Advertisement
Published: March 3rd 2012
Edit Blog Post
Our final day in Hoi An was spent on the beach the temperature had ramped up a notch or two and with no clouds in the sky, the beach seemed to be the best bet. The sand at Cua Dia beach is really clean and white and there are plenty of resturants and our hotel had it's own area with free chairs, toilets, so another bonus that the homestay did not have. The water was fairly wild, you had to take care as there was an under current, and when a massive jelly fish came by, that soon emptied the water for a while. But you could certainly take a dip no problem. On our final evening we went into town again and had a nice meal. Hoi An was just a great place to visit, lots to do, and fantastic to get out into the countryside so easily. We were more than happy with our new hotel, I gave the other one a stinking write up on Trip Advisor as we read a new report on there about someone else who was double booked on the same day as us and they were given the excuse that someone was ill
and had to extend, they later checked with the other guests and that was a lie. Just to remind everyone this is the Orchid Garden Homestay in Hoi An and no-one has mentioned the building work, crazy.
We were booked on a Flight to Ho Chi Minh City which is still called Saigon by the locals here with a airline called Jetstar who have recently had a few problems and have just been taken over by Vietnamese Airlines, they have had some bad write up's on the internet but at £30 each for a late morning flight we thought we would give it a try. Danang airport was used during the war as an American Air Force Base and you can still see the old hangers on the other side of the airfield, but the terminal building is brand smacking new and it is an excellent airport. Anyway at 1125 we were up and away and at 1250 we were on the ground in Saigon smack on time. So no problems at all. It was hot, about 32 degrees when we got our transport to the Apartment. We were booked in the Siagon Domaine Apartments which is in District
two about 20 minute drive from the centre of Saigon. We checked in and went up to our apartment which is on the 7th floor. Whow, what a place it is even better than Hue and that takes some beating. We had booked a one bed apartment at £73 a night, but I knew they only had two of these and most people get upgraded, and we were in fact, upgraded, to a three bed room apartment and it is MASSIVE! It is listed as £390 a night but you can book it on Agoda for £155 a night. So we have got a right bargain. It has beautiful dark wooden floors throughout, 2 bathrooms 3 toilets, a massive kitchen with a washing machine and dishwasher. The lounge is huge with a really comfortable sofa and just everything is really perfect we could not ask for a better place It has a fabulous view of the River and has it's own water taxi into the City along with a free bus at other times. It has a nice pool and really we cannot praise this place enough, it is spotless clean and each room has it's own air conditioning which
runs very quietly and you can set each room to suit.
We caught the 6pm water taxi into the City and it is a small speedboat really and it's great it takes 15 minutes on the dot, so it is quite a way as the water taxi doesn't mess about I can assure you. When you approach Siagon you get a brilliant view and it is very impressive massive hotels light up the sky line. However big problem number one hits you as soon as you get out of the taxi. How do you get across the very busy main road which you have to do. The traffic just never stops, and it comes at you at a consistant 15 miles an hour and they are NO breaks in it at all. Never. The only choice you have is to walk out and just walk slowly across and the traffic goes around you...........you hope. Now Pauline is not afraid of much I can tell you, but traffic is one of the things she doesn't like, and this was going to be a problem. Hanoi was bad, but this was a lot lot worse at this particular point. We tried walking to the left and right, but that was no good, there was only one choice and that was to cross. Time for a beer first. We even contemplated going back again as it was very difficult. Any half an hour later and the traffic eased, SLIGHTLY and I mean slightly Pauline decided to give it a go and grabbed by hand closed her eyes and went with me and we walked out into the traffic. When you have 10 motobikes coming straight at you, that is not that easy. And that is all the way across what would be a six lane road, we just keep walking at about 2 mph and somehow they all missed us! Yipee we were over and once that was overcome the rest of it was easy. The streets are much easier to walk around, they are wide with no motorbikes on them, well not very many anyway, and there is no hassle. It was a great evening. We had a bit of luck crossing the big road on the way back, as it is still full on, I don't think it ever stops! We went into a massive 5 star hotel right by the road and had a quick look around and when we came out the hotel porter/guard said would you like to cross the road, we quickly said yes please, and he had this baton taser thing which he put in the air and directed it at the on coming motorbikes and then he just walked out with us by his side, firing the taser in the air! The motorbikes could see the taser going off and they avoided that!! He just kept firing it as we went across, it was bloody magic! We didn't have time to thank him as soon as we were over he was on his way back with the baton in the other hand!!
We caught the last free bus home at 9.45pm and were back in the appartment at just after 10, we went to a small shop across the road and bought a bottle of vietnamese vodka for the lowest price yet, just £2.60. It was an interesting night for sure, that particular road was very difficult we have come up with a couple of plans to avoid it, but to be honest we saw a much better part of the city on the way home and we are going to visit that next time. The city centre is very expensive and up market, great to see, but not our scene really. It was an another interesting day for sure.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.085s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0442s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb