Hanoi to Hoi An (830km)

We arrived at Da Nang train station on schedule at 12.30pm and we immediately purchased our onward tickets from Da Nang to Nha Trang for Monday 25/4/16 as we have learned that it is better to book train tickets as early as possible as they do fill up quickly.

Our accommodation arranged a driver to collect us from the train station and we checked in to the Golden Bell Homestay in the early afternoon.

The homestay is not truly a homestay but more like a bed and breakfast style hotel and it was extremely good value for the money we paid (about $25 AUD per night). The staff were so friendly and helpful, the room was spacious, clean, comfortable and nicely decorated, breakfast was excellent and the location was perfect as it was far enough out of time to be really quite and peaceful, while also close enough to easily get into Hoi An town on the free bicycles which were available to us.

(Photos: Hoi An Ancient Town; Erin on the bridge over the Thu Bon River; Outside the Golden Bell Homestay).

The family who owns and runs the homestay also lives at the back of the building and their little pomerian dog Happy roams around the building. He is the most adorable little thing I have ever seen but he seemed to bark at Matt every time he saw him.

After settling in we cycled into the World Heritage listed Hoi An ancient town to look around and have dinner and drinks.
Hoi An is just a magical place, everything about it is incredibly beautiful and we really admired the way that the local community and authorities have worked so hard to preserve the authenticity and history of the town despite the huge numbers of tourists who visit each year.

(Photos: Matt in Hoi An town; sunset on the Thu Bon River; locals rowing on the Thu Bon; Erin on bridge).

The town is even more magical at night when it is lit by thousands of lanterns of varying design. We also happened to be visiting at the time of the Full Moon festival which occurs each month to welcome the full moon and basically involves setting candles in cardboard lanterns adrift on the Thu Bon river which flows through the middle of the town.

Matt really enjoyed seeing the ways that the local fisherman go about farming and catching fish, and he laments the fact that he did not bring along his travel fishing rod (not for the first time).

On our second day in Hoi An we once again cycled into town and took a look around at the stores and the small local market selling fresh produce and seafood. I managed to restrain myself from shopping and only bought a small bracelet from a locally owned fair trade store which sells artwork produced by local people with disabilities. In return for my purchase I was treated to a free tea tasting using a traditional Vietnamese tea set (after which of course I bought some tea).

Later in the afternoon we rode out to An Bang beach and took a walk along the beach. During the walk we came across some local fisherman preparing their basket boats to take out for some dusk fishing. The boats are very heavy and hard to move on land and it wasn't long before Matt was roped in to help move the boat into the water.

(Photos: biking through Hoi An town; baskets of mulberries; Hoi An central market; tea tasting; Hoi An at dusk; Matt with basket boat on An Bang beach).

We noticed today that Hoi An has a very different vibe than Hanoi. Although Hanoi is a large city with a lot of tourists, the locals there are too busy with their own lives to bother much about the tourists, and we came across very few hawkers or touts in Hanoi even in the Old Quarter. Hoi An however seems to have become much more dependent upon the tourist trade for the economy and so we have found the hawkers here to be more plentiful and more aggressive in their approach. This does not detract from the overall atmosphere of the place though.

The next day we decided to hire a scooter for the day and in the morning we rode about 25 minutes out of town towards Da Nang to visit Marble Mountain. We didn't know much about Marble Mountain when we first arrived and thought that we would walk up some stairs, see a temple and then walk back down again. In reality we ended up being there for about 4 hours exploring the caves and temples. Every time we thought we had seen everything there would be another staircase, marble statue or cave to explore.

(Photos: Marble Mountain - marble buddha statues; temples; caves; gardens; view).

We traveled back to An Bang beach for some lunch and drinks and then later we had a meal in Hoi An and took the opportunity to take some photos of the town at night (although the pictures just don't seem to do it justice).
Next morning we checked out of the Golden Bell Homestay and made our way back to Da Nang train station for our train to Nha Trang.

(Photos: Marble Mountain gardens & temple; Hoi An rice paddies; Hoi An at night).