We stayed just behind the excellent An Bang beach. Whilst the weather wasn’t the best, we still found time to play in the waves and get to the historic UNESCO town of Hoi An.
Day 166: Moving on to Hoi An
As we were moving on and hadn’t been to the sea much, we took advantage of the sunny skies and headed to the beach for one last visit. There were no lifeguards in evidence this morning, which was odd. But the flags indicated that swimming should only be done in a small netted area. We had no idea why but as barely anyone was in the sea we complied.
It was a pretty short trip, but the waves were fun, and the sea was no where near as cold as the kids had made out. With the help of the waves I was in pretty quick. The kids played in the sand and the shallows, and Chris and I enjoyed ourselves jumping waves and trying not to get knocked down.
Our taxi to move down the shore was booked for Midday, so we headed back to clean up and pack. It’s a short ride to An Bang, which looked like a much better place to stay. We turned off the main road and headed down the street parallel to the beach. Pretty much a single track road, with overhanging trees, lined with tour shops, mini marts and restaurants and cafes, but in a non intrusive way, with everything small and made of bamboo and coconut palms. After the total lack of this sort of restaurants and places in Da Nang, we were delighted!
Our homestay was not immediately obvious, and we had to ask in a restaurant, but a couple of them talked and we were shown to our host’s sister, who led us down an alley to a beautiful villa and introduced us to her brother, Tan.
The place was a little confusing, as it was billed as a whole villa, but there seemed to be another couple sitting in the courtyard (we found out later that they couldn’t return home to China for a few days because of coronavirus and so he had allowed them to stay for free – Tan is a truly lovely man), and the owners also live in the ground floor. But still, we had access to the swimming pool, kitchen (with beds in), four other large, modern bedrooms with ensuites, the attic room complete with toys and Lego, and a rooftop terrace. Not bad at all – we could hear the sea from our room 😊
We needed lunch so we popped next door (literally) to the Coconut Tree. Here we tried the Vietnamese curry, which cannot compete with the Laos curry but was still fine, and a clay pot dish which Chris loved.
After lunch we went for a walk on the beach. An Bang beach is another long stretch of sand, with more huge waves rolling in. Here, locals have set up loads of loungers on the beach with umbrellas, and will allow you to use them if you buy drinks from them. Not a bad deal! It’s also possible to hire body boards here and surfboards, which should be great in these waves. We watched someone surfing, and then gave into the kids requests to go back to the villa and play with the massive pile of Lego they have there and the swimming pool. We had already done a beach in the morning, so we left the Grandparents to it and headed back with the kids. The pool was cold so that didn’t last long! We didn’t see them again for a while as the Lego is upstairs on the top floor.
We all fancied a simple dinner, so Marilyn and I popped out to the French Bakery across the road and ordered some baguettes for us to enjoy over some cards and beers on the rooftop of the place.
Day 167: An Bang beach
It was raining hard when we woke up, so our beach plans were looking a little shaky. Our host brought out fruit and local snacks, jellied beans (literally some beans in some sort of glutinous jelly stuff), cakes, watermelon and bananas. We had been planning to go out for a fry up, but there was no need any more!
In a gap when the sun tried to push through and the rain stopped, we headed for the beach. It was pretty much empty, the weather was cloudy but not cold and the waves were smashing in. Pretty perfect beach weather in my opinion – at least we didn’t have to worry about burning. We hired some body boards and all six of us tried catching some waves.
The waves were a little strong for Aiden, who had trouble staying standing against them whilst we waited for a good wave, so he resorted to playing with the sand pretty early.
We were in the sea for ages, I didn’t want to get out. There’s something great about walking into the foamy waves of a turbulent sea backed by dark, stormy skies. I lost all track of time. Marilyn commented that she hadn’t seen me smile so much before – I was having more fun than the kids tehe.
The sun tried to come out, we applied suncream, and then the heavens opened again. Typical! We’d been here for nearly two hours so we headed back in.
After cleaning up, we raced across the street to the French Bakery for lunch. There are so many choices here and the food was delicious. It took ages to arrive though. Seems to be the norm in Vietnam…
By the time we’d finished eating, we only had a couple of spare minutes until the massages we’d booked in with Tan’s sister. I’m not normally a massive fan of massages, whereas Chris loves them. He was a little nervous after the Thai massage though, and was keen to confirm that this was not like that! She laughed when he mentioned a Thai massage and said ‘no, not like that.’ It seems they are infamous here too. I asked for a gentle massage, more for relaxation, and picked the hot stones as that sounds very relaxing. Certainly the person in the picture with the hot stones on her back always looks very relaxed in the spa adverts!
On the way in I was checking to see if we had enough cash for this, and totally missed the bamboo pole holding the porch up. Totally walked full on into it, and being bamboo, it made quite a noise. Ouch! Not a good start to the relaxation ☹.
