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Within hours of being in Hoi An I had easily made up my mind that this beautiful ancient riverside town was going to be one of my favourite places on our travels. A laid back rustic old town and the picturesque Vietnamese countryside that leads you to the perfect palm tree lined beaches. I struggle to think of what more you could want from a place.
The first morning we arrived we checked into a hotel which conveniently offered a free bicycle service. A little bit of rain wasn't go to put us off exploring so for the first time we braved the roads of Asia and headed into the old town. There were no cars in the centre and the little streets were authentically decorated with bunting, lanterns and tasteful Vietnamese style tailors, shops and restaurants.
After some lunch we cycled back to the hotel and luckily the weather had taken a turn for the best so we decided to go on a bike adventure out of town. We had a map but this didn't help one bit considering the navigational skills we have between us so we kind of improvised the journey. The Vietnamese love to beep their horns the majority of the time for no particular reason so as soon as we saw an off road path we took it. It turned out to be a very worth while risk as cycling through the countryside was truly beautiful. The types of views you think you'll never actually get to see with your own eyes.
We passed little villages, locals fishing in their lakes, rice fields and trails lined with Palm trees. We also had to stop a few times due to animals blocking the road. At one point some local kids had to lead some frisky cows out of the way which was quite funny and slightly awkward. At the end of the trail which lead us through the countryside for about an hour we took a left on the main road and ended at the beach.
The beaches made Nha Trang look like Southsea, so chilled out and beautiful. It was the beginning of the Vietnam celebrations of the end of their civil war and independence so there were loads of locals sat in groups drinking under the shade of the palm trees. Unfortunately we had no idea we would end at the beach so weren't prepared for a swim or sunbathe. After an hour or so we made the same breath taking ride back and had a well timed complementary cocktail at the hotel.
After a well deserved nap as we hadn't sleep much on the night bus, we rode into town and got some food and beers. The town was full of energy with the locals celebrating their holiday and the night market made it interesting to walk around. As you can probably guess our afternoon of good weather didn't continue into the evening and the rain started to shower down. Fortunately, as was the case in Ho Chi Minh City, we were stuck in a bar so we can't really complain. The down side to this was trying to find our way home at midnight after being stuck in a bar.
Although there are a few backpackers bars, Hoi An eerily empties by about eleven and all the bar and shops are shut and there are no street lights. After nearly an hour of riding around in full length plastic ponchos we had bought that made us look like the teletubbies we found our way back! We were definitely grateful to be back and not riding round empty rat infested streets but again that's done to our terrible navigational skills.
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