Day 82 - Hoi An
Friday, October 29, 2010
Friday 29th October
After last night's beautiful dinner with the Aussies, I decided to skip the breakfast at my hotel for breakfast there instead, ordering both French toast and porridge. (I wasn't being greedy, I just couldn't decide which one I wanted so I ordered both and ate half serves!)
Packing my bag this morning was fun. I did fit everything in reasonably easily, although some of the new clothes are in my daypack, rather than my big backpack (I could change this if I took the clothes out of their plastic seals, but I'd like to keen them in pristine condition until there is a reason to change them ... i.e. buying more clothes in Ho Chi Minh City. By the time I get to Canada, I will definitely need to buy a new bag!)
Checking out of the hotel at 10:30, I had 7 hours to kill before the sleeper bus to Nha Trang. I spent the first hour and a half on the internet, updating my blog and checking the usual suspect websites (i.e. PerezHilton). I had an early lunch - the most beautiful egg and lettuce sandwich ever, made on thick crusty toasted bread - and then went and hired a bike. Everyone in Hoi An rides either a motorbike or a bicycle, and the main quadrant of town is even blocked off from motor vehicles. I wanted to join in the action, and ride to the nearby beach, about 5km away. The bike I hired was bright green and had a basket - I actually swapped the bike I was initially given for one with a basket!!
I didn't have a dog to put in the basket, only my bag and water, but off I rode into the sunset ... (ok, not really, just down the pothole and mud strewn roads of Hoi An). Once you got out of the city - which didn't take long - the scenery was gorgeous, with rice paddy fields being tilled by men and their water buffalos. Luckily the traffic around here isn't bad, and I managed to ride on the right hand side of the road without any issues - I need to get used to that for Canada!
The beach wasn't too far away, although as I approached it I heard a shrill whistle, waving me off the bike and into a 'parking lot'. (I'm not sure if I got played here - I was made pay 5000 dong to park my bike and then walk to the beach). The beach was very choppy - the weather has been bad here all week - and the sand was blowing hundreds of metres back onto the road.
Back on my bike, I rode into the town, onto the back streets and across the river. It's such a fun way to get around the town, and it makes you feel like such a local (and a little kid - when was the last time you rode on a bike with a basket?)
I deposited my bike back at the bike rental shop and decided to kill an hour of the remaining three hours left to the bus by getting a massage. Bad move - I don't know why I persist on getting massages, I think it's just because a) they're cheap and b) they're considered a luxury at home. I had a 60 minute herbal massage - very similar to a stone massage except with herbal compresses - and the young Vietnamese girl had a fun time scalding and pummelling my body into submission.
'Dinner' was next (even though it was only 4:30pm) - I didn't trust the roadside diners the bus would likely pull up at on the way to Nha Trang, so I wanted to make sure I had a hearty meal (and a few snacks in my daypack). The restaurant was really funky, and had a poster with the saying, "Google knows what you did last summer" in the style of the movie poster for 'I Know What You Did Last Summer', but with Google in the Google logo. Photography was prohibited else I would have taken a photo - I'd love a copy of it for my apartment! (Wherever that ends up being next).
I then returned to the guesthouse to wait for the bus pick-up. I was told the bus would leave at 6pm, but at 6pm I was 'picked-up' by a representative of the bus company, who accompanied me across the road to the bus office. I waited there for about 45 minutes before the sleeper bus finally arrived, and I piled on with the other backpackers and tourists.
How do I explain the sleeper bus to you ... imagine a bus, with three aisles of bunk beds. The back of the bus also consists of two levels of beds, except that instead of having individual bunks, it consists of five beds joined together. Each bed is tailored to the size of a standard Vietnamese person, despite these buses being predominantly used by Westerners. The beds are 80cm in width, and about 2m in length. This isn't a lie-flat 2m though - there is about 1m of horizontal space for your legs, and the remaining 2m is on an angle for your back to rest on. You soon realise 1m isn't enough room for your legs, so your feet end up hanging over onto the front of the bunk in front of you.
There is no room for your bag - you must nurse this either on top of your body, or sleep with your legs on top of it. Your shoes must be removed and placed in a plastic bag, rested in the same way. A small pillow is provided, along with a blanket, for some warmth and comfort, but sleeping for 12 hours on a bed which isn't wide enough to turn negates that comfort. (As you can imagine, I became very good friends with the German guy sleeping next to me - 80cm is a miniscule width!)
The 12 hour bus ride had only just departed when it made its first pit-stop at a local diner. I had decided I wasn't going to drink or eat anything on the bus because I didn't want to have to go to the bathroom (public bathrooms over here are disgusting!), and instead played my iPod, trying to block out the constant sound of the bus' horn. Vietnamese roads are also quite bumpy, and the suspension on the bus wasn't to Western standards, so the bus ride was bumpy to say the least. But, it was something I had wanted to experience (and now that I have, I see no reason in having to repeat the experience any time soon!)
