Hoi An...

The next part of our fall break travels entailed going to Hoi An, a quaint little town, filled with tourists who are there to get a few bags of clothes that are made especially for them! The streets are lined with shop after shop of beautiful jackets, dresses, suits and more.....where it is not hard to turn your head in want.

We arrived at out hotel, Hoanh Trinh and were greeted by a smile, hot tea and little biscuits! We had read good reviews of this hotel, but we were in for a delightful surprise! Whenever we came and went from the hotel we were said hello to (by name) or asked how our day was or greeted with a plate of fresh watermelon or a mango smoothie! They answered all our questions with a smile and gave us great recommendations. I have never had that excellent of service at a hotel in my life! The cost of the hotel was also something to smile about!

We took off our first night there in hopes of getting a few things made. After spending a significant amount of time at 1 shop, we then found out the price to make all these clothes we wanted. I think in the 2 years since I have been there, things have got more expensive with demand! Our good simple, Mennonite living conscious kicked in and we decided we could not pay that much. So....we decided to refuel before checking out more places. We stopped at this place called the Bale Well, where it had grilled pork that you wrapped with fresh veggies, herbs and a spring roll with rice paper. There was also an incredible sauce to dip in! They kept bringing us more and more. The ladies also enjoyed rolling them for us and then feeding them to us!

We kept on walking and found a store that was more in our price range. It's quite fun getting measured and picking from hundreds of materials to make something just for you!

The next day we rented motorbikes and cruised around. We stopped at the beach for a bit and drove and saw some of the countryside. I forget how cool the sound of the ocean waves crashing in on the shore was!

We spent our last full day there walking around the town, stopping at little shops (bartering for potential Christmas presents!) and at temples and historical places.

 We also found these tasty treats called hoanh thanh, a delectable treat of a wonton with diced shrimp, peppers, onions, pineapple and a superb sauce! We found ourselves going back for more! 

We also took a little boat ride (thanks to the restaurant lady who has a brother or cousin or something!), around the lake and saw some of the countryside and locals.  It was a nice couple days. Now off to Danang!

Danang and around....

We arrived in Danang after our last wonderful breakfast at our hotel in Hoi An. We came there with a mission….a mission to ride motorbikes all day, every day in search of the wonders Danang and the countryside had to offer!  After checking in we rented motorbikes straight away and were off on our first adventure to find this large Buddha statue and to ride up Monkey Mountain! Both were quite a glorious ride!

 We almost didn’t make it to the top of monkey mountain though because there were some monkeys that hopped across the road and I was too scared to drive by, thinking that they would jump out and attack me! My friend Jordan, who is bear trained and the works (she’s Canadian!), made me very worried about rabies! I really didn’t know it was such a bad thing or that there was a shortage of medicine! 

We came back and ate at a restaurant/bakery place that supports deaf people.  We had a great Vietnamese pizza!

The next morning we got up and drove to Ba Na Hills, about 45 kilometers away. Another great scenic ride. On the ride there, Lance made a local friend, who ended up driving next to him for about 10 kms, just chatting and asking questions! This was all good, until this cost us time and the last 3km or so we got caught in a rain storm! We were absolutely soaked! We waited it out at the bottom of the hill.  We were told we could bike to the top, but once we got there we were told otherwise! There is the world’s longest cable car to get to the top of the mountains – 5km long! We decided to take that and it was well worth the money! We ventured over the most dense, thick and beautiful mountains, with random waterfalls and big rocks.

  At the top, after traveling through these beautiful mountains where it was nothing but nature, we found ourselves at a resort with a place called Fantasy Land, which was a huge fun park. It was a little disturbing. There were also some big Buddha’s and other cool things to see fortunately.

A local fishing net....

The next day we got back on our motorbikes and headed out to find this beach shop that was supposed to have awesome food. It took us 2 hours, asking 8 different local people and turning around a few times to finally find it! It was worth the wait! This quaint little place tucked away had the BEST burgers and the BEST mango smoothies! The secret to the smoothies (the owner told me), was freezing the fruit and the yogurt! I will remember that one!  Then we ventured on to Marble Mountains, which was a bit of hiking, seeing statues, pagodas and some cool caves.

We also drove up to Hai Van Pass, which is just a beautiful winding road through the mountains.

The next day we slept in and slowly made our way to the airport to go back to Hanoi….vacation is over!!! Back to work!!!  It was a very well needed, refreshing break from the grind, pollution and over populated Hanoi!