January 8th 2009
Technically Hoi An to Ha Noi of course, but that's going to be a pain to remember so will carry on with Hanoi!
Pleasant start to the day in Hoi An, up before the alarm for a change and get in a nice early breakfast giving us plenty of time to prepare for our pickup.
We go and say goodbye to the sea, although realising that we'll see the same sea in both Ha Long Bay and Hong Kong does make it slightly less sentimental!
We have a whole minibus to ourselves on the way back to Da Nang and I have to retract something said a couple of days ago. Having been driven to the centre of town for each airport we've landed at – because that's obviously where we've been staying – in going from Da Nang to Hoi An we've simply skirted round the periphery of Vietnam's 3rd largest city and I don't know whether it was just the weather or the angle with which we left but on the way back in with clearer skies we can see in the distance a whole bunch of what look like tall office blocks congregated in what must be a fairly substantial city centre. Looks like there's a lot going on here afterall, although they'll need to upgrade the airport if they're going to get serious traffic through, it's tiny...
Out flight is on time and, apart from some hassle over the weight of Sarah's carry on bag from an overzealous official, passes without incident.
Stepping off the plane it is, no other way to describe it, cold. I've been hearing all about the deep freeze that's going on back home so 15 degrees must sound like a heatwave, but not when you've come from 32 degrees with a brief stop off at 25 degrees it doesn't! It's going to be coats on and long sleeves for the duration of the holiday I think, the locals are wrapped up as if it's 20 below, all a bit of a shock to the system.
Hanoi is back to Vietnamese crazy, our driver is waiting for us but there's quite a scrum for stopping space so it's a while before he can go and pickup the car to collect us. Not mentioned the drivers much, basically because they've all just gone about their business in a very professional manner on roads which would terrify most people, not the speeds but the lack of rules and volume of motorbikes cutting in everywhere. This guy however is a bit different. Extremely pleasant and helpful with the bags, then we get in his car and as Sarah refers to it, it's the party bus. Techno music pumping out of the speakers – with some pretty choice lyrics in there at times - and then from the moment we set off to reaching the hotel, a journey of about 40 minutes, our driver is either has his phone glued to his ear deep in conversation or is looking at his phone – as opposed to the road. Nothing hairy actually happens, but we do seem to be using all of the 2 lanes rather than just the 1, oh well, we arrive in 1 piece and he gets the lowest tip possible.
Our hotel again is fine, a business hotel really. Location not quite as great as in HCMC and it takes quite a while to find ourselves on the map.
We decide to hit the streets straightaway as we're not actually in Hanoi for that long. The walk into the more central area – like most cities there isn't an actual central point – isn't far but takes quite a while as we have to walk the whole way along the road with motorbikes whistling past our ears, it's not the most pleasant stroll ever. The roads are incredibly narrow here compared to HCMC, so the pavements are given over exclusively to market stalls and parking of motorbikes, of which there are thousands, so the humble pedestrian has no choice but to run the gauntlet on the road itself.
Reaching Ho Hoan Kiem, a lake in the centre of Hanoi, is a relief as there's a chance to put a little distance between us and the traffic. We head into a sidestreet to a small bar for a drink and to collect our thoughts. We head back to the lake for a restaurant overlooking the water, and as it's getting dark – very rapidly this close to the equator – this becomes a very pleasant spot with the lights coming on all around. More Vietnamese food, including the Hanoi speciality Ca Cha – a bit like Thai fishcakes – and I have a pork dish which has caramel in the description but isn't at all sweet and is delicious, and we're ready to hit the town.
Our guidebook has a good range of bars to frequent and we're able to plot a decent looking route back to the hotel that'll take in a few of them. Keeping warm is a bit of a challenge in the first few bars which are open to the street, Sarah tackles this admirably by moving on to black russians! Quite a few places appear to have changed names since the book was written and while we visit “Mao's Red Lounge” - formerly Bar Labyrinth – we give “Bar Loo” a miss, not just for its toilet reference but the volume of the music pumping out when the doors open.
On the way back to the hotel we pass by the market which is only just closing up – is apparently open from 6am to 10pm! As my map reading skills seem to have passed the test, we get back to the hotel in time for a nightcap before calling it a night.
Showing posts with label Hoi An. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hoi An. Show all posts
Friday, 9 January 2009
Thursday, 8 January 2009
Day 14 – Hoi An
January 7th 2009
Ahhhhhhhh...
