Blogs from Hoi An, Quảng Nam, South Central Coast, Vietnam, Asia - page 2

We left Hue for the four hour drive over the Hai Van pass to Hoi An. I was still feeling tired and tight chested and was hoping the antibiotics would make me feel better soon. Our driver spoke very good English and Jerry enjoyed talking to him as we left Hue. Halfway to Hoi An we stopped at one of two large inland lagoons. One was used for pearl farming, an enterprise originally established by the Japanese, and now run solely by Vietnamese families growing cultured pearls for export to Japan. The other large lagoon was used for shrimp farming. The road was lined with eucalyptus tree plantations, a present after the war from the Australian Government, and today there are thriving home based small stills in the area producing eucalyptus oil and associated products. The ... read more

You do need to have transportation (other than Shanks' Pony) when you are living here. Whilst many places are walkable - in the cooler period over TET it's OK - but not so comfortable during the summer months. Last year when we were here - we bought a Yamaha scooter in partnership with local friend Minh. The deal is that we use it when we are here, and when we are "gone" - he can rent it out to guests staying at the nearby villa where he works. Using the bike - I return to Ba Le market - the local one just a couple of minutes ride from the unit - to re-aquaint with friends and market merchants we used on previous visits. The bike will come in handy to go to Da Nang (where ... read more

Today we were supposed to go on a tour to a fishing village on bicycles with a man named Mr Trung but unfortunately when we woke up it was absolutely pouring rain (of the heavy torrential variety) so we cancelled it. We lost our deposit but we were both kind of relieved to have a quiet day. We spent the morning just hanging out in the hotel and not doing a whole lot; Brad watch tv and I updated the blog. Last night Brad had arranged with Mark (our kiwi friend) that they would hire a motor bike and go for a ride together at 2pm, Mark had already done it before and was keen and neither myself or Lyn were up for it. When 2pm came round, the weather had cleared up so Brad went ... read more

We woke up and it was still pitch black, our body clocks are obviously not yet aligned to the Vietnam timezone. It was a good opportunity to just chill until breakfast opened at 6.30am. Brad then headed off the gym and I spent some time setting up this blog so that we have something to look back on and also so that the kids can keep track of what we're up to. We then headed off to the spa for our daily massages (they are included in our package). We were greeted with a welcome tea of some sort which was lovely then were taken to seprate rooms for our massages. It was similar to a hot stone but using these little bags containing stones and was amazing. We both requested hard massages and when I ... read more

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