We woke up late again today as always but we plan to just have a chilled one to walk around town and take some photographs. We got a baguette for breakfast from the same place as usual and walked through the narrow alleyways in the old town to get to the port. We went to see the old Japanese bridge but it was packed with Chinese people which put us off, we would come back later when it's less busy. We crossed over the bridge to the small island and stopped in a restaurant for a fresh beer.
We sat by the front and watched as a man stood out front tried to get people inside to spend some of the plastic like Dong the vietnamese use a currency. Yesterday when we came to the island we went to a small book shop which was like an old english cottage on the inside. The english books were upstairs and painted on the ridge of each step were the spines of famous books such a charlottes web and dracula, all written in the appropriate font. The stairs led to two small rooms, the one on the left was set up like a library with two cushioned arm chairs and a small table. All the walls were lined with the worn spines of second hand books exchanged by travellers throughout the years. I decided on "directions for a heatwave" as i remember Mr Savage talking about it during out GCSEs.
I exchanged two of Daniel's books as he's reading the chris cleave one i had and only paid 60,000 dong instead of the 160,000 on the price tag. After a fresh beer to cool us down as it's particularly hot today we walked round the other bit of the island to the end where there were boats lined up on the river. We went over the bridge and back into the old town. I bought a new purse/bag thing as my beloved red one had torn apart and the zip fell off so i got a new, slightly bigger one for $3. Walking through the small streets, the shoe shops catch my eye as they have a pair of jesus like lace up sandals that i've always wanted but figured i would rather have the extra space in my bag. They also had different colour brogues which made me think of my mamma.
When we got back we met up with Darryl and Philipp who were both now staying at our hotel (Phillip had checked in early in the morning after having a cheeky sleep in the vacant room). We told them about the cao lau with more pieces of meat and the pizza that cost 89,000 at the place we got fresh beer. We booked our bus ticket for the following morning at 07:30 to go to Hue.
Philipp left to meet some girls at a restaurant and me dan and darryl said we would come and meet him later as we wanted to get dinner and try to pick up as the bit we split with darryl and philipp last night was left in an empty cigarette box which the maid must have thrown away, gutted. We headed to get a baguette before dinner as we always do and walked up through town passed the rice paddy where frogs make a racket late at night and the many stalls selling donuts and deep fried banana pancake as well as a fried dough ball filled with fresh shaved coconut and a dash of condensed milk.
The restaurant was packed when we arrived and we were sent upstairs to see that that was full as well but pretty much immediately after we were directed back downstairs to a clean empty table. We ordered a fresh beer and pizza. I went for tuna and onion as i like it very much and it was delivered by a takeaway pizza guy. I think they order the pizzas in or work with a place nearby but it came quickly and it was still piping hot and the cheese was all stringy and melted.
Once we paid we went bar hopping to try and find Philipp. We walked passed backpacker bar which was busy and played loud music but there was no sign of the American. We walked up to Infinity to find him but didn't see him although we took advantage of the rum and coke and shisha offer. We left after a few drinks back to the hotel to see if he messaged me or see if he is in his room. When we got back, the light on the doorbell was on which meant his key was in the electricity dock but when we knocked for him there was no answer. He messaged me saying he was looking for us everywhere but didn't say where he was so we headed firstly to Moe's bar to try and pick up but a man working there said that Jaws (the stern aussie selling the weed) was asleep. This was around 21:30 on a saturday night, he's losing business!
Because we couldn't get weed we headed back out over the bridge to Infinity bar where we saw Philipp playing pool with an indian guy and two young English girls. We got a beer while they played pool with each other swapping teams, Darryl won both times as usual. I had a chat with one of the girls about her travels and we exchanged advice and information about different places we are heading to. After a while, the four of us went back to the hotel to smoke a joint as Philipp kept it in his room.
We both rolled one and headed up to the roof for the last time to smoke together before me and Dan leave for Hoi an. Once we finished smoking, we headed down to the pool but only Philipp was swimming as Darryl's sinuses were playing up and i didn't want to get my bikini wet as it takes ages to dry. Philipp and Darryl are going out to Volcano but dan and i decided to get some sleep instead as we have to be up at 06:30 tomorrow. Darryl told ys to wake him up before we leave, he said to chuck something at him through his window as he sleeps with the shutters open. We said goodbye to Phill and Darryl as they went off back into the night while we went back to get some sleep. We are both quite sad to leave Hoi An as it is such a nice town and we spent our time here in good company. Maybe one day we will all meet again in some other country.