4/3/18 - Day 37

We were woken up at around 3.30am by some drunken guest in our hotel, he was talking to a door apparently! Managed to get back to sleep eventually but got up early and did some yoga on the roof terrace, see you don’t need a lot of space!

After breakfast, we were going to catch a grab car to Hoi An (An Bang Beach), I think they felt bad about the drunken guest so our hotel offered to take us so we arrived around midday and headed to look around a couple of places. Found the very lovely Vina Beach Villa, we can only stay one night so we negotiated ($45 and it’s gorgeous!). Dumped bags and went to check out An Bang beach, it was pretty busy, found a restaurant on the beach that was lovely (Soul Kitchen) and had lunch, headed back to the hotel to relax with my book by the pool. Cycled into Hoi An which is lovely but a bit crazy on the roads, you just have to breathe and hope for the best when a car, lorry or scooter is coming towards you! Same strategy applies when crossing the road (see sign I found) Hoi An itself although very busy, is beautiful (well the Ancient part of Hoi An is) it has lights and lanterns everywhere, it’s lovely. Certainly my favourite city in Vietnam so far. The Japanese Covered Bridge was also worth seeing (see photo of J stood in front of it). The old part of Hoi An with the old tea houses is well worth a visit and of course the market. A great place to people watch, shop and drink coffee (the old tea houses now seem to be coffee shops).

5/3/18 - Day 38

Up early for a beach yoga class with Nomad Yoga at Loi Restaurant, a German lady called Dana took the class and it was great, I just love learning from other instructors. Lovely spot for morning yoga class, it’s always lovely to practice with others after solo practising for days... went back and relaxed with a book by the pool and sadly having to move to a different hotel (Louis Villa) as the one we stayed in is full for the next few days and we plan to stay here as a base whilst we visit a few nearby places.

Going back into Hoi An later to meet up with some people we met in Laos for drinks... met up with Sima and Rod at Q bar for cocktails and then we joined them for dinner at Streets Restaurant, lovely eve.

6/3/18 - Day 39

Decided to travel to My Son temples on the moped, about 45km away, it was an interesting ride, it took about 1 hr 15 mins but worth while, although nothing like Bagan (Myanmar). Amazing to walk around in the jungle looking at temples that were originally built between 8th and 11th centuries and by a nation that was wiped off the face of the earth (Cham). Left the temples and had another hell raising ride back to Hoi An, on the way back we drove through the rice fields and stopped to chat to a hurdsman...after a nice hot shower headed back out to get all the road grit off, back on the moped to An Bang beach, found a seafood restaurant right on the beach and had amazing scallops and squid for about £5, lovely hearing the waves crashing on the beach whilst watching the huge rats scurrying around cleaning up the beach. Again, not for the faint hearted!

7/3/18 - Day 39

Returned to Nomad Yoga on the beach at 6.30, our guide, Dan, was very good, lovely class again watching the sun come up.

After getting back to our place, we decided to explore around the rice fields in between Hoi An and An Bang, then drove to a very quiet beach and settled in for a few hours of reading (of course had to buy a pineapple juice in order to use their beds). Went for a dip in the sea (fresh), no diving here because the visibility is frankly terrible at this time of year (it gets better in April so I will save diving for Cambodia or Thailand). Headed back to our hotel as they had invited us to join us for a cooking demo with the other guests. Really kind of them, I’ve found the Vietnamese people incredibly friendly, far friendlier than people in Laos (they were lovely too but sometimes a bit indifferent).

Made plans for our next part of the trip as flying to Siem Reap tomorrow....exciting! Really looking forward to Cambodia.