Vietnam - Hoi An and Nha Trang

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17th Sept - 22nd Sept Hoi An and Nha Trang,
We left the hotel at 8.30am and drove along the road, past all the corn and rice laid out over one carriageway of the road to dry and soon reached the Hai Van Pass, the highest mountain Pass in Vietnam, 500 metres above sea level. Fairly scenic and we stopped at the top for scenic pictures of the coast and Da Nang below. Back to the mini-bus and carried on for about 45 minutes before reaching Marble Mountains, a well known tourist spot. There are five ‘mountains’ made of marble, a whole host of marble shops below selling everything from marble statues for the garden to small marble buddhas for 1$, and a flight of about 60 steps (past a rat and a snake!!) that takes you half way up the mountain to a temple and a pagoda. There were also a couple of caves to explore and a viewpoint giving views of the coast.
Onto our hotel (Hai Yen Hotel) and then Martin walked with the group into the main street of Hoi An. It’s a very pretty, old, town with old ochre painted buildings and lots of bougainvillea, with many bars and shops selling cheap clothes, shoes, bags, lanterns and souvenirs. Hoi An is also the centre for tailors and the cheapest place to have dresses and suits tailor made. Stopped for a late lunch of spring rolls (delicious!) by the river and watched the boats and the old women offering their ferry service in their old wooden boats. After watching all the lanterns coming on at dusk, we met the rest of the group for a meal in a restaurant overlooking the river. Other then six geckos chasing each other around the walls and two rats running along one of the beams the meal was uneventful!
The next morning we had decided to go to see some temples at My Son. The sky was blue and the temperature was scorching when we left the hotel at 8.00am for the hour coach journey. The temples were built in the 6thC and the religious centre for the Cham people by the Champa Kingdom and influenced by Hinduism. They fell into disrepair and in 1960 the Viet Cong used My Son as a base that then attracted American bombing which damaged or destroyed a lot of the remaining temples. The area had however, been cleared of leftover explosives! Back to the coach and then transferred onto a boat for an unexpected lunch of chicken, vegetables and rice before a trip down to the river, back to Hoi An.
As it was still very hot we decided to treat ourselves to a lazy afternoon at the hotel swimming pool and went back into Hoi An at 6.00pm for last minute shopping and dinner. Back to the hotel and had a good skype chat with my sister who I think will have a headache tomorrow!!
Packed up this am ready to catch the 10.36am train to Nha Trang, a 10 hour journey. Passed the journey pleasantly enough, reading, listening to music, eating, drinking, chatting, writing the blog and taking pics of the passing scenery – rice paddy fields, banana plantations, cemeterys, workers in the fields – time flies!! Got to Nha Trang (Hotel Oriele) about 8.30pm so just time for a walk around with Martin, our guide leader, to get our bearings, followed by a meal and a drink! First impressions of the town are that it seems a bit rough , with people sleeping in doorways and not many street lights so quite dark walking back to the hotel.
The next day we decided to visit the sights of Nha Trang (not many!) so caught a taxi to the pagoda and white Buddha built in 1965. Got some nice views of Nha Trang over the sea and then walked back to the cathedral. From there we caught another taxi to the Cham temples – 6thC but excellently renovated and still in use. Had a wander by the river, watching the men in coracles, ferrying passengers and women sorting seaweed and laying out on the beach to dry (?) Back to the hotel and then down to the beach for a couple of pleasant hours lazing around before going for a very nice fish dinner.
We had one day left in Nha Trang and decided to do our own thing and hired a private taxi for 4hrs to take us to a local tourist spot – Yang Bay. It was a 45min drive through an old towns citadel gates and past another church where the locals were laying out their rice to dry! We followed the mountains up through a valley, past a village called Raglei, where an ethnic minority group of people have cut themselves off modern society and now live in concrete, well not quite houses, more like bunkers that have been built by the government for them.
At the top of the valley we came to the Waterfalls which were quite magnificent and more impressive than we were expecting! A series of concrete bridges enabled you to cross the river without getting your feet too wet, and then we walked up to the top of the largest waterfall. There were butterflies everywhere, with Chris’ wet shoe being an attraction for 5 smaller butterflies wanting a drink! We could have had a swim and the water wasn’t too cold, but we hadn’t taken towels so gave it a miss!
Back to the hotel and we thought we would catch another couple of hours on the beach! Wrong! Paid for the ‘sun’ beds but after about 20mins it started thundering and then it hammered down!! Spent a couple of hours marooned under an umbrella, with our ‘Maid of the Mists’ cape and the foam mattress forming a barrier from the rain! Chris had gone in the sea so was wet anyway! When it stopped we then went for a drink at the sailing club, before eating at the Lanterns – a lovely restaurant that helps the poor people by offering a soup food kitchen on Mondays and also helps the children at the local schools and orphanages by teaching them to cook.
Back to the hotel to catch the Night Bus to Ho Chi Min (Saigon). This was definitely a new, hair raising experience!! Forty people on the bus , two layers of seats, everyone lies back and your that tuck underneath the seat infront! There are small rails to stop you falling out (?!!!) and a seat belt! I was on the top layer and Chris underneath and we literally bumped our way for 10hrs to Ho Chi Min. Very scary ride along Highway 1 which is mostly an unmade road with lorries hurtling towards you, horns blaring, narrowly missing bikes....You get the picture...!!! Anyway, we made it to our hotel (Hong Thien Loc or Pink Blessings) about 06.00am.

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