Having arrived back in Hanoi, we quickly made a new plan. It was a pity that we had to ditch the trip to Hue and the scooter trip across the magnificent Hi Van pass.



In Hue, there are plenty of places which offer a one-way scooter rental from Hue to Danang and Hoi An - an easy one day ride while they arrange your luggage to be sent to your hotel in Hoi An. However, with the weather situation as it was, we had to let that plan go and took a plane directly from Hanoi to Danang where a private car was waiting to take us to Hoi An.



I may mention (and will go into it in more detail a bit later) that my Dutch friend Eric Couwenberg , who runs his travel business in Hanoi (www.getupandgovietnam.com), had made the excellent arrangements for us and all went completely hassle free.



Hoi An is a town never to be missed by anyone visiting Vietnam as it is the prettiest town in the country and worth staying several days. It has Unesco World Heritage status. Walking through the car-free streets you can imagine yourself being transported a few centuries back in time.

In the 16th century, it was a major trading port for visiting sailing ships from Portugal, Spain, Holland, England, India and many other Asian countries. The main items of trade were porcelain, fabrics, mother of pearl, spices and silk. Today the town is famous for its silk and its fabric trade.

At night the whole town is lit up by means of thousands of silk lanterns. Hoi An, although a small town, is certainly worth a 2-3 day visit. As for us, time was running out and before we knew it we were back on a plane and landed in Ho Chi Min City (previously known as Saigon). Again, as in Hanoi, the traffic is challenging to say the least, but by now Frank had no problem with it and easily walked across 12 lanes of traffic at a steady pace letting the stream of scooters pass either in front or behind him. It is possible to walk diagonally across an intersection with scooters coming from all four directions without any fuss. The traffic flows around you like a water flowing around a boat.



A trip to the Mekong Delta is a nice way to spend a day. For a mere $8 you are taken down the Delta by bus, have a few boat trips, a great lunch etc. and are entertained for about 12 hours. The bus stops off at various workshops and temples which makes it interesting and breaks the journey.



See pictures.