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Published: July 25th 2009
Admittedly it's been a very long time since I last updated this blog; however things have been a little bit busy here in Sydney. So given things have calmed down I thought it was about time to finish the details on Vietnam.
Hoi-An is worth a trip if only for the tailor made clothes, the streets are lined with tailors and the options are many. You can sit there and flip through the Next catalogue and they will make anything you ask for, shoes, coats, suits etc etc. and it's all for the best price. We both replenished our wardrobes with plenty of smart attar to take with us to Aus.
We were both a bit poorly in Hoi-An, Greg had tooth ache from his wisdom teeth and spent most of the time talking like he had a gob-stopper in his month. We both had bad ears from spending so much time diving in Nha Trang. So we splashed out ($12 US) on a nice hotel, Hoi-an has got so much choice, more hotels than visitors so you can get a total bargain, which we did. So a few days lounging around the (private) pool, getting my arse whooped
at cards!
After finally getting the tailor made clothes to fit, we hired a motorbike and rode to Danang along China Beach, this is where the Americans relaxed in the war, and it’s about 50km of white sand and some great roads for cruising. En-route we visited Marble Mountain; which was a pretty cool set of temples in a mountain with some really creepy demon statues and hidden temples etc.
After Hoi-an we visited Hue for 2 day, Hue has an old Citadel where you can find the Imperial Temple, this is where the Emperors of the Nguyen Dynasty reigned. It was so hot by this time in Vietnam that it was quite difficult to walk around the Citadel but was still worth the visit and we spent most of the time trying to create the perfect picture to match the one in the Lonely Planet. You can also see the largest flag pole in Vietnam and luckily a very slight breeze meant another good photo.
That night we went to the famous DMZ bar (de-militarised zone) and after many Hoa beers we got a cyclo back to our hotel. After going around 5 hotels all with
the same name but different number, I II III IV and V we finally found the right place, which I now can't remember the name at all. Greg ended up pedalling the cyclo man around as he was knackered.
The last day we were on the road again and this time it was to visit various tombs where the emperors were buried, we were totally temple’d out by this time, but we meet Vietnamese Auntie randomly when riding the motorbike and she took us to her house for watermelon and tea, then showed us where the temples were as our guide. We were a bit apprehensive about her random show of kindness but I think she just wanted to practice English and show us pictures of her children, we wanted to post her some photos and books for her children but it turns out that her house has no address. So we gave her some UK coins and said our farewells.
After Hue we went on the longest bus journey ever of 16 hours, to Hanoi!
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Van
non-member comment
Hi. I was just wondering whether you remember the name of that nice hotel in Hoi An. Cheers