We arrived in Hoi An yesterday morning cranky and tired, having woken up early for a 7 a.m. flight. After a nice breakfast, chilling out in the breezy lobby of our adorable hotel, and a nice nap, we were ready to take in all that Hoi An has to offer, which, as it turns out, is quite a lot.
Hoi An Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and has some truly charming old architcture, musuems, markets, and hundreds upon hundreds of tailoring shops. The city itself is situated on a riverfront and is only about 5 km from the area known as China Beach, one of the most spectacular stretches of coastline in Vietnam.
Last night, we had a fantastic dinner at Mango Rooms, (Lonely Planet tells us that Mick Jagger dined there recently) a tasty Vietnamese-fusion restaurant right on the river. At night, the tiny. uneven streets of Old Town, are lit up with multicolored paper lanterns. It's absolutely beautiful.
While finishing up dinner, we saw the two BulCzechKian girls walking by the river, so we grabbed a drink together and hit up a bar called Salsa Club, which had absolutely nothing to do with salsa dancing but was fun nonetheless. There, we met another big ragtag group of travelers--Brits, Kiwis, Aussies--all on our same route, headed South-North and then to Laos.\
The ease with which you run into the same people while traveling in the off-season is one of the most fun things about it. It's pretty much the same people cycling through the same areas over a similar period of time. There are exceptions of course; Notably, the bartender at Angkor What? in Siem Reap who had been traveling for **eight years** and a few solo travelers (Cecilia, por ejemplo and some others we've met) who are on a six to eight month travel timeframe. I imagine it must get exhausting at some point--not the traveling and sightseeing itself, but the lifestyle of picking up and moving every few days or weeks, not having your own bed, carrying everything you need on your back. In any event, five weeks works just fine for me at the moment!
Today we're going to do some sightseeing around the Old Town and perhaps bike out to the beach in the afternoon. More to come on Hoi An!
Hoi An Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and has some truly charming old architcture, musuems, markets, and hundreds upon hundreds of tailoring shops. The city itself is situated on a riverfront and is only about 5 km from the area known as China Beach, one of the most spectacular stretches of coastline in Vietnam.
Last night, we had a fantastic dinner at Mango Rooms, (Lonely Planet tells us that Mick Jagger dined there recently) a tasty Vietnamese-fusion restaurant right on the river. At night, the tiny. uneven streets of Old Town, are lit up with multicolored paper lanterns. It's absolutely beautiful.
While finishing up dinner, we saw the two BulCzechKian girls walking by the river, so we grabbed a drink together and hit up a bar called Salsa Club, which had absolutely nothing to do with salsa dancing but was fun nonetheless. There, we met another big ragtag group of travelers--Brits, Kiwis, Aussies--all on our same route, headed South-North and then to Laos.\
The ease with which you run into the same people while traveling in the off-season is one of the most fun things about it. It's pretty much the same people cycling through the same areas over a similar period of time. There are exceptions of course; Notably, the bartender at Angkor What? in Siem Reap who had been traveling for **eight years** and a few solo travelers (Cecilia, por ejemplo and some others we've met) who are on a six to eight month travel timeframe. I imagine it must get exhausting at some point--not the traveling and sightseeing itself, but the lifestyle of picking up and moving every few days or weeks, not having your own bed, carrying everything you need on your back. In any event, five weeks works just fine for me at the moment!
Today we're going to do some sightseeing around the Old Town and perhaps bike out to the beach in the afternoon. More to come on Hoi An!
Hoi An riverside by night!
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