Hoi An

On my first day in Hoi An I woke to find the power was off for the entire street, and despite being reassured it would be on 'soon'it didn't reappear again until 5pm that night. There wasn't much point spending any time in the hotel as my room didn't even have a window so it was lovely and dark. Hoi An is renowned for its Old Town - lots of old buildings and tiny streets leading down to the river. The majority of these shops are tailors and as two of the boys wanted some clothes made we went for a look around. They can make anything here! Absolutely anything... shirts, shorts, dresses, suits, even custom-made shoes! I left Tom and Jimmy debating over watches and headed back to the restaurant we were at the night before to meet up with Danny and Andy to hire bikes. It is cheaper to hire a motorbike here for 24 hours than it is to hire a bicycle! Madness. We drove to a temple and then found the beach. It was gorgeous! White sand, palm trees with coconuts and people selling the nicest mangos! Unfortunately my sunburn from the bike ride down to Hoi An was still pretty bad so I sat in the shade but I did stick my feet in the sea. We got back to the hotel that evening to find the power still off so cold showers only. We were also told as we hadn't rented the bikes from the hotel we couldn't keep them there overnight so had to take them back down the road. Riding a motorbike in a dress is not easy let me tell you! That night we found a bar on the other side of the river that seemed so happy to have customers they gave us all a free 'bucket' drink.

The next morning everyone else was still asleep (or as I later found out, passed out as they ended up at a beach bar and didn't get back until 6am. Oh dear.) so I picked up my bike and had a lovely morning just pootling around the town. Finding somewhere to park was the hardest bit but a cyclo driver took pity on me and had me park in what looked like a temple! That threw me a bit but apparently it was ok. I acquired a Vietnamese boyfriend in the riverside market - well, a guy grabbed my hand, insisted I was his girlfriend and had me sit with him and his friends for a bit. It was actually very funny and they were really nice people. Managed to leave without causing insult and found a French-style pattisserie which did fairly good crossaints. I then decided to be clever and try and find the beach by myself. It's a straight road from the town so I didn't think I could get it wrong.... Well somehow I found myself on a motorway (nice road, pretty deserted) which I really didn't remember from yesterday and then two Vietnamese women on a motorbike rode us beside me to have a conversation, as we were still driving along, and told me I was heading back towards Danang. Ooops! Turned around and found my way back to the town. Also found the road to the beach but I was seriously low on fuel by that stage so I admitted defeat. Also, the bike had to be handed back by 1pm and it was getting on for that. Sadly handed the bike back and then met up with Tom and Jimmy as they had a fitting for their shirts. I went with them and gave in to temptation by ordering a pair of shorts. They are very thorough with their measuring! I was more than a little taken back. Went onto the main street in Hoi An - Le Loi Street - for lunch at a little street cafe. Noodles and a lump of pork. With baguettes :D That evening we had an impulsive boat trip on the river for an hour. The sunset from the water was breath-taking. Really beautiful. We ate that night in an Indian restaurant. We let Jimmy take charge and order a variety of curries for us, including a spicy chicken madras, extra hot. It was bright red and is the hottest thing I think I've ever eaten. We were all sweating after just a couple of bites and my lips stung so much! But it was very good food. Went into a bar on the main street that was opposite a tailors so Charlie and I popped in there to get linen shirts made. We'd seen Tom and Jimmy's and had been very jealous. Had an early(ish) night that night as we had plans for the morning!

Charlie, Andy and I were up bright and early to hire motorbikes as our plan for this day was to get to the Cham ruins at My Son, about 50km away from Hoi An. I had the directions(!) and we set off. Took us about an hour and a half to get there, though at the first fuel stop I realised neither my spedometer or my fuel gauge worked on my bike so I had to take my lead from the guys. The roads weren't too bad and the closer we got to My Son the more rural it was. It was fantastic to be able to stop where we wanted and actually see the country we were passing through. Most tourists only see these areas from their air-conditioned buses while we were actually experiencing and interacting with the locals. We left our bikes for free at a crazy man's restaurant just outside My Son as he'd waved us down saying we couldn't take them into the ruins. Walked to the ticket booth and found out that we could actually take our bikes up to the proper entrance but it was too late by then. Ended up getting a rickety, 1960s American army jeep up to the entrance and then spent two hours walking around the ruins. They're known as the 'Angkor Wat' of Vietnam but, while nice, they are no where near as complete or big as the Cambodian ones. They are however right in the jungle and it was incredibly hot and humid! We'd arrived just before lunch, when all the tour groups were leaving so we had the ruins almost completely to ourselves, so it was worth the heat. Drank so much water! Also saw a huge yellow spider (yuck) and hundreds of lizards - one of which gave me a fright by sticking his head at me and I thought he was a snake. Jumped so badly, silly thing. On the way back down, Charlie and I had a quick look in the souvenir shop which ended up quite embarrassing. The sales assistant came over to talk to Charlie and he said he wasn't going to buy anything but she should talk to me. She replied that first she would talk to him "so you buy for your wife"... Us: "We're not married"... She looked puzzled and then rallied "Your soon-to-be-wife"... "No no no, just friends"... "Just friends? But you look good together. Very suitable!" At that point we legged it. Note to anyone travelling around with a male friend, be prepared for in-depth questioning about your 'relationship'. Oh dear. Made it back to the bikes and then headed back to Hoi An. Somehow we missed a turning along the route and ended up at a toll booth that we hadn't passed on the way here. Luckily after asking for directions and driving over a rather dodgy-looking bridge (it was actually closed off but bikes just went around the blocks so we did too) we eventually got back to town. We booked the bus down to Nha Trang for the next evening and then went to find food. We all went to the 'Before and Now' bar which has a real hippy feel (Che Guevara pictures up everywhere, quite old fashioned but nice) and played pool. A rule is in use here that if your opponent pots all their balls before you pot one of yours you have to run around the table 'sans clothes'... Thank goodness I'm not that appauling at pool (though it did come close). There was also a really old-school foosball table :D At 1am the bar ran a free bus to the beach bar so four of us headed out for that. It was a really nice little bar, right on the sand so naturally we just had to stick our feet in the sea. But that meant we were all sandy so the logical thing to do was jump in the swimming pool! Really good fun. Charlie and I lost Danny and Tom soon after we arrived but we were entertained by a very drunk British guy and his Canadian friend who fell asleep on each other. Got the bus back at 4am and stopped at the little bakery near our hotel to grab a fresh baguette. Better than kebab!

The next morning there was slight worry as Tom was nowhere to be found. Turned out Danny and him had actually stayed at the bar until 5am and then Danny had left him with a girl... He didn't reappear until 1pm looking more than a little worse for wear. Cue some serious teasing. Tried a baguette for lunch at a little cafe but there were ants all through the bread which was seriously off-putting, so ended up at the market to try the local Cao Loa (noodles). Had a final walk through the Old Town before grabbing our bags from the hostel to get the night bus to Nha Trang. Hoi An is one of the best places I've been to so far! I think I'm going to miss it.