("if you've never tried a Vietnamese baguette you've never tasted Vietnam" to quote Lonely Planet!) so we were ready to go straight there.
Having said that, 1 stop was at some Cham towers which were pretty cool.
We got to Nha Trang, had another baguette and headed to the beach until our next bus left at 7.30pm.
We saw a bit of genius in our short time there...the Vietnamese may well be awesome at fighting for their country but to me this was more impressive...
A guy walks out of the sea with a brick in his hand, and inside the brick he has caught a squid!!! That was awesome, how on earth do you catch a squid!?..with a brick!!
What a guy!!
Anyways, we got our sleeper bus at 7.30pm and arrived in Hoi An around 6am the next morning. We decided to try somewhere cheaper to stay than last time and ended up walking into old town. We found a fairly cheap place which would do us just fine!
That day was a designated beach day so we picked up some bicycles and set off on the 5km ride to the beautiful beach!! :-)
We stayed out in the sun until around 5 when we grabbed a freshly made doughnut from the street and you guessed it...another baguette with laughing cow cheese...yummy!
Cycling in rush hour traffic was fun...so busy, cut through a few red lights but thats fine! we're foreigners what do we know!Once we reached Old Town it was the opposite, so so quiet!
That night we planned to go back to Hoi's restaurant for the 3000 dong beer and the amazing local food (Whiterose...yummy!!) she served. It wasn't until we were about to leave when Hoi says to us that she thinks she has seen us before!!haha
We triggered her memory after reminding her that last time we were there, there was 6 of us and we had drank her dry of beer before the infamous beach party night!! (still nobody remembers anything of that night apart from me!)
The next day we decided we would get a moped out... requesting a manual now! It was so much cheaper to rent a manual than an automatic, hence why I was eager to learn how to ride one! We headed on our 30km trip out to the marble mountains...we had a bit of trouble finding the right road and asked a guy which way to go while we were filling up on petrol. Although we nearly started a fight between this guy and what appeared to be his mother! She was clearly unhappy about something, judging by the hand gestures it was about which way to go!! We just sood there until there was a silence and I chipped in "that way and then right yeah?" BAD MOVE u idiot!! Off they went again at each others throat, so we got on the moped and headed out of there!
We had gone around 30km surely (the speedo and petrol metre didn't work; also we weren't even sure if we were going in the right direction!!) and luckily passed some mountains with pagodas on top...that must be them! Nothing is signposted...that would make it just too easy, so we had to go on our instinct, jsut as we did with the petrol..."how much petrol do you think we have?" "we'll be fine!"...sure
We pulled in and were greeted with "hello, marble mountain, marble mountain!" not a bad job hey!! this navigation mullarkey was too easy!
The mountains were awesome apart from the giant steps and how steep it was to get up there!! Not as bad as Cat Ba so no need for a sweat rag!
Once we got there, there were loads of HUGE caves, pagodas and views of the beach and the surrounding villages...it was amazing and definately worth the ride out!
Each cave led to another one if you managed to scramble over the rocks and made your own path...which ofcourse our flip-flops, once again conquered! (Although mine are held together with cellotape and Sar is on her 2nd pair!..Abercrombie though this time!...all the real brands in Vietnam!!)
After having lunch at a roadside cafe with possibly the best pho we have ever had, for £1.50...2 phos and 2 cokes, we headed to the beach...
We ended up finding a sandy track heading off the main road and took it...riding through a little village getting some funny looks we carried on and the sand got thicker, enough for us to slide everywhere. Sar opted to get off and walk. I planned to push the moped over the dunes and onto the beach but this proved to be a bit harder than my guns could handle!
Luckily a local fisherman saw me, started the engine and told me to get on and while I revved the baby, he would push!! good man! He made sure I was on the beach before running off into his boat (which was more of a tub) and went out to sea!!...
That was the last we saw of any people!! The beach was deserted, just the 2 of us on the whole beach, accompanied by some fishing tubs and our moped which we brought right onto the beach with us! cus we could!
Easily the most amazing beach we have ever been to, white WHITE sand, bright blue sea which was shallow and calm so we could lay and sit in the water without getting smashed by waves, and it was sooooo hot!!!....Paradise!!
We stayed until around 5 when we thought we had best head back so we managed to get the bike over the sand eventually!...I think I had burnt out 1st gear though... Since then I could only get neutral or 2nd geear!...sometimes i'd give her a kick and we found 1st
After stalling it a few times trying to pull away up a slight hill in 2nd, we set off...As we passed each small village it was awesome to see the locals riding their water buffalo on the side of the road!...This changed a few kilometres further down... it was prime market time where on the roadside dozens of foodstalls set up and people on their bikes just stopped in the middle of the road to buy a bag of rice etc! This created a huge traffic jam! We had to try and weave in and out of pedestrians whilst trying not to knock any cyclists down!...utter chaos!!
We arrived about an hour later, again using our instinct to get back. We made a few wrong turns but got back all ok,,,surely we had earned ourselves a few beers and some whiterose for tea! :-)
The next day was another beach day with the bicycles again and the following day was a complete surprise!...It had been red hot but during the night we had a power cut due to a storm. We had a fan room and at 2am the power cut off, so within minutes we were sweating!! Well I was absolutely drenched! Sar once again slept through the whole thing! At about 3.30am it was getting ridiculous so I got a cold shower which was sooooooo good!...20minutes later I was wayyy too hot again, I was sweating that much I decided to sleep in my towel! this worked until around half 5, 6 and I gave up and went to sit in the lobby with a breeze
That day was a laugh, it rained all day! This wasnt rain like in England, this was proper rain...terrential and intimidating!! we got our raincoats and umbrella and made our way to breakfast...sure I'd have a beer and Sar went for a coffe...with the intention to last a while...the coffee came in the most pathetic excuse for a teacup I have ever seen! (more useful as a shot glass)...that lasted a mouthful.
The rain got pretty high and it was literally knee deep in some parts, so we spent most of the day playing in the rain!ha
When it stopped we ceased the opportunity to see the rest of Old Town
Our last 1 and a half days consisted of 1 full beach day including lunch at a local food spot under the palm trees on the beach where you can order some local Hoi An food like Cau Lao or Mi quang (noodles with egg and prawns) for 50p...tasted tip top!
Our last half a day was spent walking around the Old Town, along the river and to the main market, it was pretty!
That night we said goodbye to Hoi who had fed us great food and beer for the past 5 days and were reluctant to leave..we loved Hoi An!
At 1pm we caught our bus to Hue and arrived at 6pm to be greeted by some polite Vietnamese guy asking us to stay in his hotel for $7...that was easy enough! We didn't see much of Hue as our bus for Laos left every other day so we could either go the next morning or spend 3 nights in Hue then go...Excited for Laos we decided we would rather be in Laos for a few more days so although we missed the Imperial City, we weren't bothered to be leaving the next morning...We walked down to the perfume river in the evening and around the city before having tea and planned our route for Laos....
Goodbye Vietnam, you have treated us well and we have had a great time staying with you...all the best xoxo
No comments:
Post a Comment