( Overview
/ WHEREVER THE MOOD TAKES US….
Tuesday 4th February
Train journey from somewhere outside of Quy Nhon so we have to get a Grab to the station. The station is very drab and we have to wait a good amount of time, train is at least 1/2 hour late and we were 3/4 hr early! Hey ho… I think at least we’ve booked 1st class and I delude myself that it’ll be comfortable. We climb into our coach and find our carriage, J has booked sleeper seats but they turn out to be bunk beds, they’re both on top so there’s no view out of the window. Once again this gives me loads of reading time and I also do some yin yoga in my bunk whilst J stands in the corridor outside of our carriage and he has been quickly been adopted by the toddler and his Mum who shared the lower bunks with us. J then tells me the train doesn’t stop at Hoi An so instead we have to stay on to Da Nang. It’s takes us 5 hours on the train and then another 45 mins in a Grab to our hotel in Hoi An. We’re finally here around 4pm. Dump the bags and head out for food at one of the restaurants on the hotels recommended list, very nice, we’re not sick of Vietnamese food yet. Hoi An is crazy busy and the busiest city we’ve encountered other western tourists. Back at the hotel we book a few tours/ experiences using Airbnb.
Wednesday 5th Feb
After breakfast we find laundry place, we then start walking into Hoi An (although our hotel is amazingly central) no sooner had we gone 10 paces and this western guy and Vietnamese girl pull up on a moped. They’re super friendly and start their patter about doing tourism promotion for Vietnam. They are very chatty and engaging and I should have smelt a rat then. Next thing we know they’re explaining that they’re representing a hotel complex and would we like to go along, they give us a no obligation prize each for our time, as we’re not in a particular hurry (I’m not particularly awake even) we go along with it and they get a cab to take us to their resort just outside of town. It soon becomes apparent that J and I have fallen into the ‘holiday club’ (aka time-share) discussion. We were tackled by the obligatory bald headed, pot-bellied salesman (sorry if I’m sterotyping) who was very sweet but after I’d listened for a while I said it’s really not for us, why would I give up the freedom we have of travelling whenever, wherever we want to be tied down to a timeshare! He couldn’t argue with me nor could he get his boss to convince us otherwise, so that was an hour and a half of our lives that we won’t get back! Hey ho… true to their word, they order us a car which takes us back to Hoi An and we get on with our day… wander round the ever busy streets which are far more touristy from what we remembered nearly seven years ago. After some respite at the hotel we’re back out at 5pm for a food tour which is great. There’s only 8 of us, all different nationalities; Canadian mainly, one Oz, we all get on great and have a great guide called Vu who takes us off the beaten track to a number of tastings at quite a few traditional homes as opposed to the main restaurants. A really great experience, we say goodbye to our group around 9pm, we have a very early start tomorrow.
Thursday 6th February
We’re up at 5am and collected at 5.30am for our trip to Mi Som temples. Ironically we did do this when we were here last by hiring a scooter and driving an hour or so until we reached the site, this time we’re going early and not on a scooter! Nice group again; Spanish and German this time. Our guide, Thao, is really good and his English is great so we can ask him lots of questions. After our tour of the temples we are treated to a noodle breakfast and then we’re back at our hotel by 11. The hotel are amazing and immediately offer me fruit and coffee as we’ve missed breakfast. We both fall back to sleep in the room but wake up in time for another wander into Hoi An. We meet up with a couple who we met in Da Lat (Ruth & Aidan) at the Hill Station, they bring another guy along who they’ve met, a guy called Blue, who lives in Cornwall and seems nice but keen to find his own female companion! We have a few drinks and then all head into town for dinner.
Friday 7th February
J and I cycle to the wood carving village on the outskirts of Hoi An, I have a few hairy moments on the bike as roads are full of scooters, cars and pedestrians but nothing that a bit of shouting can’t fix. Back to the hotel, J heads out to the shops and I favour some quiet time after the frantic roads. We play Badminton at 4pm with Aidan and Ruth, very hot and sticky and once J and I got our eye back into the game we held ourselves up pretty well although neither of us had played since we were kids but we enjoyed it. Cycled back into town, then back out to Dudu for drinks followed by dinner at Morning Glory (very nice).
Saturday 8th February
Weather a bit mixed, cloudy and a little rain forecast but it’s still lovely and warm. We have booked a cookery class later in the day. Our last full day in town before we move to our old favourite hotel at An Bang Beach, not sure the weather will be any good but it’s a very chilled out area with lots of yoga classes or there’s always cycling around the paddy fields.
A very relaxing day, wandered around the streets of Hoi An, bought a couple of silk night dresses as my current nightwear is fit for the bin (which it was duly deposited in). Managed to squeeze some yoga plus a yoga nidra in before Aidan and Ruth arrived at the hotel, we grabbed a taxi and went off to our cooking class at 4.30. Great fun and made lots of dishes; spring rolls, papaya salad, stir fried pork with shrimp, stir fried chicken (I don’t eat that but the others tucked in). It was all delicious and they then took us back into town at 7.30pm. We headed straight to our fast becoming favourite bar, Dudu, although the service is terrible, the coffee / drinks are good. Stayed there until they closed at 10pm and then we headed back to our hotel.
