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Published: January 1st 2006
HAPPY NEW YEAR! With a big grin on my face and a slight hangover have I just returned to DaNang. Cannot believe that I have reached my final cycling destination and tomorrow will take a train to the final destination of my journey: Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon. Last time I wrote I was also in DaNang and it all feels a little bit like 'deja vu' (I'm even in the same internet cafe and got allocated the same computer.
On the 28th December I left DaNang and headed for the beach. I reached My Khe (better known as China beach) within minutes after leaving the city centre. This is a beautiful beach and it streches all the way from Danang to Hoi An. So I decided to do away with routes and just follow the beach all the way (only 30km) to Hoi An. Cycling on the beach was not possible so I stuck to the road on the edge of the beach. It was a wonderful but way too short ride. To make things a little bit more interesting the road turned into a muddy dirt track for the last 10 km or so with lots of
annoying little children. Upon reaching Hoi An I was astonished by the amount of tourists and shopped around for a decent but cheap hotel because I was going to spend a quite a few nigths here. The rest of the day I did nothing! I sat in a cafe at the riverfront and read my book (a bad thriller in Dutch). Lovely.
The next day I spent exploring Hoi An and surrounding area. Hoi An is a very lovely, very un-Vietnamese, village and the only thing to do there, after you have seen an old house, assembly hall and the Japanese covered bridge is shop for clothes and shoes. I only went for the shoes! Although with a couple of wedding coming up in 2006 I should have shopped for a dress. Oh well, I could not be bothered.
30 December I made a daytrip out of Hoi An to the Cham ruins at My Son. 90km, 3.45 hours. You can do this by bus for 1 dollar but a bike it much better. I started of early because it seems to rain in the afternoons (though it is overcast all day) and got to the ruins just as
all bus tours did as well. The ride there proved once again that heading in-land is the way to go. The little bit on Highway 1 made me grumpy (the honking is too loud and too frequent, the scenery ugly) but after heading further inland to the foot of the Cat's Tooth Mountains (were the ruins are) was lovely, smaller roads, bright green rice fields and a lot less trafic. So had I had more time heading inland would have been my preferred route to the south. But I'm heading back soon so I just have to hold that thought. The ruins were not impressive (nothing ever will if you've seen Angkor) but the surrounding area and the peacefulness of the place was nice. After the ruins I loaded up on some carbs (aka rice... again) and raced back to Hoi An. That evening I treated myself to a great meal at Cafe des Amis which had been recommended to me by some friends, (and they were so right). The set menu was devine! My mouth still waters just thinking about it.
I think the day that followed, 31 December, was the most boring and depressing day of the whole trip. I rained all day, with variations of drizzle to downpoor. I had planned to just get on my bike, go to the beach and lounge around but this now turned into watching very bad movies and reading. The public announcement system was playing Happy New Year from Abba every hour or so just to remind us all that tonight was new years eve. I had a nice dinner (food is good, be it a bit expensive, here) and headed for one of the many bars. This one promised 'a big booze up' with free shots throughout the night. It was lively and fun, I celebrated the night with random strangers, mostly Australians and Canadiens which was loads of fun. When I returned to the hotel some of the locals had a little karaoke, spirits thing going on in front of the hotel. I happily joined in and found myself drinking many shots of Red Label whisky and Baileys with some of the other hotel guests and the Vietnamese staff. When the final drops of alcohol were consumed and the French couple that was actually trying to sleep (weird, no-fun, annoying people) had complained for the 3rd time we called it a night. I'm proud to say I was the only remaining non-Vietnamese at the table (and I will stay away from spirits for a
while to come). All in all a very strange but very fun night.
And today I re-trached my steps and headed back to Danang from where I will take a slow train to HCMC/Saigon tomorrow. Nice, I have a nearly 24 hour trainride on a hard sleeper to look forward to...
Hope you all had a good one and are nuirsing hangover and big smiles just like me. Next time you'll hear from me it should be from Saigon!
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Isabel
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Happy new year Fiona! I hope that 2006 will be everything you wish for and a MUCH better one than 2005 :)