The cloud is much patchier today so there's some good spells of sunshine. We read our books relaxing by the pool which is sparsely populated except for obligatory group of screaming kids – Aussies of course – but to be fair they're not that bad and there is only a few of them.
The volume of Aussies here, and in the town itself, I think goes some way to answering my question of yesterday as to who will come here when all the fancy hotels have been built, the largest population will I suspect be Australian.
Having read for a while we head down to the beach and I have a good splash around in the waves. The sea is lovely and warm but I don't venture out too far as the currents are incredibly strong. Even just jumping the waves though I can see the attraction of surfing, being within the power of the sea is fantastic. Can't stay in too long though as it's quite tiring keeping in line with Sarah on the beach.
Back to the pool for a bit and more reading, spot of lunch. The clouds have started to form again now and are pretty dark. A few spots of rain just as we're finishing our lunch and we decide it's time to head back to the room anyway. Good job as it turns out as within 5 minutes we have a deluge. Seems like this is the time of day for rain, mid afternoon, as it coincides with our arrival yesterday when it had obviously just rained. Doesn't last long and keeps everything lush that's for sure.
More reading then we get changed and take the hotel's private car into Hoi An for another walk round, a bit of shopping, and something to eat.
Stopping in a guidebook recommended restaurant we feel we sample real Vietnamese food for perhaps the first time. Sarah has a set menu while I order separately just to avoid the shellfish and within just a few minutes our table is full of small plates and bowls. Wanton soup, White Roses, Fried Wanton and the Hoi An speciality Cao Lao – a bowl of noodles and pork with a small amount of broth in the bottom (as opposed to the noodle/meat “soups” that you get everywhere else). Doesn't seem to taste of much but after a while our mouths are subtly tingling, it's quite strange but certainly not unpleasant. Ridiculous prices again, both our meals with a beer and large bottle of water comes to £7.
We get the last seats on the shuttle bus sitting next to some English people who've been in Vietnam for a while, traveling in the opposite direction to us. We're the first English people they've met which sums it up round here.
Back to the room to pack for tomorrow and we complete the evening watching a film on the computer.
Power relaxing indeed...
Ahhhhhhhh...
The cloud is much patchier today so there's some good spells of sunshine. We read our books relaxing by the pool which is sparsely populated except for obligatory group of screaming kids – Aussies of course – but to be fair they're not that bad and there is only a few of them.
The volume of Aussies here, and in the town itself, I think goes some way to answering my question of yesterday as to who will come here when all the fancy hotels have been built, the largest population will I suspect be Australian.
Having read for a while we head down to the beach and I have a good splash around in the waves. The sea is lovely and warm but I don't venture out too far as the currents are incredibly strong. Even just jumping the waves though I can see the attraction of surfing, being within the power of the sea is fantastic. Can't stay in too long though as it's quite tiring keeping in line with Sarah on the beach.
Back to the pool for a bit and more reading, spot of lunch. The clouds have started to form again now and are pretty dark. A few spots of rain just as we're finishing our lunch and we decide it's time to head back to the room anyway. Good job as it turns out as within 5 minutes we have a deluge. Seems like this is the time of day for rain, mid afternoon, as it coincides with our arrival yesterday when it had obviously just rained. Doesn't last long and keeps everything lush that's for sure.
More reading then we get changed and take the hotel's private car into Hoi An for another walk round, a bit of shopping, and something to eat.
Stopping in a guidebook recommended restaurant we feel we sample real Vietnamese food for perhaps the first time. Sarah has a set menu while I order separately just to avoid the shellfish and within just a few minutes our table is full of small plates and bowls. Wanton soup, White Roses, Fried Wanton and the Hoi An speciality Cao Lao – a bowl of noodles and pork with a small amount of broth in the bottom (as opposed to the noodle/meat “soups” that you get everywhere else). Doesn't seem to taste of much but after a while our mouths are subtly tingling, it's quite strange but certainly not unpleasant. Ridiculous prices again, both our meals with a beer and large bottle of water comes to £7.
We get the last seats on the shuttle bus sitting next to some English people who've been in Vietnam for a while, traveling in the opposite direction to us. We're the first English people they've met which sums it up round here.
Back to the room to pack for tomorrow and we complete the evening watching a film on the computer.
Power relaxing indeed...
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
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...
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...
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