After saying how good the food is in Vietnam, Andrew managed to get a 24 hour tummy bug on the last evening in Huè, but despite no sleep Imodium did its job and the bus journey to Hoi An was uneventful!
Hoi An is very different to any of the places we have visited so far. It is very lush with palm trees and a lot of foliage around a river leading eventually to a a large sandy beach. It was established as a trading town by Chinese and Japanese merchants on the sea equivalent of the Silk Road. The riverside is lined by beautifully restored merchant’s buildings. Hoi An is much more of a tourist destination than any of the other places we have been but also is much more up market.
In the mornings it is a very chilled and relaxed place, great for people watching over a coffee. By the evening it is heaving with markets, hawkers and day trippers. Think Bourton on the Water or Bath rather than Weston-super-Mare.
At night the river is covered in boats with lanterns and also small lanterns floating on the river which people place in memory of deceased loved ones. The shops and restaurants are also covered in lanterns between them creating a majestic site.
We borrowed bikes from our homestay and cycled to the optimistically named coconut beach. It was the wrong time of year for the resort to be busy and was very windy. Nonetheless, we thought we had to have a paddle in the South China Sea which was surprisingly warm. We had originally thought about staying here for a few days to enjoy the beach but it’s a good job we didn’t given the cloudy and windy weather.
Now packing our bags and being driven to Da Nang airport by Xiang the owner of our homestay.
This featured blog entry was written by SearlesTravels from the blog Exploring the Far East.
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