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Published: December 29th 2013
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I took off from Da Lat on Dec 17th taking a night bus to Hoi An. I was traveling with an Israeli girl I met at my hostel in Da Lat and we had both booked the same hostel in Hoi An. After a long but trouble free bus ride we arrived in Hoi An about 8 am. Poor Jordan had become sick in Da Lat and the cold weather in Da Lat and Hoi An wasn't helping at all. Come to find out, she had an upper respiratory infection. We arrived in the morning and were not allowed to check in until noon so I splurged and paid the $3 for their breakfast buffet. It was well worth it as I hadn't eaten anything since lunch time the day before. While sitting in the lobby studying the map to figure out the town I happened to see a German woman I met in Saigon, Anica. It was a nice surprise. After chatting with her for a minute I took off to explore the city. The city itself is a shopper's paradise due to the nearly endless custom tailors and cobblers. The city also had nice colonial architecture in an aesthetic
state of decay. Enough to add character but not enough to seem run down and neglected. Besides the colonial architecture there was also quite a few old Chinese temples and pagodas. The city was very charismatic but is overrun with tourists. I think I saw more tourists in Hoi An than in any city so far in Vietnam. As I was walking along I was kidnapped, on more than one occasion, by ladies who work at tailors or shoe shops. They always start innocent enough: "Where you from? How long you in Hoi An? Where you go next?" but before you know it you're sitting in their shop looking through fabric swatches and leather samples. I was entertaining the idea of having a pair of boots made so it was good to look around and get an idea on prices. After a quick look at the town I made my way back to the hostel. I got myself slightly lost on the way back and ended up walking about half a mile in the wrong direction, but on the right road. Oh well. After getting checked into the hostel I ran into Jordan, the Israeli, at a restaurant next door.
We decided we'd walk to the beach which is maybe 2 miles from the hostel. It was a nice walk as the sun was setting but we didn't make it to the beach. Our walk took us along a river and past farms and rice paddy fields. We finally turned around as the last of our light was disappearing. Ran into Anica and her friend Daniel that evening in the hostel restaurant and joined them for a while. Anica and I decided to meet for breakfast in the morning before checking out a shoe shop which was highly recommended on Trip Advisor. Went to the shop the following morning, picked out leather, sole, buckle, etc. It sounds like tailors and shoe shops in Hoi An are kind of hit or miss. Hopefully I chose a good one. Anica had to go get a suit made so I wandered around the city a bit and headed back to the hostel. The next day Anica and I rented bicycles and rode down to the beach. The beach was decent but it was too cold to get into the water. We found a beach restaurant and ordered a couple drinks. At 2 pm
I headed back to the shoe shop to have a fitting. Pretty good but had them loosen up the toe a bit. They would be ready the following morning. The following morning Anica and I picked up our boots and I bid her farewell on her journey to Mui Ne. Later that afternoon I met an Israeli man and a German man. We grabbed dinner and a few drinks at a restaurant next to the river. Nice setting, fun to watch the boats. We made plans to rent scooters the following morning and ride to Marble Mountain in Da Nang. Originally I was going to join them for a cooking class in the morning but I could not drag myself out of bed. At a little after 1 pm we got us some scooters and headed towards Da Nang. Most of the 40km or so ride was along the coast and we found a few quiet places to pull off and enjoy the sea. Marble mountain was an interesting place. There are a half-dozen or so temples on top of this mountain and a few caves with large Buddhas carved in them. The view over Da Nang and the ocean
was nice. We made our way back to the hostel and I caught a 5 pm night bus back to Da Lat for Christmas.
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