Hoi An

Arrived in Hoi An at about 6am, was feeling ok, but was still under the influence of the Xanex so had breakfast with Val then we checked into a hotel and slept for a while. Got up at about 9am feeling great, so we went for a wander around town, loads of older tourists about alot in large groups. The architecture around town was nice, but nothing to rave over and there is alot of tailors about. Had lunch in the market and hired a small boat (10,000 Dong) to take us down the river for half an hour, was fun, got some good photos of town. Hoi An is alot smaller than I thought it would and so is easy to walk around. Ended up wandering into a tailors and Val got a dress measured up and I ended up getting a shirt, pants and a jacket measured up, bah didn't even want anything, dam catalogs. Val decided she was going to to My Son (Cham ruins) early next day then head to Danang so I decided to go to My Son as well.

So had to get up at 4:30 am for the early morning tour of My Son, was nice, made it out there by 6:30am including a stop for breakfast, beat all the big bus tours and there was only 10 people on your tour and we had a good tour. The ruins were nice, smaller than I was expecting and fairly damaged by American Bombing as the VC had used My Son as a staging ground and camp. But are in a fairly scenic valley surrounded by small hills. Met a kiwi couple on the tour, had not seen many kiwis about recently. After the tour Val headed off to Danang and I moved into a dorm room.

After Lunch I hired a motorbike (50,000 Dong) and headed off to the Marble Mountains which are about halfway between Hoi An and Danang. Managed to get nice and lost and take some random back roads to get there. Was worth the effort the Mountains were very nice, sort of look like the cast stacks in Krabi, Thailand. There are some nice caves that contain statues and Buddhas, some nice pagodas and some very nice views, met another kiwi up the top, called Roger. We browesed the marble shops at the base of the mountain, Roger brought a Marble chest set for $6 US.

After that we headed up the coast along China Beach which is famous due to a TV series in the States of the same name. The beach runs all the Way from Hoi An to Danang which is forty odd kilometres and is very nice with white sands and clear water, alot of the American GIs came here for R & R during the American War (As the Vietnamese call it). We followed the coast past Danang up onto Monkey Mountain where there were good views back along the coast/ beach and out over Danang city. Was blasting along the road which winds its way around the hillside when, out of no where was a mudslide, managed to stop in time with a bit of a slide. Decided to ride through the mudslide to see what was on the other side retrospectively not such a good idea, but it was fun, Roger lost his jandle in the mud and it took a while to find and our bikes were covered in mud and the road came to a dead end. Washed our bikes in a stream beside the road using our Jandles as buckets/ scoops and on the was back met up with a couple of Rogers friends Alice (Israeli) and Ruby (Dutch) and tried to find a way to the top of Marble mountain, ended up finds a nice temple complex where there was nice views of the coming sunset, they were building a big tower there and we decided to climb it, was a laugh, OSH would have killed us. The scaffolding was made of bamboo. Most of the steps up the inside were complete though and the view fro the top was spectacular. Watched the sun set from there then rode back into Hoi An in the dark. Met up with the Guys for a beer that night.

Next day had time to kill as I was waiting for my Lao visa to get back from the embassy in Danang. So wandered around town and went on the net, picked up and posted my suit and caught up on washing etc. Went out for some Bia Hoi with Red a American dude who was in my dorm and then went to a bar where we caught up with Roger and crew.

Following day got my passport back and caught an open tour bus up to Hue.