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Week two - Hoi An, HouseBackpackers, Da Nang and a nice little treat.
We arrived in Hoi An at around 7am. From all the sleeper bus tales we had been told I think we had it extremely easy, we were put on the back row with 3 other guys (one who lated dropped some Valium and dribbled on Alex's arm for a good few hours of the journey). We managed to get a few hours sleep, it was like being in a simulator, we were getting chucked all over the place and with that added to the driver consistently attacking the horn of the the bus there was no hope of any sleep.
Desperately wanting to get to our hostel and grab some shut eye we jumped in a taxi. We were taken to the top floor were we met an adorable French girl. We grabbed facing top bunks and nodded off.
Once we were up and showered we headed off to discover Hoi An, it was famous for its tailoring and 2 food dishes, Cao Lao and White Rose. The town was very pretty with lots of old traditional buildings. We booked a snorkling and camping trip for the next day and so we cut our day short with an early night; we actually ended up singing "if you like pinacalada" with our roomies till about 1am! But that was still early for us.
The next day we woke up and got set for Cham Island, the tour included a speedboat ride to Cham Island, a walk around the small fishing village, snorkling on a beach, a huge family cooked feast and an over night stay on the beach with a camp fire and music exchange (we later found out that no one else was staying on the island that night and that they were going to leave us on our own, feeling unsafe, we kindly declined and luckily got some of our money back).
The speed boat was great, it's the first time I had been on one. Cham island was interesting and very quiet, the village was small, and the Vietnamese locals that lived were all typically traditional. On the Island, there was a famous well, the water from the well was used in the speciality dish Cao Lao. After our walk, we jumped back onto the speed boat and headed for another island were we snorkelled. It took me a while to get used to the sensation as I was feeling a little clostraphobic under the water - I know that's ridiculous it being the ocean and all. One of the local families cooked the group an amazing feast, it was greatly received and greatly finished! Once we had done, it was back on the speed boat and back to Hoi An.
We had to check back into the hostel, this time we was on the bottom floor. This was where some of our foundest memories from Hoi An were about to be created! That night, after a much needed nap, we went out to discover Hoi An's nightlife with 3 off our roomies, 2 german guys and 1 Israeli. We explored the famous Hoi An night market, it was beautiful, layered with lanterns and jewellery. We went out to a few bars which gave me chance to show a couple of people up at pool, considering I'm female and don't play that often, I'm not too shabby; as the Germans later found out. We ended up at a club called Infinity and staggered home at about 4am.
Of course, the following day a lie in was due, we had decided to rent a couple of bikes so we could go and explore a little better - the bikes brought back some hilarious memories from when me and Alex took a trip to Amsterdam! Before we jumped on our bikes we met 2 new roomies, Daniella - the hot Costarican and Lucas - the funny Mexican. We had a lot of fun exploring on the bikes, we rode to the beach, that by the way, is definitely not just a 20 minute walk and, into the streets where the locals lived. Again that night, we arranged to head out with our new roomies, Daniella was as sweet as pie and Lucas was hilarious, we had a fab night with our new gang and ventured home at around 5am.
We found a nice little cafe next door which had become our go to for breakfast and dinner as we struggled to find any street food in Hoi An. We popped next door, after of course, another lie in to aid recovery, and ate breakfast. I had eggs and baguette, this is a standard dish for Vietnam and I had ate it almost every morning so far. With another roomie, Ahmed joining us, we decided to head to the beach. We practices Yoga with teachings from Daniella and tried to banish out hangovers, the weather wasn't a great and we later got rained off the beach. That night was going to be the last night in Hoi An for some of us so a big group of us, 'The HouseBackpackers crew' headed out for food and of course more drinks! I'd took a clear liking to Vietnamese rum and coke. It had been raining all day and so we headed out in our rainmacs. We managed to find a tiny little outside cafe with street food type dishes and decided to stop there for dinner, and then it pelted it down. The family were quick to invite us all into their house, we ate and thanked the family for their hospitality and headed to the bars. On the way, we met our NZ buddies who had just landed in Hoi An after a 5 day motorbike trek. In true Hoi An form, we drank, danced, played pool and had the perfect night to say goodbye to our new friends and Hoi An.
The following day, which was Monday by the way, we had arranged to do abit of shopping and meet back at our Hostel for our goodbyes at 5pm. It's so easy to loose site of days and times here, because you live day by day, what day it is or what time you want to do something becomes almost non-existent. We met up with Barry, who was exhausted from the bike ride him and the boys had done and so, in true girl form, we did some shopping with him. We helped him haggle down for a cheaper price for his new swerve black cotton outfit. We headed back to our hostel for our goodbyes and we decided to create a message group online so we could all stay in touch with what everyone was doing, we were all more or less on different paths.
Alex and I were heading to Da Nang, a city about half hour away, we mostly wanted to see it at night and was going to treat ourselves to a nice place to stay. We hopped into a taxi and headed for Da Nang, as we was driving in, it was pretty spectacular! Lights and sky scrapping hotels everywhere, Vietnams Vegas. The hotel was beautiful, we had a hairdryer, a separate shower, and a separate toilet! After washing in cold water, in wet rooms that are also cleaning cupboards everyday so far we were super excited! That night we had some amazing food and a glass of wine! It was Heaven!
Reluctant to leave our slice or normality, we headed to the train station and booked a 6 hour bus journey to Dong Hoi. The experience is hard to describe, with rancid smelling carriages, locals feet in my face and rats running about the carriages it was hard to relax. We dealt with most of it by hysterically laughing almost all of the way. Oh and there was the toilet, well a hole in the floor in a cupboard that opened directly onto the tracks!
Our hostel is Dong Hoi was delightful, we noticed 2 westerners (who were American) getting off the train and asked them where they was staying, the place sounded great so we shared a taxi to Nam Long Hotel. It was as cheap as all the other hostels we had slept in but was by far the nicest! We grabbed some street food with our new pals and headed back to the room for a much needed early and relaxing night.
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