Hoi An (25-27th October)

After a 4 hour bus journey from Hue we set down in Hoi An, and after the bus dropped us just outside of the town, we had a 20 minute walk to the old town and the action.  We settled in a hotel called Thangh Binh II hotel, we checked in for 2 nights and paid $17 a night including breakfast. After dumping our bags and getting a quick change of clothes, we set out into Hoi An. We were immediately taken back by it's charm, beauty, exquisite architecture and as we'd later discover AMAZING food!

The little winding streets around the Thu Bon river and the central Market made an impact on Ammi and I straight away. The amazing little upmarket shops, boutiques and very European looking buildings mixed with the buzzing fish Market and clothes Market, was a real change from Hue and Hanoi.

We stopped for lunch in a cafe a stones throw from the river, the food was exceptional.  We both ordered a variation of the local cuisine called Cau Lau, as the noodles used in this dish must come from the Ba Le well. We also ordered 'White Rose'- steamed dumpings with fried shrimp and caramelised onions.  Yummy!  We continued to walk around the streets taking in the local sights, i got myself a haircut, ammi was enticed to shop for custom made dresses, but declined stopping for drinks instead!

That evening we stopped in a bar called "Treat, same same but different" where we played pool, listened to a lot of red hot chilli peppers and drank a few bottles of Bia Saigon.

The following morning we leisurely got up and decided to rent some bicycles and take a 5km bike ride to Cai Dau beach. The cycle was relatively leisurely despite the craziness of the local traffic, we arrived at the beach, ordered a few drinks then took a stroll down to one of the local 5 star beach resorts, where we bunked in and used their swimming pool and loungers for the afternoon!

After sunning ourselves for an hour or two, we walked back to the beach for some lunch, I ordered the grilled fish and a mango smoothie, it was delicious, Ann Marie ordered the fried rice with shrimps which was equally as good. After lunch we took another stroll down the beach and bunked into another top quality hotel to use their facilities, although but this stage the weather was turning, and looking like it was going to chuck it down with rain at any moment!  We decided to get back on our bikes and venture back to Hoi An. Whe we bumped into Tom, Eva and Tina again and arranged to meet up for dinner that evening.

The following day we'd all arranged to get on the early (5am trip) to My Son, about an hours bus ride from Hoi An, it's an ancient Cham city, this became a religious centre under king busses adman in the late 4th century. Some beautiful ruins set in lush scenery, but the weather was atrocious, torrential rain all morning which somewhat dampened our enthusiasm.  We then ventured back to Hoi An by boat, again -still raining!!  We got back to Hoi An and treated ourselves to a hot chocolate and some amazing chocolate cakes from a place called the Cargo Club. It was now only 11am and wondered back to the hotel to have a shower, pack our bags and checkout.  We were catching the 6pm bus to Nha Trang, which would be another 12 hour sleeper bus. We killed some time in th afternoon by playing pool at treats, and drinking mango smoothies. The bus eventually turned up, it was minging inside!! The seats all had holes in them and had temporary make-do matresses on top that were rank.  We secured a couple of seats on the back on the bus next to an Italian couple we had met up with in Halong bay. It was going to be a long 12 hours! It went by pretty quickly despite feeling very lump and bump in the road! We arrived in Nha trang at 6am the following morning.