Good Morning Vietnam, Return to Hoi An
Danang Welcome
I was still sleeping when the ship’s engines wound down after 7 days at sea. I woke to the sight of land and small Vietnamese boats skirting around the merky harbour. We had docked in Danang. A group of young Vietnamese welcomed us with a dance performance. Huge smiles broke out across our faces. Dry land can do that to you. We were ready for Vietnam!
Drinking real coffee
We GET teachers had no intention of taking one of the pricey Japanese tours and instead had our own little plan for the next 2 days. The 15 of us negotiated for a taxi to Hoi An about 50 minutes away. I visited Hoi An about 3 years ago on my first spell of travel and the town came back to me like Deja Vu. Walking through the markets we quickly got split up, so a few of us headed on to the Japanese bridge. It was still early, about 9:00am maybe, so we found a little garden retreat and indulged in the rich aromas of fresh Vietnamese coffee. The streets of Hoi An are striking for their style and color. The air has a tropical mix of incense and the smells of cooking and the river. Flowers spring out from balconies, puppies sit on the road and motorbikes weave around bicycles and pedestrians in a gentle chaos.
Vietnamese woman
Some of the crew got sized up for suits, skirts and shoes at one of the many tailors specializing in recreating western clothes at a fraction of the cost. But from experience that whole process takes time and I wanted to make the most of the 1 1/2 days we had in port. After more awesome coffee, Sarah, Gaby, Adi, Steve and I rented bicycles for 50c and headed for the beach 5kms away. In Vietnamese style I gave Sarah a ride on the back of mine because she didn’t trust herself in the erratic traffic. No worries, but we’ve yet to learn the Vietnamese technique of 2 person peddling. Palm trees lined the sandy stretch of beach that reaches north to famous China Beach. From behind every palm toothed and toothless women appeared selling fruit, drinks, beer, biscuits. Aussie Steve and I sized up the choppy surf and dived into the warm water, leaving the fruit sellers behind. When we got out an hour later they were still waiting for us, so what the heck, I bought a mango with some change. The wind started to kick up a bit so we got back on the bikes. Heading back we dropped into a cafe hut along a canal for fresh juice.
Hut cafe on the waterway
Back at the hotel, (we’d talked our rooms down to $5 each), I sat down to my first internet fix in a week. Our group met back up again in the evening and we headed down to the river for seafood Vietnamese style and a Larue beer. Across the river we noticed some white plastic swans. Thats right, with evil, flashing blue and green eyes. How could we not go over there and ride Hoi An’s newest tourist attraction? Sarah, Julia and I talked the swan’s gatekeeper down to $1 and we peddled our evil floating swan back across the river to the restaurant just for kicks. The night continued with a little bar hoping, finishing off at TamTams. A little dancing, some $3 Mojitos and good times.
Hoi An markets
I had my first 8 hours of sleep for weeks, and woke up to a drizzly day. A few of us went back to the atmosphere of the covered markets where we enjoyed some cheap, authentic lunch amoungst the locals. We had to head back to the ship shortly after to make sure we made our first Kissen Limito - the return deadline. The rain had become heavy and word was that a typhoon was on its way. Heading out of port the Peace Boat rocked sickenly in the choppy waves and took its toll on many passengers. Books flew off shelves and a few chairs and plants were up-ended, but we are through that now, cruising on to our next stop 2 days away; Singapore.
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