Hoi An - the most beautiful town in Central Vietnam

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After 5 nights in Mui Ne, Da Lat and Nha Trang it was time to move on so we booked ourselves on a sleeping bus for the 30th of January and after 11 exhausting hours we finally arrived in the most beautiful town in Central Vietnam....... HOI AN!

We spent out days walking around the ancient town centre, having cold beers and enjoying the local specialities like Cao Lau, Fried Wonton, White Rose and Fish in Banana Leaves. DELICIOUS!

On the first evening we met Lolo and Louis again (the Canadian couple that saved us in Da Lat) and had a funny night out with them with loads of drinks, music and pool matches. After a few drinks we were dancing like crazy.

After sleeping in the next day I said bye to them as they were leaving to Da Nang but we'll probably meet them again somewhere in Laos. We then had some drinks and food down at the river and were amazed how beautiful it is and that one months of 2012 is already over. Time is flying!

We met Danielle - a crazy but lovely English girl, Steve&Steve - two British guys in their 60s or 70s and Silke, Simone and Stefan from Germany. We had a few drinks with them it was great to meet some more people and hang out with them.

On the 4th we met Na (a Vietnamese girl we met at our first trip to Vietnam in 2010) again and she invited us for food. We went to one of her favourite restaurants and the food there was great. We met her again on the 6th and this time we invited her and her boyfriend for dinner in a local restaurant of their choice. We had a great HotPot, prawns and snails - they had - I hadn't. haha. It was a nice last evening and after dinner we went to the room and watched a movie.

On the 5th of February the monthly Full Moon Festival took place. Between 5 and 10 pm the entire electricity at the riverside restaurants is turned off and the street is illuminated by candles and lanterns. Ryan and I had a very romantic candlelight dinner and a little boat ride as well to put a floating lantern into the water. There were hundreds of them floating down towards the sea. It was soo pretty. We enjoyed walking along the river and soaked up the great atmosphere. Once the electricity came back on we went to a bar for some drinks with Danielle and the Steves. It was a wonderful day!!

On one day we went on a Free Bicycle Ride (which was actually not free...). We took the local ferry to an island close by and cycled around with our guides - two university students who want to practise their English. We stopped a sleeping mat - , rice noodle - and boat manufactury. It was quite interesting to see how the people use their little ressources to manufacture everything they need for their daily life. The tour itself didn't include as much cycling as we hoped it would be and we didn't see much of the countryside. We were finished very early and to be honest I was pleased about that fact as the guides were talking a bit too much and wanted to take 100000 photos.

Once again in Hoi An I couldn't resist the temptation of the tailor shops and so I got a beautiful turquoise and white dress made. It's perfect and I love it.

On the 7th we headed north to Hue and spent to cold days there with mostly nice Vietnamese food and one evening in Brown Eyes - it was a nice evening but nothing in comparison we experienced there last time with Joe and Lucy. xx

Looking back on 18 days in Vietnam I have to say that apart from Saigon and Hoi An I haven't enjoyed it as much as last time.

Of course, I have to admit that we didn't plan it very well and bumped right into the TET celebrations - a mistake. I still feel a bit of disappointement in me when I think back to Mui Ne, Da Lat and Nha Trang. We were first rushing around and everything was so much more expensive.

On the 9th of February in the morning we were off to Savannakhet in Laos and we were really excited about that and looking forward to is very much. What happened in Laos is a different story and deserves its own blog entry. ;-)



BYE BYE, VIETNAM! We'll see you soon.

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