After last night's beautiful dinner with the Aussies, I decided to skip the breakfast at my hotel for breakfast there instead, ordering both French toast and porridge. (I wasn't being greedy, I just couldn't decide which one I wanted so I ordered both and ate half serves!)
Packing my bag this morning was fun. I did fit everything in reasonably easily, although some of the new clothes are in my daypack, rather than my big backpack (I could change this if I took the clothes out of their plastic seals, but I'd like to keen them in pristine condition until there is a reason to change them ... i.e. buying more clothes in Ho Chi Minh City. By the time I get to Canada, I will definitely need to buy a new bag!)
Checking out of the hotel at 10:30, I had 7 hours to kill before the sleeper bus to Nha Trang. I spent the first hour and a half on the internet, updating my blog and checking the usual suspect websites (i.e. PerezHilton). I had an early lunch - the most beautiful egg and lettuce sandwich ever, made on thick crusty toasted bread - and then went and hired a bike. Everyone in Hoi An rides either a motorbike or a bicycle, and the main quadrant of town is even blocked off from motor vehicles. I wanted to join in the action, and ride to the nearby beach, about 5km away. The bike I hired was bright green and had a basket - I actually swapped the bike I was initially given for one with a basket!!
I didn't have a dog to put in the basket, only my bag and water, but off I rode into the sunset ... (ok, not really, just down the pothole and mud strewn roads of Hoi An). Once you got out of the city - which didn't take long - the scenery was gorgeous, with rice paddy fields being tilled by men and their water buffalos. Luckily the traffic around here isn't bad, and I managed to ride on the right hand side of the road without any issues - I need to get used to that for Canada!
The beach wasn't too far away, although as I approached it I heard a shrill whistle, waving me off the bike and into a 'parking lot'. (I'm not sure if I got played here - I was made pay 5000 dong to park my bike and then walk to the beach). The beach was very choppy - the weather has been bad here all week - and the sand was blowing hundreds of metres back onto the road.
Back on my bike, I rode into the town, onto the back streets and across the river. It's such a fun way to get around the town, and it makes you feel like such a local (and a little kid - when was the last time you rode on a bike with a basket?)
I deposited my bike back at the bike rental shop and decided to kill an hour of the remaining three hours left to the bus by getting a massage. Bad move - I don't know why I persist on getting massages, I think it's just because a) they're cheap and b) they're considered a luxury at home. I had a 60 minute herbal massage - very similar to a stone massage except with herbal compresses - and the young Vietnamese girl had a fun time scalding and pummelling my body into submission.
'Dinner' was next (even though it was only 4:30pm) - I didn't trust the roadside diners the bus would likely pull up at on the way to Nha Trang, so I wanted to make sure I had a hearty meal (and a few snacks in my daypack). The restaurant was really funky, and had a poster with the saying, "Google knows what you did last summer" in the style of the movie poster for 'I Know What You Did Last Summer', but with Google in the Google logo. Photography was prohibited else I would have taken a photo - I'd love a copy of it for my apartment! (Wherever that ends up being next).
I then returned to the guesthouse to wait for the bus pick-up. I was told the bus would leave at 6pm, but at 6pm I was 'picked-up' by a representative of the bus company, who accompanied me across the road to the bus office. I waited there for about 45 minutes before the sleeper bus finally arrived, and I piled on with the other backpackers and tourists.
How do I explain the sleeper bus to you ... imagine a bus, with three aisles of bunk beds. The back of the bus also consists of two levels of beds, except that instead of having individual bunks, it consists of five beds joined together. Each bed is tailored to the size of a standard Vietnamese person, despite these buses being predominantly used by Westerners. The beds are 80cm in width, and about 2m in length. This isn't a lie-flat 2m though - there is about 1m of horizontal space for your legs, and the remaining 2m is on an angle for your back to rest on. You soon realise 1m isn't enough room for your legs, so your feet end up hanging over onto the front of the bunk in front of you.
There is no room for your bag - you must nurse this either on top of your body, or sleep with your legs on top of it. Your shoes must be removed and placed in a plastic bag, rested in the same way. A small pillow is provided, along with a blanket, for some warmth and comfort, but sleeping for 12 hours on a bed which isn't wide enough to turn negates that comfort. (As you can imagine, I became very good friends with the German guy sleeping next to me - 80cm is a miniscule width!)
The 12 hour bus ride had only just departed when it made its first pit-stop at a local diner. I had decided I wasn't going to drink or eat anything on the bus because I didn't want to have to go to the bathroom (public bathrooms over here are disgusting!), and instead played my iPod, trying to block out the constant sound of the bus' horn. Vietnamese roads are also quite bumpy, and the suspension on the bus wasn't to Western standards, so the bus ride was bumpy to say the least. But, it was something I had wanted to experience (and now that I have, I see no reason in having to repeat the experience any time soon!)
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