Saturday, 12 January 2013

Hoi An

We have just started an epic 16 hour bus trip to Mui Ne after spending the day in Hoi An. It's a sleeper bus so you can lie down almost horizontally- if you happen to be under 5 ft 6 that is! Otherwise it's knees up in the air - maybe that sleeper train wasn't so bad.
Anyhow, Hoi An is a great place, with some interesting old buildings and a really nice ambience with lots of bars and restaurants centred around a picturesque canal.




Down on the canal




Happy hour seems to go on 24/7




The old bridge in Hoi An




The Mehmsahib stroking the head of the god of happiness- I hope the gods of prosperity and long life don't take offence.
In the evening we found a restaurant with a classical guitarist playing quite well, accompanied at times by a traditional Vietnamese singer




We stayed the night at a nice hotel, but somehow managed to lock the bathroom door just before going to bed. The nightwatchman tried a few hundred keys and even crawled through a vent into the bathroom before giving up, so having indulged in happy hour for most of the night, frequent trips down to the loo in reception were required- fortunately we were only on the first floor.
This afternoon we rented a couple of bikes to cycle the few miles to the beach - the sun actually came out for the first time since we arrived in Vietnam.




These oversize baskets are actually local fishing boats- I think I'll stick to Hilda May.
We had time at the beach to sample the local brew, amazingly named after Danny...




The one annoying thing about Hoi An is the number and persistence of hawkers. We sat down on a couple of sun beds on what looked liked a deserted beach and before I could put my feet up - it must have been about 3 seconds - there was a lady perched on the end of the bed with her basket full of stuff you wouldn't want- she must have been buried in the sand somewhere!
We cycled back through the paddy fields




had a bite to eat and are trying to get comfortable on the bus - only another fifteen and a half hours to go- yeh!! Will be great to see Ben in Mui Ne.

Location:On the bus

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