HoiAn....we’ve been here 5 days now and we’re pretty fond of you! Having 5 days to be able to really settle in and get our bearings has been a treat. Our hotel was comfortable and we’ve been thankful for the wonderful beds and the great wifi. Not so great is the fact that we’re pretty sure the walls are made of paper! You can even hear the room next to you turn off their light switches! I won’t mention what you can hear when you’re in the bathroom!!!
During our time here there have been many occasions that I’ve heard myself say that while HoiAn is beautiful by day it is downright magical by night! On our last night here we decided the time had come to each buy little paper lanterns that we then set afloat in the river. Each lantern is a wish for good luck and fortune and we’re counting on the fact that because we used our stick to push other peoples lanterns back out into the flow of the water that we might get a little of their good luck rub off on us too. :-)
We’ve just returned to our hotel (the Acacia Heritage Hotel) and have another hour to kill as we wait for our driver to take us the 45 minutes to Danang Train Station. There we’ll board the overnight train (11 hours) to Nahtrang. We arrive in Nahtrang at 8:30 in the morning and there we will be met by a driver who will take us the final 4-5 hours to DaLat where we will be sooooo ready to stretch out on our beds! The overnight trains are “interesting”. We’re assuming that this one will be similar to the one we took from Hanoi to SaPa. We book the ‘soft sleeper’ on all the night trains but even so...the “soft” is really only about 1 inch thick and the train is anything but new. We will go into this one with positive outlooks though too and who knows...maybe we’ll be pleasantly surprised by a smooth ride in an air conditioned luxury car. (LOL!!!)
Sitting here in the lobby is very pleasant. It is really really large and there is a beautiful breeze that is a combination of the ever present electric fans and the open wall to the roadway. (There is a lovely breeze out there today). We can hear the music coming from the little bar next door and there is the constant hum of people at work behind the reception desk. There is a massive Buddha in the middle of the lobby in front of us and the furniture we’re sitting on is heavy, ornate, and very Asian in its style. That little bar where we can hear the music coming from has been a nice addition to our stay here. There have been a couple of evenings where we passed the time sitting out in front on the edge of the street watching the world go by as we sipped on our Black Russians. The first time I had to teach the bartender how to make them but from then on....they knew what I wanted before I even got there. :-). Speaking of drinks....as I sit here in the lobby typing up this post....a glass of Baileys over ice just arrived for me. It is from Lynda. She is down at the poolside bar reading her book and she thought I might like one as hers was going down so nicely. Gail and Darlene decided to forego the drink....perhaps they’re the wiser of the four of us. Tonight when our tummies are rolling around on that train we may be cursing Mr Bailey!
This afternoon we spent a couple of hours on the other side of the little bridge that separates us from the old quarter of the city. We located a little restaurant that turned out to be yet another favourite. We’ve had so many favourites here in HoiAn....they all kind of blur together to make our time here simply wonderful. Our server this afternoon was a young woman named Phuong. She was soooo sweet....we all wanted to bring her home with us! Her English was excellent and she is 24 years old. Even though our lunch was delicious...she made the meal memorable. Her manager stopped by to say hello to us at the end of our meal and his comment about how lucky they are to have her spoke volumes. I’m certain part of the reason she is so happy to be there is because she knows how valued she is. That recipe for staff development and retention is the same the world over! After our lunch Phuong even went across the street to a local street vendor stand to order a couple of crepes for us to have as a dessert. She said she’d do it for us as she could likely get them for a little cheaper (which she did). I should probably add here that the idea to have those crepes was Gail’s which may not seem like a big deal to some of you but when I add that Gail is the one of us who WILL NOT eat street food....this is a huge shift! We’re so excited....maybe she will get some fish down before the end of this trip too! LOL. In fairness to Gail....we tease her a lot about her “preferences” and she is a great sport to let us get away with it. At our first stop here in SaPa her comment was that she felt as though she was dropped into a National Geographic article and here she is just a couple weeks later chowing down on street food like a local! Wahoo! Go Gail Go!!! :-)
LOL......a tour group just wandered...or perhaps I should say staggered into the lobby here. They’re a little different than the last tour group I saw arrive. That one was a Kontiki tour (18-35 yr olds). This one is definitely for a more mature crowd. :-)
To get back to Hoi An though....the old quarter here is lovely to walk around. There are no cars or motor bikes allowed so it is just the humans and the bikes you have to watch out for. Well...there might be the odd uneven bit of ground trying to trip you up too. LOL. The old quarter is busy by day with the shops all open to the street and the vendors set up on sidewalks and the combination of locals and tourists mingling about. By night that same zone (and it is a fairly large area consisting of several streets) comes alive as the overhead hanging lanterns are lit, the music turned up, and the numbers of people stretched to capacity. Sitting in a sidewalk cafe (or caphe as they spell it here) sipping on a Vietnamese White Iced Coffee people watching is a pretty great way to spend a couple of hours! That iced coffee is truly delicious! It is made up of very strong local coffee, a dash of sweetened condensed milk, and lots of ice. YUMMY!
