Day 13 – Ho Chi Minh City to Hoi An

January 6th 2009

As we're picked up to go to the airport, early, – again – there's more than a twinge of sadness leaving both our hotel and this city which, while being nothing like Manchester of course, is sort of like our home city, there's things to see but not that many, it's all about being there and sampling what's going on around you. I've liked it here, a lot.

Traffic is slow around this time, which is not surprising, so it takes around 45 minutes to get to the airport and of course for the first time on this trip we're taken to the domestic rather than the international terminal. The domestic terminal at HCMC is fine, I was worried that it wouldn't be airconditioned if it caters for “locals” but of course there's a whole mix of people travelling and the Vietnamese are probably in the minority even traveling internally.

Our first queue of the trip too, which is almost a relief, things were too easy. It all goes down very quickly though and having been at the airport around 20 minutes perhaps we're sitting near our gate with an hour or so to kill before we're due to depart.

When we're finally called to board it becomes clear that we're going to be leaving late and that sort of becomes apparent when the Vietnamese Airlines staff take us to a China Airways Airbus. The flight is packed and I'm guessing the plane had to be upgraded at some point which was then delayed incoming. We're sat together having checked in nice and early though so that's all that matters.

The flight passes without incident, well, apart from some fairly heavy turbulence on approach to Da Nang which was a little stomach churning. If HCMC airport had a flavour of the old US air strips about it then I can see why just about every Vietnam War reference on film and TV has some mention of “flying missions out of Da Nang” - this is real back to basics stuff, I suppose you'd politely call it “tired” but it's plain shabby.

After a fairly long wait for baggage our driver is waiting for us, a man of very few words it turns out, but that's fine.

It turns out to be about 40 minutes from Da Nang to Hoi An, the speed limit here is only 80km/h on the fastest roads and everyone seems to take them very seriously so we seem to just trundle along. As we drive through Da Nang to the main coastal road there's nothing particularly inspiring about the place, like its airport, until we reach the outskirts and there appears to be some major development work going on with a very futuristic looking building already in place. This is Vietnam's 3rd city but I think the drop off from the first 2 is pretty dramatic. With all this building work I can't help thinking who's going to be buying up all these apartments and office space. The coastal road similarly appears to be one long building site, or at least with hoardings up to proclaim the next “resort and apartcondo's” - big names too, Crowne Plaza, Raffles, they seem to be lining up to build here – maybe I'm just being miserable because it's really cloudy and has obviously just rained, but “why” is the only thing going through my head – oh and “why” followed by “have we bothered to come here for 2 nights”...

The Palm Garden Resort is certainly very nice, and expectations are high as the posters in the airport advertising this place were proudly showing photos of the Miss Universe contestants for the pageant which appears to have been held here in 2008. Claims 5* status which I'm not convinced of, 4* definitely. Our room is spacious and while we don't have a sea view we're not far off. Grab something to eat in one of the restaurants overlooking the South China Sea which is looking pretty rough but all adds to the atmosphere.

I plan on getting a suit made, Hoi An is famous for its 200 tailors and previous visitors have recommended taking advantage. We're 5km outside Hoi An itself but the hotel provides a shuttle service which we take advantage of at 4pm.

Initial impressions of Hoi An are also not great. It's a small town and doesn't look particularly appealing. I can see on the map Le Loi (again!) which is where the tailor I have been recommended has his shop so we head off on a loop to get there.

When we get to Le Loi, which would be a 1 way street in the UK it's so narrow, certainly the quality of buildings increases dramatically and it's all looking quite pretty but I'm concentrating on finding this tailor. We pass a school that's just kicking out – cue complete madness in the tiny street with parents and kids shooting off on motorbikes in all directions.

Finding the tailors we're lead out the back – which would concern me were it not for the recommendation – to an area with catalogues, cloth samples, and tables and chairs to sit, look, discuss. The catalogues are funny, UK high street catalogues, you pick what you want and they'll tailor make it for you. After a discussion we settle on a style and cloth so how much? Now, I'd been lead to believe this would be around the £50 mark, someone else had said even less. So I was a little shocked when I was told it would be $280... With a cheaper fabric that could be brought down to $200 – and yes yes I know that a tailor made suit in the UK would be much much more – but with 2 fittings required in the next 24 hours, not being 100% sure on the style and hopeful of losing more weight when we get back home, I decide that it's just not worth it.

So with a mixture of disappointment but also a strange relief we head off to explore these nicer streets of Hoi An and almost immediately all thoughts of the disappointment of our arrival are banished. Hoi An is a lovely place, the narrow streets give is great charm and there's a mixture of shops, restaurants, bars which give it a very interesting feel. The guidebook says it's a UNESCO World Heritage place, but it also say we'd have to pay £3 to get into the town which we didn't, so
I'm not 100% sure on that one.

Having taken in the sights, and there's not that many it has to be said, this is a small town, we park ourselves at Treat's - “The original and best backpackers bar in Hoi An since 1997”. One of our guidebooks is South East Asia on a shoestring and this place is highly recommended. One look at the drinks menu and you can see why. Happy Hour is 4pm to 9pm and bottles of beer are basically 40p, it's crackers. We spend over an hour sitting in the open window watching the world go by, a few beers each, Sarah also has a Pina Colada, our bill... £3.

By now it's dark, we head to another bar for a glass of wine and there's a full blown cookery course going on. That would've been nice to do but as we're only really here for 1 full day it's not going to be possible.

Shuttle bus back to the hotel at 8:30pm and there appears to be some sort of open air play going on at the bus station. It's drawn quite a crowd, there's lights and microphones so it's not just appeared from nowhere but given its location it all seems a bit odd. Our shuttle bus driver struggles to describe what it's about, he uses the word Opera but with no singing, yet, we decide not to pursue it any further.

Have a late dinner in one of the other restaurants in the hotel. It's a highly international menu as you'd probably expect but we both have the Vietnamese Chicken/Beef satays for starters which are fantastic.
We round off the evening in the hotel bar which is almost empty but they have a band playing. Come to think of it we've seen hardly anyone while we've been at this hotel, have no idea how many other guests are staying here, the weather hasn't helped perhaps but it's all a bit strange.

The band finish, Sarah and I play a couple of frames of pool – I'm far too much of a gentleman to say who won of course – and we finish for the night. Tomorrow is “power relaxing” - a day we've had lined up to do absolutely nothing...