From Saigon we travelled to Hoi An. As we walked off the plan in Danang we immediately noticed the more laid back nature of this city, the airport was calmer with less people and the pollution in the air was almost gone. We took a cab to our hotel on the beach in Hoi Ann for about 400 000VND and got to begin our next part of the trip.
Our hotel we are staying at in Hoi Ann is Muong Thanh Holiday hotel. This hotel is beautiful, built in 2016 it is a modern Asian hotel with wood everywhere, an awesome pool, private cars with drivers which you can book at reception, free shuttle busses and best of all our room has views of both the ocean and the lake. The staff are extremely helpful and I would highly recommend staying at this hotel.
The markets in the town are probably the best I have ever seen. The old quarter is stunning, the old buildings are full of crafts, clothes, tailors and leather. Outside the buildings are trees with lanterns hanging from them, the day looks like a completely different place to the night. Our shuttle bus has free pickup and drop off in the town Center which is great and there are restaurants and cafes dotted throughout this area.
On day 11 we ventured to the Mi Son temples, about 70 minutes from our hotel. These temples have been re built over the years as they are some of the oldest temples. There is one temple here which has been propped up and a shed has been erected over top, this temple has not been re constructed yet and you can see if in complete ruin (photos below). This really shows the huge amount of reconstruction which has occurred at this site, they have done an amazing job. The landscape is filled with trees and hills, offering a really nice secluded walk up to the temples. Heat wise this was one of the hardest days, the temperature rose to 33 degrees with high humidity and felt like 38 degrees according to the app on my phone. This temperature made the walk quite difficult but it was well and truely worth it.
On day 12 we ordered some tailored clothes from the town which we are going back for a final fitting today. I had 2 jackets made for $60 each and M had a dress and jacket made for around $150. The tailors ensure that it fits perfectly and are not happy to hand the clothes over until you are 100% satisfied. This can be a little annoying with all of the fittings but it is worth it to be able to have some custom clothes which fit you perfectly.
Today (Day 13) we are heading back into the town for final fittings on our clothes and have a final look around before we have to leave for Hanoi tomorrow.
