Our arrival in Hoi An (on the normal rickety bus) was a little hectic, the minibus stopped at various hotels to let the hotel manager come on and try to sell his hotel to us, as it was raining proper 'Çats and Dogs' we decided to go in and take a look at the room as it seemed pretty central and we weren't in the mood to run away from the hotel touts who seem to follow any 'new meat'arriving incessantly until they catch somebody!
After settling into our room, our room doorbell suddenly went - we opened the door to a rather panic stricken looking young man and the hotel manager - turns out Stevie had gotten the wrong bag from the bus! The two bags were exactly the same and we were so lucky that the guy didn't realise 200 miles later!
As it was still pouring outside in true rainy season style, we decided to not waste any time and brave the elements. We put on the lovely Ponchos that Stevies mum had given us (just one of many useful utensils from the Maguire household!) and took a walk/swim around the town...after a while we bumped into Michelle and Dan - the English couple whom we kept bumping into and who had shared our bus to Hoi An - we decided that there was only one thing to do in the turbulent weather, and that was to sit down and have a beer...We had a really good night drinking,playing pool,dodging cochroaches(!)and watching the crazy inhouse kitten run circles around a chair!
Upon our return to the hotel we discovered our hotel had closed for the night! Luckily in true Vietnam hotel style the hotel manager was snuggled up into a makeshiftbed at reception (its amazing how many hotel staff/managers in boxer shorts we would see throughout the course of our journey through Vietnam!)
The following morning the rain had subsided and we went for a walk around the lovely town. Hoi An was such a lovely little town with little old houses, shops, restaurants and several beautiful temples. One of the great things about this little place is that is was relatively unscathed by the war and so a lotof the traditional buildings still stand. The place is most famous for its 500 tailor shops, each promising to make you an outfit with the most perfect fit - I was extremely tempted to get something made but time and budget constraints held us back..although perhaps I will fly back to Vietnam one day and get a complete wardrobe...keep dreaming Katrijn!
On our walk through Hoi An we came accross a house which was open to visitors, the house was really beautiful and an interesting insight into life in Hoi An - the big wooden table downstairs served as a bed for 3 to 4 people! Definately not the memory foam mattresses one settles into for the night at home...After a 'Fresh Vietnamese beer' (for around 6 pence) at the river, we had dinner which was probably one of the best meals we had in Vietnam, in a little resturant called the Green Moss, we still talk about it now 2 weeks later! Hoi An at night was just as beautiful as it was during the daytime, each street was lit up with chinese lanterns in a miriad of colours and little yellow lights reflected from the restaurants onto the river, I think that Hoi An was definately one of the favourite towns although ofcourse everything is so different that its impossible to have a favourite really...
We spent the following day organising our night bus down to Nha Trang, the next destination - unfortunately we could only really stay two or three nights in most places as we had a whole country to get through in a month!
