Here comes the sun.......

The night bus from Sapa was due to drop us off “near” to Hanoi Airport about 4am, So we were a little surprised to be woken at 2.48am and told this was the stop for the airport. The driver pointed up the road and drove off (we are becoming familiar with this style of customer service!). What was described as 1-1 ½ km walk to the airport, turned out to be 4.5km!  So there we were, in the middle of the night, an odd group consisting of 2 middle aged Brits (us), 2 Germans, 2 locals, 1 man of unknown origin pulling a giant pink suitcase, led by a Vietnamese lad who didn't know where he was going, but was able to ask, walking up the side of a 6 lane carriageway in the middle of the night. Still,  at least if was hot!

When we arrived an hour later we tried to sleep in the chairs designed specifically to discourage people from sleeping on them without success, so when we boarded the plane we fell asleep and did not wake until we landed an hour or so later at Da Nang Aiport.

We had organised a pick up through the accommodation  so our journey there was relaxed. We had booked into a homestay on the outskirts of Hoi An which had been recommended to us and we were not disappointed. The owner Ni greeted us like old friends and as we sat in the beautiful garden under the wooden gazebo in the sunshine she made us breakfast & told us she had upgraded us to a garden room – perfect! We showered and slept in the most comfortable bed/pillow combo so far.

Later on we borrowed bicycles and headed in to Hoi An to have our first glimpse of the place so many had told us about and we fell in love with it. The sun was just setting as we sat at a table for dinner overlooking the river. After dinner we walked around and discovered some of the unspoilt chinese/japanese style original buildings  with bright lanterns lighting the streets to great effect. Hoi An was deemed to be a no-go zone during the American war and so remained undamaged. It is now a UNESCO world heritage site.

The following day we took the bikes out again to see and explore Hoi An in the bright sunshine and were returned  again in the evening as we were lucky enough for our visit to coincide with the full moon festival held on 14th day of each lunar month. It also happened to be the largest moon for many years. We did the tourist thing and went out onto the river on a bamboo boat and we placed paper lanterns with candles in them out on the river.. Sounds corny but it was really lovely with all the lights floating and reflecting on the water and there was a real festival  atmosphere in the town.  We had dinner on a balcony overlooking the river which was lovely until I spotted a rat strolling along the balcony roof in front of us. I downed my piña colada (classy) in one and we were out of there before it had time to twitch its nose!  

We headed back as we had an early start and a long day ahead. We had decided it was time to be adventurous!