It's oh so quiet......

Our last day in Hoi An spent on An Bang beach was very relaxed & about 4pm we cycled back into the old town had a relaxing beer by the river & watched the sun go down before finding somewhere to eat. After dinner we were just getting ready to head back When I got a call from Ni at the homestay in a panic; Our bus to our next destination Quy Nhon was due to leave in 15mins. How could this be we asked – we thought it left at 10pm but apparently that was wrong – it left 7pm. We parked up the bikes as Ni appeared in a taxi with all our bags and we handed her the keys as the driver weaved around people/scooters/cars at breakneck speed to the bus station. We arrived at 7.01pm, thankfully the bus was still there. We threw our bags on jumped in the only 2 sleeping seats available on the upper level as the the driver pulled off. It was then we realised we still had our beachwear on, were covered in sand and didn't even have any water for the trip. Thankfully we stopped for some along the way.  The drama didn't stop there. As those that have been following this blog will know the bus arrival times and stops are not as we are led to believe and this one didn't break with  that tradition. Ni had told us we would arrive at 6.30am. In fact we were dropped off at 1.48am – and of course it was the other side of town! Thankfully an opportunistic taxi driver who clearly  had nothing better to do was parked up & we opted to be ripped off rather than walk (it was fine as it turned out 15 min taxi trip cost about £1 thus breaking our taxi paranoia). The next challenge was getting into the hotel as all the shutters were down. We managed to raise the night receptionist we were not actually supposed to check in until 2pm – some 11 hrs away! Thankfully the place was pretty empty and we got a room.

The guide book description of Quy Nhon is a sleepy town – the sort of place affluent Vietnamese retire to – a bit like Eastbourne. No one else on our bus had got off here & I guess that was why. Nha Thang, another 5 hrs further down the coast is the real tourist hotspot but it really didn't appeal to us.  

Now I know that up t’north friends B&J confirm  they have already had their first snow fall and down south some areas have experienced the wrath of ‘storm Angus’ but we had rain. Torrential rain. Admittedly it was warm but it was wet all the same. I know I won't have your sympathy but after Sapa we hoped not to see the rain again. Instead our venture into town to explore the highlights was curtailed as we took shelter in a little café for nearly an hour until it subsided. We headed back to the hotel to plan our escape. Plans sorted and settled, the next day the sun came out and it was a different place altogether. Beautiful beaches, friendly locals (we were the only western people in town it seems) all practising their English on us.

In the evening as we sat having street food we were serenaded by a number of men with disabilities – one  who pulled up on his scooter and out of no where produced a speaker and microphone and started to sing and another who was sat on top of a giant speaker and wheeled around the different street cafes. Both had great voices but I struggled with how I felt about it all. We moved on and found a little café with a group of young lads with guitars. We got chatting and discovered they were from the local University and were playing the next night. The treated us to the song they were rehearsing- it was really good and when I clapped at the end they were genuinely delighted. 

We wished them luck and said our goodbyes to them and to the town. If you are passing this way and the sun is shining you should give it a try, if it's raining though you may want to keep driving.

Another early start the next day to get a bus to the airport and  to Ho Chi Min City (HCMC) or Saigon as it was called. Hopefully it's sunny.