Lanterns of Hoi An

 On to Hoi An on November 30, just 30 km. south of Da Nang - we booked a private car for $13 & rode in style. We booked an apartment on Airbnb & it was a great choice. Quang Vinh Apartments & Hotel, compact but well equipped, comfortable & homey. And the most comfortable mattress so far! Great to have both a washer & dryer, kitchen, English channels on the TV & a cute outdoor seating area. All for $222 for 1 week. Easily walkable to the Old Town which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, famous as a 15th-19th century trading port with a blend of Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese & French architecture, colorful lanterns, narrow streets & canals. 

Old Town

Our apartment 

Unfortunately this area was hit quite badly by typhoons this fall, but they are quick to clean up. One restaurant had flood levels from past years marked on the wall, this year the level was 1.85 m. Now the street closest to the river still floods a bit with high tide. 

A screenshot of Hoi An during the flood

Also a screenshot 

Tide creeping in

We spent our days wandering the Old Town, eating some of the local dishes, biking & relaxing.  

Market

Lanterns everywhere!

Hoi An is famous for it’s tailor shops - they can make almost anything in 24 hours

Of course there are temples

Night market every night along the river

Tasty rice paper pizza

So may choices of smoothies(avocado ) & juices (carrot)

Cau Lau

 Grilled meat & noodles

Tapioca dumplings with shrimp, very chewy

Pork skewers to wrap in rice paper

White Rose dumplings, lovely 2nd floor spot overlooking the river

The hotel offered free bicycles so off we went - out of town thru rice paddies, to An Bang beach for a beer & to watch the waves, thru the narrow lanes of Old Town. 

She turned towards me & gave me a scare!

Ladies picking snails in the rice fields 

An area called Vegetable Village, aptly named

Can’t go wrong with beers on the beach

An Bang beach & the round coconut boats the fisherman use

Riding in Old Town

We had a couple days of rain which was fine as the TV actually had several English movie channels. Most days I went for my morning run in a nearby park, Robin exercised & went for a walk. We love to eat & there is so much good food & beer - so exercise is needed or we will be sorry!

Nearby park

Fancy funeral wagon in the park

All these cages hold very pretty small birds of many kinds - the lady yelled at me for taking a photo so probably not supposed to catch them & sell them

Several old structures like this in the park, from the Vietnam war

We spent a lot of time in the Old Town, so many lovely yellow buildings & every night the boats take people out to float paper lanterns that old ladies sell. 

Japanese Bridge

Carvers

Night market 

Hoi An is also famous for leatherworks, made to order or ready made

We enjoyed a relaxing week in Hoi An, but it was time to move on. Everything up till now we had booked before leaving home - we figured a week in each place would give us time to relax & explore. We also booked a month in our next destination of Nha Trang as we have been before & enjoyed it. And we splurged on flights, all of $82 each. On to the next adventure December 7. 

Lots of Christmas decorations 

One of many bahn mi sandwiches 

Still Living the Dream!

Da Nang & the Traditional House

 We started our train journey to Da Nang at 10:00 pm on November 22 & arrived at noon the next day. The idea was to sleep on the train but that didn’t quite pan out - very hard bunk, noisy & rough - by the time we gave up on sleep in the morning we each had over 3000 steps on our Fitbits, despite not actually walking at all. But the scenery was lovely, especially the Hai Van pass with ocean & mountain views.

Hai Van pass

Having breakfast on the train

We had booked our accommodation on Airbnb & picked a unique place - a traditional Vietnamese house which cost $246 for one week. It was only 12 ft. across the front & very deep - over 2600 sq. feet over 3 levels - a metal locking door across the front, a 4 ft space & then a wall of glass with glass doors. There were 3 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, seating for 8 at the kitchen table & terraces on both the 2nd & 3rd floors! In the space at the front the owner’s uncle had a tobacco business which wasn’t supposed to affect us - except on our first morning he came right into the living room as we were having coffee & proceeded to light incense in 2 household shrines! Not quite what we expected! We worked that out thru Google translate but in order to get daylight in we had to have the metal door open & if the old guy was gone for lunch we then had to watch his shop. And way too many stairs! But an interesting experiment, hopefully not to be repeated. 

Looking at the front, metal doors open a bit

Massive living room

Looking out, tobacco shop

With the metal door closed, no daylight

Bedroom with outdoor terrace

We had been in Da Nang last year but had not gone up to the tourist attraction called Bana Hills so we decided to check it out. The weather was supposed to be mainly clear, but unfortunately it was very foggy so not great views. It is a resort & amusement park, accessible by several cable cars & funiculars, complete with a recreated French village, hotels, wine cellars, the Golden Bridge with the giant stone hands, rides, games, 4D & 5D experiences & a very popular Popmart, selling collectible “toys”. We played a bunch of arcade games, had a bumpy ride on the bumper cars & took in many IMAX type films. They also boast a craft brewery so we tried some of them as well. The highlight was the “Hand Bridge” & the cable car rides to reach the different levels. 

Riding the cable car up

On the Golden Bridge

The French village

Entrance to the Beer Hall

Arcade fun

Bumper cars!

Entry gates

Much clearer on the way down 

We were happy to be back to buying fruit, yogurt & in Robin’s case, noodles for our breakfasts - lots of variety & great prices. We  visited the Son Tra night market a couple of times, for grilled lobster & tasty street foods. 

Night market

Local day market

Our lobster raw, I forgot to take a photo before we dug in

Grilling seafood

Foods to grill

Lobster for sale, to grill

We admired the huge yellow dragon on the Dragon Bridge & did an evening boat cruise on the river with the intent of seeing the dragon spit fire & water (only on weekends), but for some reason it only spewed water that night. 

One of the lit up bridges from our cruise

Spewing water

We took a Grab taxi to the Linh Ung Pagoda, home of the 67 m. Lady Buddha & many wild monkeys. We got to watch as they used a tarp over a statue as a trampoline & as they jumped up on people foolish enough to feed them. 

The “trampoline”

Amazing bonsai trees in huge planters

I managed to fit in a delightful 90 minute hot stone massage for the crazy price of $22!

We have managed to stay north of most of the rain & all of the flooding that has plagued Asia this fall, our next destination of Hoi An was not so lucky, undergoing several episodes of flooding of the Old Town & areas closest to the river. The storms have passed, the water has receded & the clean-up done so on November 30 we took a private car to Hoi An, 40 minutes south of Da Nang. On to the next adventure. Still Living the Dream!

Wonderful coconut ice cream

Bana Hills souvenir - a clear day!