Woo Hoo! We are in Hoi An, how awesome!
We were up early this morning itching to get on the road, would like to have stayed a bit longer in Hue but time doesn't permit. We went to breakfast at a restaurant just around the corner from the hotel, thought we would give the breakfast at the hotel a miss, not the best breakfast there I can tell you.
Our driver arrived early to pick us up for the drive to Hoi An, nice fella and spoke a little English which helps. He told us there were two ways to drive to Hoi An, the long way through all the mountains or the short way through the tunnel, we opted for the tunnel as it took about 1 hour off the drive. We had a comfortable trip and it was quite scenic and the 3 hours just flew by. We arrived at our hotel in Hoi An around 12.30 lunchtime. We drove through Da Nang on the way here and its a lovely seaside and very modern city with a lot of development going on, resorts and holiday places to cater for international tourists. I hope they don't spoil it like they have done in Phuket with too much development.
Our hotel in Hoi An is wicked, we have a great room, the hotel is within 10 minutes walk to the Ancient town and central to everything, the staff at the hotel all speak English and fall all over themselves to make you feel welcome, they really are a friendly bunch. When we arrived the lady that lives in the house 2 doors up from the hotel was out the front and she hires out pushbikes, does laundry and all has a little stall that sells drinks and munchies. Her name is Min and she introduced herself to us as soon as we got here and when we checked into our room she talked to us over the balcony. We said we had a heap of laundry to do so we got it for her and off she went and washed it for us, all by hand and later we saw her hanging it out on her rooftop clothesline, so funny, such a lovely, friendly lady.
We had lunch in the hotel restaurant and the food is great and cheap, then off to our room for a quick nanny & poppy snooze which ended up a long sleep and Rick finally woke up at 8.30pm. What tha! Our feet are still a bit tender from our long walk last night so the rest did them good.
We went for a walk tonight (once Rick woke up) around the shopping and market district close to the Ancient Town. Wow! heaps of awesome shops and so cheap. The streets were lively and the atmosphere was great, heaps of western tourists and backpackers. We stopped at a nice funky café and finally - Latte's, had a light snack as well and just sat and soaked up the atmosphere. Hoi An is the place, we absolutely fell in love with it the minute we arrived. The people are so friendly, warm, happy and eager without getting in your face and pissing you off. and the shopping, wow it doesn't get better than this, can't wait to explore tomorrow and go into the Ancient Town. Even Rick is looking forward to shopping tomorrow, that's fully sick. We just love it so much that we have decided to stay an extra day and only spend one day in Saigon instead of 3. We are here now for 4 days and fly out on Monday morning (via Jetstar) to Saigon and then fly out from Saigon on Tuesday night back to Brisbane. Wish we had a month here. This is one place we will definitely return to and for longer next time.
Have included photos of our hotel room on this blog. Enjoy and heaps more photos once we go exploring. Have a great day everyone! until tomorrow!
The scenery on our drive to Hoi An
Beautiful spot
Very Scenic
Love the mountains
Our hotel room
Rick excited because the AFL footy is on telly
Our Balcony
Bathroom
Rick checking things out
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