Easy rider trip around Danang

I wanted to go to the marble mountains so the hostel told me the best way to get there was an easy rider which cost $20. I went to work out my budget, and after figuring out that as room and accommodation are so cheap, I was ok to pay this.

Just when I was about to go down to tell them, the lady from the hostel told me she had called the driver and he was willing to do it for $17, with the Son Tra Peninsula included.

I headed out on the bike. The scenery was amazing. We went over the dragon bridge which on the weekend blows out fire!

Me on the bike

I got to the Son Tra Peninsula first. This is where the Lady Bhudda statue is which you can see for miles. It was impressive to see. The view was incredible. 

Me with the view in the background

The amazing view of Danang

The Lady Bhudda statue

When I was done looking round, I got back on the bike and we went to a beach, a bit up from the one I'd been to before. I didn't want to go swimming but it was nice to dip my feet in. I got talking to a Vietnamese girl (who wanted a picture with me!) and a Swedish guy (who probably thought I was really enthusiastic about Sweden!)

                 Me in the sea

I got back on the bike and we headed to the marble mountains. My easy rider driver told me that it was half the price to get the stairs rather than lift, so I headed up the stairs which were quite steep.

The start of the stairs

When I got to the top there was a cave to look in. It was quite big and had a few little caves in it. There was a few Bhuddist statutes in it.

One of the statues

I went up more stairs to find more caves. There was one that I wanted to climb up more but was a bit worried that I'd fall down! I also went up to one view point. The stairs stopped and I had to climb over the rocks to get there. The view was amazing from the top.

In one of the caves

The rocks I had to climb over to get to the view point

After I had got to that one there were some Pagodas (temples) which I had a look round. There was another cave which I explored and when I walked further along the path there was some steps with no sign. 

Being a sucker for mysterious steps I started to climb up. Having done a lot of walking already, I got pretty tired quite quick. The stairs were getting steeper as I went up and I soon realised how high up I was. 

But the view at the top was totally worth the climb. I was on the highest of the marble mountains and you could see for miles in all directions. 

One view of the sea

Me with the sea in the background

The steps going down

Totally exhausted from the climb, I had a look around the last cave which was definitely the biggest. 

In the last cave

The cave

I made my way down to the bottom, and got back on the bike. My easy rider driver  convinced me to have a beer- cos 2.30 is not too early to have one apparently, and I had some lunch at a local restaurant.

Tiny chairs in the local restaurant 

When I got back to the hostel, I watched a film and then went for dinner with some people from my hostel. We played drinking jenga and I got some good tips on working in Australia from some Aussies who were staying there.

2 beautiful places in one day

I decided that I would actually leave Hoi An after booking a flight to Bali that I need to go back to Ho Chi Minh City to get. 

I got up earlier than normal and after my last amazing breakfast, I borrowed a bike from the hotel and cycled into town, to book a bus to Danang. 

It was really nice to ride around the town. Hoi An is such a beautiful little town. It has a really relaxing feel to it, and in the morning, it was great to see it before all the tourists had come out.

The river- taken from across the river

The bridge to cross the river

Down one of the streets

After I booked my taxi to Danang (it's only around 40km away from Hoi An) I thought I might as well use the last of my vouchers for the Ancient Town. I went into the 'museum of trade ceramics'- which as I didn't have time to read all the info, was a load of nice looking pots.

On my bike

The museum of trade ceramics

I cycled on further and just down from where I would turn off to go back, there was the Japenese bridge. It was interesting to see all the Japenese style decoration, but I didn't have time to read anything again.

The Japenese bridge 

Another street in Hoi An

I biked back to the hotel after that to get my taxi. Seeing the last free seat was at the front, I temporarily forgot that I was in Vietnam and the drivers side is on the left. So after nearly having to drive the car, I got to Danang.

Danang is a lot busier than Hoi An. It's a city with lots more traffic. Once I'd checked into my hostel, I thought I'd get some lunch and have a walk round. I was walking for quite a while before I made it to the river.

The river in Danang

My first selfie of my trip by the river!

I walked the long walk back to the hostel, chilled for a while, and then thought I'd check out the beach. Knowing how far it was to the river, I got a motorbike taxi. The beach was beautiful, with a great view of the mountains. 

The beach in Danang

Because of the really strong undertow, people were only allowed to swim in the designated lifeguard areas which meant that the rest of the beach was pretty much deserted. 

Another shot of the beach

The beach was the first beach I have come across where it seems to just be locals hanging out. I went for a swim and was chatting to a guy from Siagon who said he had come here for a holiday. He told me about the lockers where I could put my bag, which was good, cos I had to keep checking on it.

The lifeguard

The locals were all playing either volleyball or football on the beach. They had a volleyball net and the girls were wearing matching tops so I assume they were part of a team.

After the beach, I had dinner with a French girl that I'd met in Hoi An, who happened to be staying in the same dorm as me again, at a local place that was pretty good. I watched a bit of The Da Vinci Code (It was on in my hostel) and had an early night. (But couldn't sleep for ages because this mattress is like concrete!) 

My last 2 days in Hoi An (I did leave eventually!)

I spent a full day relaxing by the pool at my hotel in Hoi An. Was pretty nice to have some time to relax, read and write my blog!

We went to get dinner at a French place I'd been recommended but when Google maps didn't lead me to the right place, we just ate along the river. It was really nice to see all the lanterns lighting up the river.

Our view at dinner of the river

Someone floating a candle in the river

A boat must have got to close to the edge or something, as when we got out of the restaurant, the whole area but the river was flooded!

