A lazy day in Hoi An

Hoi An, Day 55

Well, I had some reservations about getting my beauty sleep last night, as it sounded quite noisy outside in the street from the nearby restaurants/bars. And the hotels that we have stayed in so far in Vietnam do not seem to have any double glazing. However, I travel with the wax earplugs, which are great as you just roll them and pop them into your ears and they fit well and dull down the noise without leaving you completely deaf to any important noise, e.g. fire alarms!

Thankfully, the noise didn't last very long, and I probably didn't even need the earplugs as I got a good sleep. I think Hoi An seems to be quite full on in terms of the tourist and party vibe, but at a certain time, everything seems to just stop and people go home.

R seems to be much better today, although as soon as I say that, he coughs, as if to say 'yeah, but I'm still not quite 100%'. He's back to whinging and slagging me off about stuff, so that's how I know he's almost back to normal!

Breakfast in the morning was banana pancakes for me, and R had a pork noodle soup dish. We had to pre-order from a fairly limited menu when we checked in, so not quite the same as the buffet breakfasts we have been used to recently! :) R did not really like his breakfast as it had a lot of broken noodles which he could hardly pick up with the chopsticks, the meat looked 'unusual', so I think he was worried that it was pork intestines or something and there was a big bit of blood cake in it too....he's ordered the banana pancakes for tomorrow!

After breakfast, we headed out for another little look around Hoi An, and it was lovely as it was relatively quiet with fewer tourists about, although that didn't last very long before the usual throng built up. We managed to get some nice photos without them being full of people in the background. Oh, I should say that we do take a lot of photos, but for ease of trying to keep things simple, I just use the photos from my phone, which is why they are usually selfies I have taken or photos with R in them. R's phone and camera are unfortunately ones with me in them!

Then, before we knew it, it was time for a coffee break. We found a lovely little place with the baby chairs, and I had a coconut coffee and R had his usual mango smoothie. Both were very good, and it was fab just watching the people walking past, even the street sellers who were trying to sell us various cards and snacks from their baskets.

The weather is slightly colder today at 19oC, so we both layer up a little but by lunchtime it was back to 21oC which was better. For lunch we decide to get a couple of Bahn Mis' again, but just as take aways this time as we head back to the hotel to get our next flight check in sorted.

So the check-in system won't allow us to change R's name to ensure it is exactly as it is on his passport, so it looks like we will need to sort this out at the airport again, which is a bit of a pain in the bum!

We have a rest in the hotel in the afternoon and then head out again in the evening for dinner. I'm not very hungry as the Bahn Mi we had a lunchtime was really, really filling. I had a vegetarian one yesterday, but today I went for the mixed one and it was absolutely packed with meat, pate and vegetables.

We go a different route to the ancient city and we end up a little lost for a bit until we come across some familiar buildings and it's funny how different it looks in the evening from the daytime.

The area around the river is absolute chaos with loads and loads of people and certainly lots more than there were yesterday (Sunday). There are lots of people out on the river boats, and also lots of people lighting the floating candles and putting them in the river. It's strange as we can't understand why it's so much busier than the night before. We even check to see if there is some sort of holiday or festival, but there doesn't seem to be anything, so maybe it's just that a lot more tour buses have arrived today.

Unfortunately, my phone camera photos don't do justice to the scenes, but it is quite beautiful too.

For dinner, we decide to return to Vy's market restaurant, and R has a chicken and rice dish, and I have a chicken and wanton soup dish. Both were great and again really reasonable at less than £7.50 with soft drinks.

After dinner, we had a short wander around before heading back to the hotel to start packing up our stuff for our next flight to the even colder north of Vietnam tomorrow.

Hoi An, Vietnam

13 January 2025