Hoi An, Vietnam
June 26, 2014
I was excited for the ride to Hoi An. A little nervous as well given the reputation of the Hai Van Pass that we had to get over on the bike. I needn't have worried though. About an hour out of Hue and the road started to wind towards the coast and the incline began. It was all very pretty. The rail line also running around the headland which we had to cross and then once up higher we could see the train below hugging the coast and winding its way through small tunnels and over bridges. As we climbed higher the view was good down to the coast and before we knew it we had arrived at some sort of level peak where there were a few cafe's and some tourist type shops. We stopped for a drink and as we parked up and looked out to the other side I realised that this was it. This was the top of the Hai Van pass and it was downhill all the way on the other side and into Da Nang. Eh? Where was the amazingly tricky road that we had to climb? I felt short-changed. Yes it was all very pretty but given its reputation I was expecting something serious. Compared to the mountain roads we had covered in the North near the Laos border this was like a small hill. Dora had climbed this road with ease. On other roads we had been reduced to 5km/h and on the odd occasion Dani has had to get off as the climb has been too steep but this was an absolute breeze. So we grabbed a drink and then headed down the other side, slightly disillusioned but with Hoi An visible in the far distance and excited to be heading to a new place.
As we cruised slowly through the town of Da Nang in search of the road out to Hoi An an all too familiar feeling manifested itself. Another puncture. Yet again we had all of 30 yards to push the bike to a place where we could get it fixed. This time we popped a new tyre on as well as it was wearing a bit thin and I'm sure wasn't really helping our cause in preventing punctures. It took a while to sort out as the lad had to ride off somewhere in the town to get a tyre that fitted our bike so by the time we eventually rolled into Hoi An it was dark. The fact we had also missed the turn off for Hoi An didn't help either and we had to back track about 30 minutes to find the small place. We already had somewhere sorted to stay in Hoi An. A beautiful homestay out of town that we had found while killing time waiting for the tyre to be replaced. It was owned by a very large local family that also have a Tailoring business running from the house. The family were amazing. So so friendly and nice and it was a lovely place to stay. We settled in and then headed down to the old town on the bike to take a look around.
Hoi An is a beautiful place if not a little too touristy but it is one of the most popular places here in Vietnam. A World Heritage ancient town that was the largest harbour in South East Asia way back in the first century. It is a mix of many different influences over the centuries. Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, French, many different countries have been here at one time or another and left their mark. It is beautifully preserved though. Narrow streets with Japanese and colonial style buildings lining the side. The river is beautiful and probably the most notable thing about the town is that they love lights. They are everywhere. Coloured lanterns galore everywhere you look. Floating lanterns released into the river every night really give the place a magical atmosphere. An hour or two in town and we headed back for some rest and sleep.
The next day was a fairly lazy one. Just ambling around the place and grabbing some food and drinks here and there and again enjoying the atmosphere and colours once it fell dark. It's an easy place to kick back for a few days. We had only planned on one more night here as we wanted to get our visas extended and had read that Hoi An was very easy place to do this as you could pop along to the Police immigration office in town and do it yourself for cost price there and then. The next day we went in search of the police office and after an hour riding around we finally found it....closed until 2:30pm. Damn it. So to kill a few hours we headed out of town and relaxed on the beach for a while. The last time we saw a beach was all the way back in Krabi in Thailand so it was a nice change to go for a dip in the sea and relax on the sand.
We popped back to the Police station for 2:30pm only to be told that we couldn't renew the Visa ourselves. The guy pointed us in the direction of his friends tourist place around the corner where he wanted to charge us an extra 50% on top of the fee for doing the very hard leg work of running round the corner and handing our passports in to his mate we had just spoke with. Welcome to the world of Vietnamese police! We didn't want to part with money if we didn't have to so we headed back to the homestay to ask the family if they could help us. They rang a friend who came round and got us the paperwork to fill out and sign then they ran off to the police station for us after telling us it was going to take 2-4 days to process. We were going to be stuck here another few days. I would have sorted the Visas the first day we got here had I known it would take this long but every site I read said it was easy to do immediately. Damn you dodgy corrupt Police. So Hoi An it was for a wee while longer. We looked at what else we could do here and seeing as we had the bike we decided to go a bit further out the next day to some ancient Cham temple ruins at a place called My Son about 35 miles from Hoi An.
The temples were great. A refreshing change from the usual well kept Buddhist temples that we have come across so far in Asia. These are Hindu temples that date back to the 4th Century and were erected by the Champa dynasty to worship the God Shiva. They are impressive. Not a massive site but then again a lot of the buildings here were destroyed by carpet bombings by the Americans during the war. A real shame as I bet the place looked amazing up until then. Apparently there was a massive tower 28 meters high that was destroyed during the bombings and to this day you can not really go off into the surrounding countryside exploring as there are many unexploded bombs that have yet to be cleared. Although a fairly small place with three main sites to check out it still deserved a good few hours of our time to wander around and explore the place. Yet again we felt like celebrities walking around as the only other people here were two coach loads of Vietnamese teachers who were all very keen on being our friend and taking photos of us to show their friends. I can't imagine what they would be like if they really did meet somebody well-known, they would go nuts.
Thankfully the next morning our Visas came back ok. We now had an extra 30 days in Vietnam to keep exploring on the bike and just as well really. Looking at how much distance we still have to cover to Ho Chi Minh we would struggle to make it there and then get out of the country in time. Cambodia may be cut short somewhat but I would rather take our time and enjoy the trip down now that we have bought a bike. Next place to aim for is Dalat. Vietnamese wine country. Hopefully two days and we will be there.
