Hoi An

Just more photos of the loveliness that is Hoi An.

DALAT

Moving further south, we headed more into the mountains at Dalat, which was advertised as a beautiful city. Sooooo, we have enjoyed our time in Dalat and place we are staying is great, central and cheap!! However we have been disappointed when we have gone anywhere as acres are covered in plastic greenhouses all over and there is again rubbish everywhere, which we have encountered most everywhere we have been in Vietnam. You can tell that 10 years ago this would have been a beautiful country.
We have enjoyed meeting the people who are lovely and friendly and have had some nice meals in quite funky places. And the company is great!!
So haven’t taken many photos but here are a few to get an idea of where we are.

Bicycle cafe

La Viet amazing restaurant. Had hotpot very spicy kimchi!!

Utterly hideous pagoda!

gorgeous tiny coffee shop round the corner. Lots of cafes here just sell drinks no food.

 View from Langbiang - and I had to work hard to make it look good!

K’Ho coffee - lovely little spot with some beautiful weaving by the local indigenous people.

Cable car towards Zen monastery. And yes David was not happy!!

Datanla falls

Found some little gems of places. Looking forward to the next adventure.

Beautiful Hoi An

Having listed all of our forms of transport, having forgotten the bicycle ride and the boats rowed by the women with their feet, we came to the next form of transport - motorbikes! We decided to ride pillion on bikes from Hue to Hoi An. Our bags were tied on then we all set off, with a little trepidation for those of us unused to this form of transport, but we loved it!

We stopped at various places on the way for refreshments and also at Elephant Falls (don’t bother!), a fishing village and had a lovely seafood lunch on the beach. The highlight was going through Hai Van Pass with its hairpin bends and lovely views of beaches.

We also stopped at a very large white Buddha but we were only really interested in the amazing bonsai trees they had everywhere.

We eventually arrived at Hoi An pleasantly surprised at how lovely our accommodation was and headed straight into Hoi An, a ten minute walk. It is very touristy but how lovely it all looks with all the lanterns!

Our first proper coffee in Hoi An. They have about 5 different places and we have used them all!

TRAVEL IN STYLE!

We have decided that we are going to go for the record for most different types of transport used in one holiday! So far there’s been car, plane, minibus, cruise ship, sampan and today - sleeper bus!

We weren’t expecting this for a 5 hour journey!!

We started the day early by being taken to the Gecko hostel in Phong Nha to wait for the bus to Hue which is further south down the coast. 

Gecko - best cappuccino yet but unfortunately I’ve been suffering from a decidedly dodgy tummy for a few days so couldn’t sample it!

We were expecting a normal bus but when we got on were told to take off our shoes and put them in a bag and then had to climb up onto our bunks and lie down for the whole trip!! Not a recommended way to travel, especially if you aren’t Vietnamese sized - ie anything above 5”4!!!

However, after being stopped for speeding and the crew seeming to stop and chat with everybody and their mother we arrived to lovely sunny warm Hue. It’s a beautiful city. We were met by our host and taken to our free accommodation for the night which is fab. We took a taxi into the Imperial city which is beautiful and full of amazing bonsai trees.

Another form of transport, sadly only for show!

We then tried to find our way to the restaurant that our host had recommended for the best local food, but failed miserably so ended up taking rickshaws to it. The driving here is crazy, we cannot work out any rules so going across junctions in them was hairy to say the least!

They were actually very comfortable but felt very sorry for the guys riding them!

Food was lovely, different from what we’d had before. Especially loved the fried rice pancake!

Back to our accommodation for the night having stopped for a coffee, several rounds of Shithead and an early night, as we have an early start tomorrow on our next form of transport, motorbikes!

TRAVELLING SOUTH

Desperate for some sun we started south yesterday. We caught the overnight train from Lao Cai to Hanoi, a 9 hour journey, but actually the carriage was comfy and toilet facilities much better than expected!!

This is what we looked like upon arriving in Hanoi - trying to blend in and look like the locals!


From there we got a 10 hour train down to Dong Hoi. We were so excited about seeing sun but all we saw was rain - and paddy fields, lots of paddy fields! It’s certainly given us a new respect for the rice we eat when you see how intensive and hard the work is to grow it.

We arrived late evening at Dong Hoi and fortunately the taxi we had arranged was waiting to take us to Phong Nha which is a national park with primary forest and amazing caves. When we arrived we wondered what on earth our accommodation was going to be like but it turns out it’s comfortable, food is good and right on river.

View from our accommodation. Restful River view

View of accommodation from river

Today we did a planned tour of two of the caves that the area is famous for, Paradise cave and Phong Nha cave. The first involved a steepish climb for a kilometre or so then 300 steps down into the cave itself but it was so worth it. We walked through beautiful forest and the cave was extraordinary, the largest dry cave in Asia. Sorry about all the photos but it was amazing!!

We then had lunch and were taken by the local boats to Phong Nha cave, a wet cave that we paddled through in the boat then walked through the last 500m. Also beautiful in its own right.

Off to Hue and the coast tomorrow and then the big bike adventure!