Hello us again!

After our 20 hour coach trip through to Vietnam which I might add wasn't the best boarder crossing we have had. We were woken by a man demanding our passports and asking us for money. There was a little bit of arguing from us tourists before we handed them over, but we only ended up paying a pound each more, it could have been worse, he could have done a runner with them! We will learn from our mistakes so we know what to expect next time. We finally got dropped of in Da Nang on the 12th of Feb and a group of us 2 British girls (sisters) called Kate and Amy, an Australian girl and a French guy jumped into a cab and asked to be dropped of at a cheap hotel. We all booked in and headed for lunch, that was an experiance, thank god all Vietnamese food was not like that.

There wasn't much happening in Da Nang, the place was made up of high rise buildings and was a bit s***ty really, mainly due to the weather, overcast and alot cooler. We decided not to stay for long and leave to go to Hoi An further south on the 14th for Valentines day and check in to a nice hotel! That meant we had one more day to kill in Da Nang so we meet the two British girls in the morning, went for brekkie then to the Cham sculptural museum (not so good) a bunch of old school rocks! We jumped into a cab and headed down the beach. The weather was rubbish (cold and windy) so the four of us ended up drinking in a shack on the beach for a quite few hours, which was quite good. We finally went for din dins and then got an early night.

After a not so good nights sleep (due to very load monks singing and banging drums from 4am-7am) we headed out for brekkie, walked around a market that was selling all sorts, as well as loads of lovely flowers ( I was hoping Sean was going to get me some for valentines). We then jumped on to a public bus and headed for Hoi An, it was only an hours journey so it wasn't to bad apart from they tried to over charge us on the bus fair but luckily our hotel manager had told us about this so we argued with them until they gave in! It seems this is the norm in Nam, scamming us backpackers! Also I strangely was attacked by an old lady who slapped me round the face twice while smiling, only gently, Sean thinks she was being friendly but I think she just wanted to slap a western girl (if that's how they get their laughs then I will just have to slap them back!)

Over all Da Nang to me wasn't really worth the visit. I would have been good if the weather was hot and sunny. We could have sunbathed and relaxed on the beach but that wasn't the case, luckly we met Kate and Amy, I am hoping the next place is better. We have heard lots of good things about Hoi An so fingers crossed!

Loads of love

Jen and Sean