Hoi An is without a doubt my favorite place so far on this trip. So much to do and see there! Not only do you have a beautiful French colonial town which was basically left alone in the war, perfect for wandering around either on foot or on bikes, it also has a gorgeous beach nearby AND the town is famous for its tailor made custom clothing. Not to mention the nearby ancient ruins of My Son. We stayed here longer than we’ve stayed anywhere else, as it just wasn’t fathomable to rush it.
We arrived from Nha Trang having split up for the journey with Becca and I getting the train and Jess and Jon getting the night bus. There’s no train station at Hoi Anh itself so we had to overshoot to De Nang and get a shuttle bus back to our hostel, Sunflower Hotel. They tried to overcharge us for the bus but when we found out everyone else was only paying (100,000 dong when they wanted $8 each from us, not much difference but I like things to be fair) I got them to match it. It was about 4pm by then so we didn’t have time to do much other than check in and go for a nice dinner accompanied by the locally brewed beer which goes for 3-5000 dong per mug – about 8pence per mug!! Hold me back..
The following morning we gave ourselves a bit of a lie in as a treat, with plans of heading to town for various pursuits just before lunch. Jon, Jess and Becca headed to the tailors to get measured up and fitted for various things they were getting made. They used a company called Kimmy’s which had been recommended by Tom who we met in Dalat. I didn’t end up getting anything made due to lack of spare funds mostly but also not knowing what I would want (I’m just looking forward to getting my old clothes back. That will be a new wardrobe in itself!). They spent a relatively small amount though on their various personalised outfits (Jon got a 3 piece tweed suit! Jess about 6 outfits and a leather bag, the shopaholic, and Becca 2 bits) and had to head back 3 or 4 times for fittings, but man do they churn their stuff out fast! When that was polished off we spent the afternoon wandering the riverside markets and taking a short gondola style boat ride, which worked out as about a quid each. As Jon would say it would be rude not to!
The cultural portion of our time in Hoi An was spent on a day trip to My Son, ancient ruins which were bombed by the Americans in the war as the viet cong were using the area as a hideout / base. As beautiful as they were there wasn’t much left of them, with some reconstructions giving an idea of their former glory. They weren’t as impressive as Angkor or Borobudur so we were glad it was only a half day tour as it was SO hot. Worth a visit if you’re in the area and have a strong interest in ancient architecture but not necessarily worth seeing if you’re short on time.
There are two beaches in Hoi An for the less actively inclined, we only made it to the nearer of the two which was not far from our hotel. I say near, you definitely needed to rent a bike for 50p a day and cycle the 15 or so minutes there. Nice and clean with very clear water and nice views of the offshore islands but as usual it was plagued with hawkers. We got talking to one lady called Leo who was actually very nice but at the end of the day no matter how chatty and friendly they are they just want one thing. A sale! We ended up buying some cheap key rings which were about the only decent things she had and she smilingly sloped off. Amazing fresh mango was worth being annoyed for though by another lady. We also used the bikes that day to go on a little photo tour of the old town and explore all the gorgeous little side streets and alleys. All the nice restaurants were around there and we had a couple of good meals in town and a few cheeky drinks afterwards.
When it came time to leave Hoi An we decided that rather than going for a traditional bus/train combo we would instead ride ourselves on Motorbikes with a guide to our next stop Hue, as the scenery in between was meant to be stunning. Becca rode on the back of a guides bike, I had my own and Jess and Jon shared one. After we fueled up in town, we sped off on our way and boy was it worth the extra money! We zipped through 2 mountain passes with amazing views and curled round hairpin bends with out any problems. The first half of he journey we had the road pretty much to ourselves, as all the major traffic goes through a more direct tunnel under the mountains. The freedom to go at any speed we wanted and stop on and off for photos was incredible. At one point we saw a gorgeous majestic eagle soaring above us, then suddenly we were the ones above it! Really beautiful.
We stopped half way, about 3 hours in, for an amazing seafood lunch by a lagoon. You could pick the seafood out of a tank and they would prepare it for you how they saw fit. There wasn’t really a menu so our guide basically just ordered us a range of side dishes and haggled the price of the crayfish and the clams. They came out beautifully with sides of omelette, garlic fried morning glory and of course piles and piles of rice. Really great food and as usual, very cheap. The next part or the road trip was less fun than before as we arrived at the busy highway 1 where lots of overtaking and honking occurred, but we made it safe to Hue, despite our guide abandoning ship about and hour out of town and telling us to follow someone else without any real explanation. At least way more people wear helmets here then in Cambodia! You need them!
Both we and our luggage arrived safely at our hotel and yet another love was seeded inside me, the motorbiking bug! I love scooters and as long as there isn’t too much traffic I will definitely be trying them again!
Bitten by the Travel Bug 