Sunday 9th
Moving to An Bang baby! See the next entry in the blog…
Train journey from somewhere outside of Quy Nhon so we have to get a Grab to the station. The station is very drab and we have to wait a good amount of time, train is at least 1/2 hour late and we were 3/4 hr early! Hey ho… I think at least we’ve booked 1st class and I delude myself that it’ll be comfortable. We climb into our coach and find our carriage, J has booked sleeper seats but they turn out to be bunk beds, they’re both on top so there’s no view out of the window. Once again this gives me loads of reading time and I also do some yin yoga in my bunk whilst J stands in the corridor outside of our carriage and he has been quickly been adopted by the toddler and his Mum who shared the lower bunks with us. J then tells me the train doesn’t stop at Hoi An so instead we have to stay on to Da Nang. It’s takes us 5 hours on the train and then another 45 mins in a Grab to our hotel in Hoi An. We’re finally here around 4pm. Dump the bags and head out for food at one of the restaurants on the hotels recommended list, very nice, we’re not sick of Vietnamese food yet. Hoi An is crazy busy and the busiest city we’ve encountered other western tourists. Back at the hotel we book a few tours/ experiences using Airbnb.
Wednesday 5th Feb
After breakfast we find laundry place, we then start walking into Hoi An (although our hotel is amazingly central) no sooner had we gone 10 paces and this western guy and Vietnamese girl pull up on a moped. They’re super friendly and start their patter about doing tourism promotion for Vietnam. They are very chatty and engaging and I should have smelt a rat then. Next thing we know they’re explaining that they’re representing a hotel complex and would we like to go along, they give us a no obligation prize each for our time, as we’re not in a particular hurry (I’m not particularly awake even) we go along with it and they get a cab to take us to their resort just outside of town. It soon becomes apparent that J and I have fallen into the ‘holiday club’ (aka time-share) discussion. We were tackled by the obligatory bald headed, pot-bellied salesman (sorry if I’m sterotyping) who was very sweet but after I’d listened for a while I said it’s really not for us, why would I give up the freedom we have of travelling whenever, wherever we want to be tied down to a timeshare! He couldn’t argue with me nor could he get his boss to convince us otherwise, so that was an hour and a half of our lives that we won’t get back! Hey ho… true to their word, they order us a car which takes us back to Hoi An and we get on with our day… wander round the ever busy streets which are far more touristy from what we remembered nearly seven years ago. After some respite at the hotel we’re back out at 5pm for a food tour which is great. There’s only 8 of us, all different nationalities; Canadian mainly, one Oz, we all get on great and have a great guide called Vu who takes us off the beaten track to a number of tastings at quite a few traditional homes as opposed to the main restaurants. A really great experience, we say goodbye to our group around 9pm, we have a very early start tomorrow.
Thursday 6th February
We’re up at 5am and collected at 5.30am for our trip to Mi Som temples. Ironically we did do this when we were here last by hiring a scooter and driving an hour or so until we reached the site, this time we’re going early and not on a scooter! Nice group again; Spanish and German this time. Our guide, Thao, is really good and his English is great so we can ask him lots of questions. After our tour of the temples we are treated to a noodle breakfast and then we’re back at our hotel by 11. The hotel are amazing and immediately offer me fruit and coffee as we’ve missed breakfast. We both fall back to sleep in the room but wake up in time for another wander into Hoi An. We meet up with a couple who we met in Da Lat (Ruth & Aidan) at the Hill Station, they bring another guy along who they’ve met, a guy called Blue, who lives in Cornwall and seems nice but keen to find his own female companion! We have a few drinks and then all head into town for dinner.
Friday 7th February
J and I cycle to the wood carving village on the outskirts of Hoi An, I have a few hairy moments on the bike as roads are full of scooters, cars and pedestrians but nothing that a bit of shouting can’t fix. Back to the hotel, J heads out to the shops and I favour some quiet time after the frantic roads. We play Badminton at 4pm with Aidan and Ruth, very hot and sticky and once J and I got our eye back into the game we held ourselves up pretty well although neither of us had played since we were kids but we enjoyed it. Cycled back into town, then back out to Dudu for drinks followed by dinner at Morning Glory (very nice).
Saturday 8th February
Weather a bit mixed, cloudy and a little rain forecast but it’s still lovely and warm. We have booked a cookery class later in the day. Our last full day in town before we move to our old favourite hotel at An Bang Beach, not sure the weather will be any good but it’s a very chilled out area with lots of yoga classes or there’s always cycling around the paddy fields.
A very relaxing day, wandered around the streets of Hoi An, bought a couple of silk night dresses as my current nightwear is fit for the bin (which it was duly deposited in). Managed to squeeze some yoga plus a yoga nidra in before Aidan and Ruth arrived at the hotel, we grabbed a taxi and went off to our cooking class at 4.30. Great fun and made lots of dishes; spring rolls, papaya salad, stir fried pork with shrimp, stir fried chicken (I don’t eat that but the others tucked in). It was all delicious and they then took us back into town at 7.30pm. We headed straight to our fast becoming favourite bar, Dudu, although the service is terrible, the coffee / drinks are good. Stayed there until they closed at 10pm and then we headed back to our hotel.
Sunday 9th
Moving to An Bang baby! See the next entry in the blog…
Quy Phon railway station
Head down she was preparing to charge me like a bull…
J on the train in his bunk (which he stayed in for precisely 5 mins out of the 5 hour trip)
Back in Hoi An for nighttime
That’s ’Happy New Year’ in Vietnamese
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