Vietnam continued
Hello all! 9 days until Christmas, unbelievable!
We left Nha Trang and are now in Hoi An. Nha Trang was not my favorite town so far but it did grow on us a bit. It’s a very touristy place due to the great beaches and good diving most of the year and we found the people less friendly than elsewhere, even Saigon. If you didn’t want to buy their tour they didn’t have much to do with you for the most part.We only had 2 days there and our 2nd day we did a 1/2 day trip to the mud baths & mineral hot springs. It was a good time, sort of funny because they were very specific on how long you did each option. So, first we were instructed to take a shower in the mineral water for 3-5 minutes, then we sat in one of the dozens of pools of mineral mud for 20-30 minutes(we’ll try and scan the photos and put on the blog..pretty silly!), then we lay in the sun for 30minutes for the mud to harden, and then another mineral shower for 10-12minutes. Next we went to one of the many mineral water hot springs tubs (which were about the temp. of a medium hot tub) for 30minutes and then we had “unlimited” time in the mineral springs pool and waterfall. Overall, it was very relaxing and certainly did make our skin feel nice and soft.
There was one place in Nha Trang we went to a few times and that was Crazy Kim Bar. The owner, a Vietnamese-Canadian named Kimmy, started trying to help keep street kids from being victims of pedeophiles a few years ago and part of all proceeds at her bar and spa go to that cause. I bought one of her “hands off the kids” tee shirts and we also bought a stuffed basset hound toy for an underprivledged child as a Christmas present. That and more than a few beers! She also teaches the kids english, vietnamese and computer skills and gives them free lunch for attending classes. Travelers can volunteer to help teach and we weren’t there for long enough to do that but it was great to see someone working on a worthy cause.
The balance of the afternoon we mainly lazed about and packed up for the train. The sleeper car tickets were $25/each but Jim & I wanted our own compartment so we bought the other 2 tickets as well and we were very glad we did! It was TINY and 4 westerners and luggage would have been a nearly impossible fit! The sheets & so on were not as clean as they could be so we gladly pulled out our sleep sacks, read and listened to some music before bed. The train did actually leave ON TIME (a first for us so far for transportation) at 8:15pm and by 9:30 we were asleep. It was a bit of a noisy, bumpy ride but we slept reasonably well and arrived and Danang at 5:20am.
We had arranged a hotel in Hoi An ahead of time and they were at the airport to drive us about 40minutes back south to Hoi An. We checked in by 6am and immediately took a nap for a couple of hours!
Hoi An is great!! It’s easy to see why everyone loves it here. It’s a small town of around 80,000 and easy to cover on foot. For some reason it was not bombed during the war and so most of the buildings are original. I’ve been taking dozens of photos!! The entire downtown is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and so basically, to enter many of the buildings there is a fee. For 85,000dong per person (about $5.50 us) you can enter 1 building/site in one of 5 categories. So, for instance, one category is “Cultural sites” which covers the dance performances, artists workshops,etc. and you can choose one of the 4 places listed to enter with that tab on your card. One other category is “old houses” and you have 5 to choose from, etc. You can certainly enter all if you want but then have to buy more tickets.
We had lunch at a patisserie with fantastic coffees, sandwiches and pastries and spent hours wandering around. One very meaninful temple for us was the Phuc Kien Assembly Hall. We had already used our ticket for a site in this category but the woman nicely let us enter anyway. In the interior they had huge incense strings that were shaped almost like Christmas trees hanging from the center with cards attached to them. We asked about them and it turns out that the site is used to thank the gods for your health and to pray in remembrance of the dead. So, for $20 us we also bought one of the incense trees and dedicated it to Jim’s sister April and my mom and lit our incense. The trees burn for approx. 1 month so it’s nice to think that the card/tree in their memory will still be going after we leave here.
We were both a bit tired from walking miles and the limited sleep on the train so got back to the hotel around 5pm and decided to call it a day. Room service dinner, a movie and early to bed!
Today, 16 Dec we’re in town seeing the other categories of sights we did not get to see yesterday and just enjoying the architecture and things to see. It’s really hot and muggy once again and we keep hearing Hanoi is cooler and are looking forward to that!
We leave Hoi An for Hue on the bus on 18 Dec and have a flight on 21Dec to Hanoi to spend Christmas there. With this weather and being away from all of the hustle and bustle at home, no presents to wrap, no tree, etc. it certainly doesn’t feel like Christmas. But, at least there are decorations and Christmas trees up everywhere here in Vietnam to remind us of the holidays!
Hope everyone is well. Cheers J&R
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