Another noteworthy experience that we had here in HoiAn was when the post office came to us! I’d purchased 3 pair of shoes (made to measure) and a purse that I wanted to ship home and Gail had a couple of items she’d purchased for Xmas gifts that were too bulky for her suitcase and so.....easy as 123 the lady in the shoe shop phoned the post office guy who hopped on his bike (with scale and boxes in hand) and in a jiffy he was there at the store! He bubble wrapped, and packaged, and weighed, and taped our box. He had all the paperwork for me to fill out, and he even had a credit card machine so I could pay for it all on the spot! My new shoes will be home before I am!!! Wahoo....I love it here! I also love it here because of all the tailor made clothing. You go in the morning with an idea of what you’d like and you go back in the afternoon to pick it up! Now that is service. :-). The quality of the clothes (and shoes) is excellent as well. They had some trouble getting my tops to fit just right (the joy of big boobs) and so no matter how many times they had to “re-do” that part....they did it. They couldn’t be happy with the sale until I was happy with the purchase. Nice!
A couple of other little tidbits that are worth capturing here is that it is here that I saw my first rodent of this trip. For those of you who know me....you’ll know that was a big deal! I do not do rodents well. However, this rodent was far enough away and it was bigger than the mice that usually really freak me out so I managed not to embarrass myself this time. This rat I saw was running across the street on the overhead power lines! He didn’t even slip at all. He was as surefooted as can be...just danced across that power line like he’d done it every day of his life....which he probably had!
Another thing we really appreciated here was that all of the taxis are clearly marked and they run off a meter and their meters start at 16,000 which means you can get pretty much anywhere in the old quarter/town area for under $5.
During our time in HoiAn, Lynda and I opted to do a day trip to BaNa Hills as ever since seeing the golden bridge on Facebook it’s been something I’ve wanted to see IRL! Before our bus had even left HoiAn we felt like we were on a crazy adventure! Our driver was AMAZING! He had to go down these super skinny little alleys to pick up some of the 14 people who would join us in the van for the day and I’m not sure how it is even possible that he was able to navigate those tight turns! In the end he had to back up all the way down one of the lanes as there was nowhere to turn around and it was a dead end road.
BaNa Hills is another SunWorld location (like Fansipan Peak in SaPa). Once again we were on gondolas and headed into the clouds! This time there is no question about it.....they hold the record for longest unsupported span and some of the highest cable cars in the world. We had beautiful weather for our BaNa Hills adventure and are sooo glad we decided to do this side trip. BaNa Hills is kind of a cross between Disneyland and Buchart Gardens. Because it is high up in the hills the climate is a little cooler and as a result their “exotic” flowers are all the ones we can grow at home. Roses, Begonias, Hydrangea, Daisies, Pine trees, and Coleus just to name a few that we recognized. There were decorations for Hallowe’en and the air was filled with a very festive vibe. The Golden Bridge is at the end of the first Gondola and it has only been finished/open since June. It is a masterpiece! The size of the hands holding up the golden span you walk across are MASSIVE and even the span itself is a spiralling piece of art. The breeze was cool and the views from the bridge were stunning. We could see for miles! Looking out over the mountainsides and the waterfalls from atop the bridge or from the safety of our cable car....this was a sight to remember! From the Golden Bridge and surrounding gardens we took another cable car to go even higher on the mountain. That car took us to what is currently the highest developed portion of the mountain. Here at the top we took some time to sit and people watch. There was a massive centre “square” among the French Colonial style “town” and we simply sat on the edge of the garden wall to take it all in. There were so many people! Almost all of them carrying a phone and snapping selfies. Honestly....I’m not exaggerating.....everyone here is a professional selfie taker. They even pose for their selfies. And if it’s not a selfie...they pose for the photos taken of them as well. In fact, they usually dictate what the photo of them will look like and then they check it and if it isn’t “good” enough....they do it over again! They pose with one foot forward and one hand higher than the other and a pouty look on their face. They flip their hair and spin for action shots...yep....it was interesting to watch! As well, many of the couples up here were wearing matching clothes! They had obviously gone to the tailor and had a dress made for her and a shirt (and sometimes shorts too) for him. Of course the fabric they chose was anything but subtle...usually it was a bold Hawaiian style print.
It was also at this height (the top of the mountain) that we had what I think turned out to be one of the scariest activities I’ve done in a long while. I’m not afraid of too many things but the maze that we entered into on the top of that mountain was pretty darn scary from my perspective! Thinking we’d be clever.....We took a photo of the map before entering. Damn them anyway....I don’t think that was a real map at all....it was nothing more than a cruel joke. We were only one turn into the maze and already we could see that the map didn’t align with what we were looking at no matter which way you held the phone! Within minutes we were completely lost. Honestly...it is scary! The walls of the greenery maze were about 9-10 feet tall so there was no way to see over the tops. We’d only been in there for about two turns when we decided we didn’t want to do it and already we were completely lost! It is very very large as well and I’m not sure what would happen if you didn’t find your way out. I suspect if you just stopped where you were and started yelling for help that might get you out but...who knows....maybe not! Regardless, we survived and learned a lesson....stay out of mazes!
By the time we arrived back at the bottom of the gondola we felt like we were back in SaPa at the little tram that takes you up to the Fansipan gondola there....escalator after escalator and each one steeper and longer than the last taking us the final several hundred feet down the mountain side to the parking lot and our bus. It had been a long day but a really really good one. And the bonus was that we got to watch a beautiful sunset in DaNang on our way back to HoiAn.
Till next time,
Darlorlyngai
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