Hoi An

Hue to Hoi An was a day bus ride through the country side and along the coast. We went along the Ho Chi Minh highway and the Hai Van pass tunnel It was built 1,172m above sea level and is 12km long. I think one of the longest ?
We passed the city of Danang that is just littered with large hotels and resorts. It's a city with many modern buildings and bridges.



Another half an hour and then we pulled into the bus station at Hoi An. Again it was out of town and the taxi and moto-drivers are keen keen keen to get your dollar! thank goodness for the GPS........we walked the little over a kilometre to our hotel! " No, we don't need a taxi!"

Once a major Southeast Asian trading post in the 16th and 17th centuries, the seaside town Hoi An is basically a living museum. The old buildings still stand but they are full of stuff for the tourists. Everyone is selling, and you don't see many locals In that area. It is rather like a Vietnamese Disneyland.


Among the heritage architecture stand Chinese temples, a Japanese-designed bridge, pagodas, wooden shop-houses, French- colonial houses and old canals.


We enjoyed the riverside. Many great places to eat and lots to wach.The locals loading onto the barges and boats to get home. We saw lots just packed with school kids and bicycles and others full of motor scooters and workers making their way to various wharves on the other side.



Though large-scale trading had long moved elsewhere Hoi An was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in December 1999. You can visit some of the original homes built over a century ago which have a strong Chinese influence.
While we were there we hired a motor scooter and tootled around the area. We followed the road and explored the island.... Great time when you just come across things.



And then to China Beach....The water was so warm, almost too warm, like a bath! The beach was huge and lined with restaurants and beach umbrellas. Having said that we had a very relaxing time drinking beer and snoozing in the sun!



Sorry, we did start with the soft option first! The coconut.... Just make mine two fingers please!


Decision time...... no more sleeper buses! so, we caught a bus to Danang and then a flight the next day to Ho Chi Minh City our last stop in Vietnam before making our way up the Mekong to Cambodia.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad