took off to another bar called “Before and Now” which is a great bar which shows football on the tv, serves cheap beer, good music and good food. They even have some lovely artwork on their walls!
The night ended pretty early for us. But it was good to get a long night sleep in a real hotel.

The days in Hoi An were peaceful, we continued to stay at a hotel which lies in the outskirts of the city centre. It was a clean, relaxing and relatively cheap place. You could walk in to the city in 10 min.
We hired scooters the second day and used our time to do some sightseeing. We rode around the town, and out towards the beach and countryside. So that I could do some drive schooling with Jørgen. He got it pretty quick! We bought ourselves a volleyball and drove to a deserted beach 15 minutes outside of town, so that we finally could do something active for a change. It has been some lazy days without much activity. We monkey’d around the beach doing “backflips” and playing random sports, before we drove back in to town to meet up with the Students again for dinner and some drinks.
Most of the days in Hoi An was spent enjoying the good weather and relaxing on the beach. We played some football with the local kids and swam in the ocean, which was one of the things I really missed while being in China. There were not a lot of people on the beach, due to low season and “cold” weather. For us on the other hand it was very warm and good!

We decided to check out marble mountain, which lies just in between Hoi An and Da Nang. Marble Mountain is one out of 5 mountains. The one in the middle and it has temples, caves and a marvelous view of the area! The caves are packed with Buddahs and sacred objects where locals come to pray. It is truly a stunning sight. The caves vary from small, narrow and dark to big, majestic and beautiful. It took us about 2 or 3 hours to see every corner and top of the mountain, and it was well worth it.

Well, when we first were in “The City Of Tailors”, we just might take advantage of it! So we made ourselves suits and 1920’s men’s swimsuits for the bad taste/80’s party. The suits are good quality and reasonably cheap. Most of the tailors will help you ship it home(along with any other things you want to send home). So the both of us sent home all the warmer clothes we brought for “cold” china. It was never needed, and it was just taking a lot of space. The swimsuits, on the other hand, has come to good use and good fun!

We did a lot of driving around the countryside the next few days before our depart. The scenery around Hoi An is beautiful. Mountains, ocean, rice fields and thick forest.
Our initial plan was to go south to Nah Trang and east to Saigon in to Cambodia. But it did not occur to us that we had spent as many days in Hoi An as we did. Because our visa was about to expire, we had to think fast and economical. The road down towards Cambodia, was long and expensive. The road north-west towards Laos was more reasonable but still long. But still we decided for Laos, and come back for Cambodia later.
We booked the bus from our hotel, and it cost us about 35 dollars each for a sleeper bus. It was to leave Hoi An, sleep over in Hue and leave for Vientiane the next day.

Our last day in Hoi An was spent dining with the students which we had come in good contact with over the last 10 days. After a teary good bye, we went to bed pretty early.
Our bus left 1 o’clock, so we had good time to get a decent lunch with Ingrid and Mille before heading off to Hue(The former capital of Vietnam). The buss ride took about 4 hours and was pretty comfortable.

When arriving in Hue, we decided we were going to check in on The Original Backpacker Hostel. The same place we lived in Hanoi, which was very good! The first person we meet when we get in to our room, is a German guy we met 3 weeks earlier in Shanghai. The world is very small as a backpacker. We spent the night doing some sightseeing and socializing with him and an American who stayed at our dorm. We ended up staying awake all night since our bus left at 6.00 in the morning. Which to this day I regret!
The bus was tiny, neither me nor Jørgen could fit our legs properly, and we could not fit the bags under the bus so they were stacked were there was space. The aircon did not work properly and we were so tired! A finish couple said that they as well was promised a sleeper bus, but was informed that we were to change the bus when we got across the border to Laos.
The bus to the Lao border didn’t take more than 3-4 hours, and that I should be able to survive…

See you on the other side of the border…

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