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| dirt foot |
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| Nha Trang Beach |
The rest of the journey to Hoi An was overnight on the sleeper bus.
Hoi An
We pre-booked a homestay in the city the night before as we would be arriving very early in the morning. Still, we arrived and our room was not ready, meaning we would have to go do some exploring before getting a nap after the very long bus ride essentially from Dalat. We made good use out of the free bicycles that the home stay provided because we were slightly on the outskirts of the main part of town (for the better). Our place was right in the middle between the Ancient city/ river and the beach which was an excellent location.
A 10 minute bike ride brought us to the busy Ancient section of the town (another UNESCO). We found a good spot for breakfast right along the river, checked out the old Japanese bridge then headed back for a much needed nap.
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| Bridge entrance |
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| Ancient Japanese Covered Bridge |
Once satisfied with our nap we headed back into the old city for a lovely surprise. At night the streets are filled with lights, lanterns, shops and shows all down the river. We got some dinner and explored some more.
On the way home that night we stumbled upon people setting up for some sort of concert just down the street from the house. We stopped and watched for a few minutes from outside the gate, curious to see what was going on. Just before the show started we were greeted by a very friendly woman and invited into the International Womens Day concert with her. Much to our surprise it was free of charge. We sat with the local people and there were no white people to be seen. The entire concert was in Vietnamese so we did not understand a word of any song, dance or speech but it was a cool show regardless.
A short ride back got us to the house to order our breakfast for tomorrow and get a good night’s sleep.
The next day it was time to see more of the Ancient Town. We biked back into town after an excellent breakfast and bought a ticket to see the different buildings and museums.
We visited the museum of folklore with many old traditional tools and artifacts.
We visited the Tan Ky old house, where 5 generations of the same family lived through and survived 6 different floods, some of them over 7ft deep inside the house (marked on the wall).
The Ancient Pagoda.
A gemstone art/jewellery gallery.
During our walking around and exploring we also stopped into a few custom tailor shops. Hoi An is known worldwide for the tailor shops here, as they are very talented and very fast. We had to indulge and invest in some new threads.
We stayed in town all day exploring and getting our clothes fitted. In the evening we watched a street dance near the river and found an excellent restaurant down the market street with live music.
The Spanish singer was amazing, he had such a great vibe and sang his heart out.
We were the only people in the restaurant for most of his set.
The food at this restaurant was fantastic; we shared a meat and cheese platter over a couple of cocktails while enjoying the great music. The cheese platter was to die for! We ate every single crumb.
After a long day of exploring and full bellies of cheese we biked back to the house again to order the next day’s breakfast and another excellent sleep.
Another great breakfast later we went to check out the beach side of town. Surprisingly enough the beach was nearly empty. It was the best beach we had seen yet, other than in the Philippines, but all of the tourists were busy in the Ancient town missing out on the beach.
We lounged in the sand for a solid few hours before challenging some Americans to a couple games of beach volleyball. We had a ton of fun playing here and getting a swim in the crisp ocean.
Late afternoon we had to make it back to the old town to try on our fresh new gear. We biked around the whole city through small villages and rice paddies back into the old town.
A couple of small changes later and we were ready for some dinner. We met a nice lady in the streets before dinner who convinced us to check out her tailor shop after giving us some direction. Of course once we were there we had pick up couple more things.
We met up with Alex and Dani, Frankie and Kay once again for another night drinking and joking around at a few different stops. The bars close fairly early in town which meant the drinks went quickly and so did the night. A lot of fun was had once again. It is great to be able to meet up with the same cool people throughout our stops in different locations.
A lazy start to the next day, we went back into town and visited some more of the Ancient town.
Another Pagoda.
The royal princess.
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| Prettiest Sight of all |
Another museum and art centre who employed disabled people. They were very talented.
It was time to pick up our second batch of clothing. Another great success, so we biked them back to the house.
After shopping around a little bit more, and getting a quick wood carving lesson from a friendly artist,
we picked up a bunch of other things that we didn’t need in our bags and biked back into town to the post office. We were starting to realize that it's hard not to spend money in Hoi An.
We sent another package back home (for even cheaper than the last) to lighten the load and to save our new clothes.
After this we decided to get one of the many rowboats down the river surrounded by the beautiful lights. We picked up a couple drinks and hopped on a boat with a wonderful woman. We chatted with her through the whole ride, she spoke very good English. She even gave us a couple of candles to set afloat down the river for free.
After the ride she invited us to have a bite at her favourite place to eat with her husband.
We met him there and enjoyed our soup over great conversation and a few beers. She then offered for us to come visit her house and family. She lived in small home with her parents, siblings and their families.
We sat on the porch in the quiet side of town and ate some delicious fresh squid with chilli sauce and drank beer every time her father would be ready to cheers. This ended in another late night and long bike ride back to the house.
They offered to take us around town the next day with their friends and to stay with them but unfortunately we had already booked our ticket onward for the next morning :(. We even tried to change our bus, but it was too late. So, as fate would have it, we were heading onward to Hue.
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