A Town of Lanterns

The hotel lady that helped us yesterday found us a taxi and told the driver to drop us off at a bus stop at a cheap rate. This is the first time we are catching a bus, as opposed to booking one in advance. When the bus arrives we have to quickly jump on and it's a short, 30 minute journey to Hoi An. From previous experience, it was no surprise that the bus didn't drop us off in the centre, or even near to it. It was also unsurprising that lots of men on 'taxi-mopeds' tried to get us to hop on with all our baggage. Not going to happen. A helpful girl, who had also taken the bus from Danang, told us we could walk into town quite easily and gave us advice on where some cheap hotels hide. We made our way.

The short walk was tiring with our heavy bags, but it was nothing compared to arriving in Danang a couple of days ago. We ask some hotels about prices before settling on one. It has an indoor pool, along with the usual television and air-conditioning amenities we've been enjoying since travelling Vietnam. We seem to be staying at better and better hotels as we go along on this trip.

Hoi An is well known for shopping. We don't feel orientated enough to do all the historical and cultural things yet, and we have time here so walking around and looking at shops and the town seemed like a good idea, and it was. It's not the biggest city we've been to by any means, but there's something really nice about it. The streets aren't crowded, it sits on a quaint river, there are pretty buildings (architecture is a mix of Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese) lots of restaurants and small shops. The most prominent business here seems to be tailor made clothing and shoes. Such shops are everywhere you look. Other shops include gift, art and craft types.  Rachelle and I buy a few bits and bobs. 

Both our birthdays are coming up, and even though we exchanged gifts before we left for Southeast Asia, we said we would get each other something small for the actual days from out here. As Rachelle has had her mind set on getting tailor made sandals, it seems a fitting present. We choose a shop that we think looks good (there's so much choice that it's hard to know where to go). She chooses a design, the quality and the colour. When the shop worker tells me she will give a discount if we buy two pairs, I can't resist customising my own sandals. Our feet are measured and the shoes will be ready tomorrow, 11AM. 

At night, Hoi An is even more beautiful. Lanterns illuminate the streets and it becomes a busier place. In the river are large animal shaped lanterns. It certainly has its own atmosphere. Rachelle and I both really like it. She especially likes the food. We end the night by going to two bars - one had a good happy hour for drinks and the other played pop-punk songs.