Around the 23rd of May early in the morning, (dates are starting to blur already… :S) we arrived in Hoi An off the overnight bus from Nha Trang. Its a town famous for it’s glorious beaches including it’s proximity to China beach (the beach used by marines for R&R during vietnam) and the streets and streets of Tailors offering custom made suits, dresses and shoes for anyone asking and the money to pay for them.
The beaches are about 3ks outside of town, so we hired bicycles for the first time since we’d been in Vietnam. For the low price of just $0.75 for the day.
Amara, Nick and I arrived at the beach to be greeted by what seemed to be a compulsory parking area for bikes and motorbikes. We later worked out, the asking price of 10,000 VND is very flexible and Amara who stayed in Hoi An longer than us refused to pay more than 2,000 VND for the remainder of her stay.
The ride to the beach was along a quiet road that followed the river that runs through Hoi An:
The beach was similar to Nha Trangs, with beautiful clear water and straw umbrellas for hire.
We decided to ride a bit further North of the main beach and encountered another path back to the city riding past rice paddy’s being tended to by water buffalo and countless straw hat wearing workers.
Eating dinner in town was a classy affair, overlooking the beautifully lit river I suddenly changed my entire opinion of the city with its French style architecture and shops filled with paintings, Chinese style lamps and other nick knacks.
Returning through town we discovered a dessert bar that served some of the most delicious pastries and desserts I’ve tasted in a long time and all in the price range of $2-3.
A bunch of kids thought that they could take me with there plastic swords, I didn’t have a bar of it and showed them who was boss. Nick was there to take a photo.
I had a lot more photos of Hoi An, but these will have to do, the daytime Hoi An was “less” beautiful when you could see the colour of the water and other less appealing details, but overall the town was quite fun, and the people very inviting.
I didn’t really want to carry around a suit or other custom made clothing for the rest of my holiday so didn’t bow to temptation and get one made. BUT, I did end up getting a satchel bag made to my specifications after struggling to find a simple shoulder sash bag at the countless numbers of bag shops that are scattered across Vietnam. Mainly since they all have “North Face” knock offs that are all reinforced with foam and the like making them much to big to fold up into nothing in my bag. After two nights and three days there, Nick and I headed to Hue.
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