Day 15 Hoi An.

Today is a travel day so I promise the blog will be a little shorter (or that's the intention). Today, we take a short flight, more than a hop but not as much as a stride, to Danang airport then drive south to Hoi An.

But first we check out from our hotel, the Lavender hotel, themed (funny enough) on lavender! The hotel was smashing in all ways except they do seem to have issues with security, as in the back of the hotel information is a list of prices should you break or STEAL an item from the room. Thumble glasses (whatever they are?) seem reasonably priced at 40,000 dong (£2) whereas if you fancy stealing the fridge or the rattan setee that will set up back a hefty 11,200,000 dong (about £600). It was a nice TV but I dont think I had the room in my case for it.

So we checked out and waited at reception whilst they walkie talkied the floor rep to carry out a quick stock check of the room before we left. At this point, I became aware that the receptionist was studying the photocopy of our passports and was studying my face. She had misheard our room number and was staring at the face of a man from a different room, some 20 years younger than me. She seemed to accept that I had aged 20 years as a result of 4 days of crossing the road in Saigon. Worse still, the women's faced she was looking at was wearing a Muslim headscarf so Julie had clearly 's changed her religion as she felt that Mohammed could not protect her crossing the road.

It got even more hilarious when our guide arrived and decided to 'wind' the receptionist up further by suggesting she should be careful not to insult me as I was a professor who was related to Isaac Newton! Now do I look that old (Rhetorical question - no answers needed thanks).

Our transfer to the airport and flight was incident free and we were picked up at Da Nang for the short drive to Hoi An. Still there was time for a whistle stop tour of a museum from the Cham period and a visit to a marble factory which was no more than a sales pitch.

Finally, before we moved on I told Julie to 'Go to hell' and she did! Hell was the name of a cave system where the souls of the deceased are judged and sent to Nirvana or Hell. We reserved our places whilst we were there!

Our destination is a beach resort called Cua Dai, just outside the ancient city of Hoi An, for 4/5 days 'R and R' - or that's what Julie thinks! Seriously it will be nice to have some time to ourselves. The guides have been great but it will be nice not having to concentrate on understanding accent.

Comments:

Sandee What an amazing time you've had - not sure I could have kept up the pace!! Enjoy your few days of R&R and have a good few G&Ts or their equivalent. Looking forward to seeing all the pics - honestly!!

Apr 3, 2015

Andy Are you sure? We are up to about 350 pictures and counting! You'll have to come and stay for a week.

Apr 4, 2015