After a lemon foot bath and a cup of tea, Chris and I were shown into a room together. They didn’t leave, so we stripped down to pants and laid on the bed. When she climbed onto the bed with me, I started to doubt whether I was going to get what I was after. After fifteen minutes of what was definitely a full body, deep tissue massage I asked her whether I was getting the hot stones, she assured me they were coming and carried on digging her hands into me. I’m not Chris, so there’s no pride here; I asked her if she could be a little gentler. Which she was, for all of about 40 seconds. I resigned myself to my fate, knowing I would be bruised in the morning. I bruise like a peach.
After a few minutes the stones appeared. The stones were very hot! Slightly scalding for the first few seconds, which is not quite as relaxing as planned. Once the initial heat had gone, the massage with them was rather nice. Then she left them on down my spine and moved on to the rest of my body. From here it was pretty pleasant, and I did feel relaxed, although she was getting rather familiar during the thigh massage… Overall, hot stones get a tick from me.
After a final bit of work on my shoulders and arms (from which I awoke with bruises), a rough head massage and a few quick slaps to the back, we were done. Reuniting with the others, we sat and were offered mango and tea where we were able to share our different experiences. Turns out Chris and Steve both also had rather “close encounters” during the inner thigh massages…! They both were smiling so I guess they enjoyed themselves…:0
Apparently, the tea helps you sleep, which I can totally agree with as I returned to my room knackered and fell asleep on the bed – I never nap!
After our late lunch, none of us were really hungry for dinner, so we made do with some baguettes with egg and tuna, and then were brought out sticky rice, mini cakes and some sort of jelly by Tan, with a whole bag of individually wrapped snacks. We were pretty full, so we didn’t get through much. It was also not that nice which didn’t help! The jelly looked like chicken juices which have been left to cool, although it didn’t taste like it… we had no idea what was in it!
Day 168: Hoi An old town
We went for our Full English today, led by Steve to a café he’d seen on the way back from the beach. There are so many lovely little restaurants here though that we’re totally spoilt for choice. This is a lovely little town (if you can call it that), with all you could want as a tourist wrapped in little bamboo houses, on palm tree lined streets. It feels unruined, even though it is all for tourists. A bit of an oxymoron really.
After enjoying a leisurely breakfast of potato stacks and cooked breakfasts (I had a veggie brekkie with baked beans – how I miss them!), we took a taxi to the old town of Hoi An. I wasn’t really sure what to expect here, as I’ve heard from some people that it’s their favourite place in Vietnam, and really beautiful, but others have called it overdone and fake.
We were dropped off at the square, and started to walk down the street but some people called out about tickets. Tickets??!! Apparently we have to pay to walk down these streets, and it’s not particularly cheap. This covers entrance to up to five of the old houses and museums, and to the show. Except there was no show today. We don’t know why. At nearly £4 each to walk through the Old Town we were a bit put out, but it goes towards conservation of this UNESCO site so we paid it and headed in. Initially the street just seemed to be souvenir shops lined the streets (with lovely things and I bought this rather lovely outfit I’m sporting in the photos), but not what we’d paid for. We had to keep reminding ourselves to look at the buildings themselves behind all the bright shop fronts as they are old and lovely.
The whole town has a very Japanese influence as over 1000 Japanese traders set up here in the early 17th century. We continued down the street, and over the Japanese bridge, before looking in the assembly hall.
It was not very obvious where there were places you were allowed in and where they were actually people’s houses, which was a bit odd for a tourist area…
As we were getting hungry and were in need of a drink, we crossed the bridge over the river and picked one of the many restaurants. As it was the last day of our ‘holiday’ we had pancakes 😊.
Then it was more street wandering, including the house of a merchant, which was really interesting and very nicely carved.
The streets are all rather pretty, with yellow buildings, paper lanterns and flowers everywhere.
We tried to find the activities on the map, like pot smashing, lantern making and pottery mask painting, but they were not where the map said – it looked like it should be on the riverside. Possibly they do not run on Sundays, maybe that’s why there’s no show? Either way, you’d think they’d charge less… Instead, we resorted to some more drinks whilst the kids played in the playground and then came back home.
Tan offered us dinner, which we took him up on, thinking it would be with the family and a chance to learn more about them, but it was actually just cooked by them. They didn’t see them eat anything. We did get to chat to Tan a little. He served up chicken, rice, omelette and some sauces for us. Seemingly he loves to cook!
We then played cards on the rooftop terrace until bedtime.
After three lovely days relaxing in Hoi An, it’s nearly time to say goodbye to Chris’s parents and continue North to the karst mountains of Phong Nha. We’re pretty excited about this place as it looks stunning. Follow us there or head back to Ho Chi Minh city and Da Nang with it’s three Linh Ung pagodas!
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