Vietnam - Hoi An

Day 148 - Monday, June 18th

Hoi An is cute town that was at one time the greatest port in all of SE Asia and home of the Champa Empire. Now, it is primarily a tourist destination with a well preserved historic old town and a nice beach a few miles to the east, which is home to some bigger resorts and such. Monday it rained most of the day, so I enjoyed the friendly confines of another nice hotel room for most of the day and explored a little bit. A rather uneventful day.

Day 149 - Tuesday, June 19th

The hotel I was at, Sunshine Hotel, provided free bikes. So I decided to bike the short distance to the beach area and relaxed on the beach for the first time in a couple of months. The Hoi An beach is really nice - not too crowded, great for swimming, etc. Though it was empty most of the day, in the late afternoon, the local crowds started to pour in.

From Vietnam - Hue & Hoi An

From Vietnam - Hue & Hoi An

On the way back to town, I took a few photos as the sun set:

From Vietnam - Hue & Hoi An

From Vietnam - Hue & Hoi An

From Vietnam - Hue & Hoi An

Day 150 - Wednesday, June 20th

Though much of the temples and other ancient relics were destroyed during the Vietnam War, the old city of My Son, and its remaining ruins are a popular tourist destination just outside of Hoi An. Whereas Hoi An was the commercial capital of the Champa Empire, My Son was the spiritual capital.

From Vietnam - Hue & Hoi An

I took a bus tour there and back and when I got back to Hoi An, I was starving. I asked to borrow a bike, but despite a handful sitting out in front of the hotel, the receptionist said there were none available and people hadn't returned the keys to the locks for the ones out front. So annoying! So I had to walk the 15-20 mins into the center of town. Before I ate, I needed to square away a ride to the airport that night for my flight to Saigon. So I found a place to get a motorcycle taxi to the airport and then sat down to eat some food. After I ordered I realized that I didn't have my Ipad. Really?! Again?! How do I keep doing this?!

I decided I must've left it at the travel agent where I booked my airport transfer and I was much too hungry to leave without eating, so I finished lunch before heading back to the travel agent. It wasn't there. Uh oh; not good! The only other possibility was the bus. At that point I remembered taking out my Ipad on the bus when the driver didn't know where my hotel was, and I tried to show him on the map on my ipad, which he couldn't seem to make heads or tails of. And I was the the last one on the bus, meaning no one may have seen it for a while, and I also had no idea where the bus went after dropping me off. On top of that, it was probably worth enough to feed someone for a month in Vietnam, so I wasn't very hopeful about getting it back.

I went back to the hotel because I had booked the tour through them. They called the tour company, and sure enough they had it at their office. Whew! Thank goodness for the honest people of Vietnam! I was upset that it was at the office, and the bus driver wasn't there, so I wasn't able to give him anything for doing the right thing and returning it.

After a rather anxiety filled couple of hours, I decided to relax by the pool with a few local beers before my late-night flight.

From Vietnam - Hue & Hoi An