Floods by the river

We woke up the next day to find the rain pouring down with not much hope of it stopping. After breakfast we all headed back upstairs to our dorm room that we had named 'the attic' as it was on the top floor- a floor above the last floor the elevator went to. We'd named ourselves 'the lost children' as none of us seemed to be able to leave Hoi An!

When the weather cleared up, me and Michelle decided we'd cycle to the far away beach- Cua Dai beach. We armed ourselves with our raincoats just in case, and headed out.

On the way to the beach

It was nice to see a bit more of Hoi An on the way and I didn't think the ride there was too bad either.

Cua Dai beach

I didn't think the beach itself was as nice as the other one in Hoi An, but was still nice to chill by the beach. We sat down in some chairs and were approached by a lady who was trying to sell souvenirs. She started talking to us and it was interesting to hear about her life until she started trying to get us to buy things.

Chairs on the beach

We cycled back and it started to rain a bit as we headed back. The local school must have just finished as we cycled past, as the whole area of road by the school was full of motorbikes- all who were trying to pick up their kids. It was hard to get through as there were bikes going to all directions and it was basically gridlocked!

                 Our bikes

Once we'd made it back to the hotel, we thought we just go across the road to 'waving lady' for dinner. Waving lady, as her name suggests, likes to wave a lot whenever we walk out of the hotel. I had a very nice local dish called 'Cao lau' and a beer- all for less than £2! 

There was some kind of football game going on as the locals were going crazy watching the match next door which was quite funny.

Sightseeing in Hoi An

I'd met a girl in Ho Chi Minh City who had some vouchers left over for different sights in the Ancient Town, which she had given to me. Having not seen too much of the ancient town, I thought it would be good to check out.

After another amazing breakfast, me and Michelle, took some bikes and cycled to the Ancient Town. We had a little map and I was trying to locate some pottery making which we soon realised was far out of the town. 

The pottery village that was too far away!

We went into the 'Old House of Quân Thang.' There was an old man who took our tickets. He explained that he lived in the house and he was the sixth generation of his family to live there. The house had a Japanese section, a Chinese section and a Vietnamese section. 

He was trying to learn English so we helped him pronounce words such as 'style' and 'inner tube' (he had the words on a bit of paper!) There wasn't much to see in the old house so we moved on to a temple.

We went to the Quân Công Temple. The guy on the door very kindly let us in without tickets. It was a Chinese style temple, which had many intricate patterns.

The front of the temple

The back of the temple where people could pray

On our way out, the guy at the door asked us the year we were born and said we could buy a lucky coin. Mine was the monkey.

My year of the money lucky coin

We had some lunch- some Vietnamese spring rolls, which taste so good! And then decided we'd beat the rain and head to the beach. We somehow managed to park our bikes for free- (not in one of the bike parking places that they try and get you to use) and chilled on the beach for a bit. 

Not wanting to push our luck, we headed back to the hotel before the rain came. We met an American guy by the pool so we all headed out to have dinner at this place that Michelle's friend had recommended, called 'Bale Well.'

When we reached the road where the restaurant should be and there was a sign saying it was 50m down a slight alleyway. In Vietnam, distances tend to be a rough guess rather than an actual distance, so after we had walked for over 50 meters we saw a sign saying it was 20m away to the left. We followed that path round to find nothing but people's houses. After heading back to the sign again, walking straight for a bit, we finally found the restaurant.

We sat down and were immediately presented with food! We told them that we hadn't ordered but they said that there is only one set menu.

The set menu at Bale Well

They brought out some small bowls of what we thought were soup. We were trying to work out how we could eat some soup with chop sticks, when the woman came back with some lettuce, a bowl of veg, spring rolls, rice paper and some meat on sticks.

The food we were given 

          The veg and pork

She explained that the 'soup' was actually sauce. You had to take 2 sheets of rice paper, add some lettuce and veg, a spring roll, then put the meat on and pull it off the stick. Then wrap the rice paper around it to form a giant spring roll type thing, which you could then dip in the sauce. 

Me with one I made myself! 

The food was very good and we left the restaurant very full- and we only got caught in a little bit of rain on the way back! 

My Son- Ancient Ruins

I got my first taste of the amazing breakfast that everyone was talking about. It was a buffet with eggs done any way you like, pancakes, fruit, yogurt, cereal, a selection of pastries and some rice and noodles (just incase you want that in the morning!) It was definitely the best breakfast I've had out here!

Once we were full, Michelle, Joe from Canada, Martin from Norway, and I headed out to the 'My Son' ancient ruins.

It was about an hour taxi ride from where we were staying. 

'My Son' is quite similar to 'Angkor Wat' in Cambodia- though on a much smaller scale. 

One part of the ruins 

The ruins were split into different areas- A-G. It was interesting to see but was somewhat underwhelming as I'd already been to Angkor Wat. The signs talked a lot about the restoration rather than the history and how it was built, which I would have found more interesting.

                   My Son temple 

Me- not 'touching on the objects'

Me in the doorway

They had lots of carved animal-like faces. It would have been interesting to know the significance of these but it didn't say anywhere.

One of the faces

'My Son' temple being resorted

Maybe I'm not quite tall enough...

After wondering round for a bit, we headed back to the hotel, and decided to  check out the market in search of coconuts and pineapples. We managed to find a whole coconut, some pinapple juice and some rum which made a pretty good drink! 

 One of the many lantern shops in Hoi An

The hotel had recommended a street that  had lots of places that were good to eat. We found one place- the food was pretty good but was quite a touristy restaurant. While we were eating, it started to rain really hard. The streets were starting to flood. The restaurant showed us pictures of the year before when Hoi An had flooded so badly that they had to use boats! After psyching ourselves up, we put our ponchos on and made our way through the rain, with water up to our ankles, back to the hotel- lucky no boats were needed!