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This is going to be a very long entry as we absolutely LOVED Hoi An!!
We stayed in a hostel called the Sunflower hotel which was really sociable as there was a pool and pool side bar -luxurious! Every morning we had the infamous buffet breakfast which consisted of an array of fruits, cooked vietnamese food, bread and jam and pancakes and omletts made to order!! Over the week in which we stayed in our dorm we had an interesting mix of people from 4 men who never said a word and spoke little english and one of which snored, to the three dutch boys who enjoyed smoking and skyping in our room untill 3 or 4 in the morning. After one night out Kristina came home to find hairs and a toothpick on her bed !! They then proceded to let in a couple of enormous Canadians who took it upont themselves to try to get in our beds!
On our first day we decided to discover the old town so walked along the river to find the market. Hoi An is famous for its tailor made clothes so we went in search for a shop, which proved very easy to come by! We were dragged by this woman Emma to her store in the market and sat down whilst her assistants thrust catalogues in front of us. They book marked every page we paused on and tried in vain to get us to buy a dress. After been given the same tratment at a couple of stalls we decided to hea home, only to get taken to a woman offering beauty treatments. After being reeled in with at 20,000 VND pedicure, we proceded to get our legs threaded - which for me was the single most painful experience of my whole entire life!!! After the trauma we headed home and had dinner in a tiny family run restaurant next door to the hotel. Although the food took over an hour to make, it was so worth it as it was absolutely delicous. After we decided to see the town at night. It is absolutely beautiful! The streets that line the river are draped with multicoloured lanterns and little girls sit along the river trying to sell candles to float in the river. There is a bridge over the river which is illuminated with vietnamese symbols and pictures and the fishing boats lay moored along the banks.
Next day we decided to head to the local beach, so hired out bikes. Cynthia who we met at Hue showed us the way. we spent only a couple of hours laying on the beach, but as we were soon to find out this was a couple of hours too long! We headed back to the hotel stopping of for lunch at this picturesque restaurant. It was on stilts overlooking the river. We had a smoothie and the local dish of Cao Lao which was incredible. We spent the evening in the local club Volcano, 100,00 VND for unlimited drinks, however it was dead. We satyed for a while though as we were some people we had met earlier on the beach (from Newcastle) and Chris was a DJ so he took to the music whilst his friend Rebecca commanded the dancefloor.
Next day we paid the price for our sunbathing. Kristina had burnt the whole of her back, and i had burnt my feet. We spent the best part of the next 2 days generously applying aloe vera and second degree burn cream (which we picked up from the chemist). I sat by the pool with bags of ice on my feet and we chilled for a bit, and I taught kk how to play slam. I managed to hobble into town with Kristina to get her dress fitted and she went back the same evening to pick it up. Luckily Seb and Owen (from Hue) arrived so we had some company to stop us feeling too sorry for ourselves!! We spent the evenings at the pool bar playing lots of Pool and headed out in the evening to town to the Good and Cheap Bar. We had drinks with the three swedish girls that owen met and Louis and Paddy who we also met at sunflower. After our first skype home we decided the next day to get up and do some more exploring!
On the Sunday we took out bikes again and cycled with Seb around the old town. We saw the Japanese Bridge and went through the market where Kristing practiced her bartering (much to mine and Sebs discomfort!!) We had lunch in a riverside restaurant which looked over the boats and the food market. In the afternoon we hit the beach (going via the amazing riverside restaurant) and sat on the sands reading our books (which we had picked up fropm the local book exchange!) That night we went back to volcano, this time with more sucess as it was alot busier and we were with seb, own, ken, anna and barbara.
Next morning after making full use of the buffet breakfast me and Kristina cycked (25minutes) to another beach called An Bang. Cycling throught the fields in the middle of the day was an error as it was absolutely boiling, but it was well worth it. The beach was beautiful with little thatched boats on the beach and beds and umbrellas along the dunes below the various beach cafe's. We had the most amazing lunch of chicken, bacon, egg and salad baguettes with garlic chips and slept for the rest of the afternoon!
We spent our final night out at the little restaurant next to sunflower with seb owen ken and Canada. This time food took 2 hours to come, so we passed the time with a number of Mojitos, and listened to "Canada" bang on about the oil sands of Alberta. We headed into town and ended up in the sunshine bar and spent the evening listening to good music and playing pool into the early hours of the morning!
We made the most of our last morning by hitting An Bang again. Seb, owen and the sweedish girls joined us. We read our books and sipped coconut drinks before having to say our farwells and heading back for showers and our 15 hour night bus.
Hope you made it to the end, sorry its so long!! But Hoi An is truely the most amazing town to be in and has definitely made me and Kristina fall in love with traveling and Vietnam. Lots of love xxxxxx
- comments
James Reed I knew those lessons on Energy Security would come in handy.......Glad you liked Hoi An. My mum is going to Vietnam tomorrow, by her a gin and tonic if you bump into her!