On our Way to Hoi An

We took the train from Hue to Danang and then a taxi for 30 km to the coast. The stretch of coast we passed on the rickety train is said to the be the most beautiful in Vietnam. Indeed it was gorgeous with the sea and the Marble and Monkey mountains surrounding us. It was a great trip south.

Arriving in Hoi An, we were discouraged to find that the hotel did not meet our standards. We have had a lot of success with hostelworld.com and the hostels have been like mini-hotels. Totally acceptable: quaint and comfortable. While our "ocean view family suite" was clean, it had the feeling and appearance of a war time prison camp. (booked through agoda.com) Discouraged, we all felt like cutting our losses and moving on the next day to Quang Nai. And what a mistake that would have been because Hoi An is so beautiful and we would have missed it!

After one night in the camp, we moved to the very beautiful Victoria Hoi An Hotel on a nice beach and joined our new friends whom we met on the Halong Bay cruise, Heather and Sanjay, the "newlyweds"! They told us they were staying at the Victoria which was a stone's throw from our hovel. We received a welcome package which included free massages/mini bar/cocktails and transfer from our old place, Cua Dai Hotel. They threw in free laundry service...perfect timing!

Gramma enjoyed a good rest in the morning of our arrival at Victoria while Grampa, the boys and I headed out across the road to a river where we took a boat to do some fishing with the locals and visited an eco home where the husband and wife make all their furniture etc. in bamboo. There were supposed to be thunderstorms later on but that did not come to pass so it meant that we could explore the very beautiful, old center of Hoi An (which fortunately was not destroyed by the war). We stopped at a tailor/seamstress to pick up Heather's jacket and I could not resist having something made for myself for Christmas and then the 6 of us headed to Cargo, a wonderful, little restaurant overlooking the river, where Sanjay had reserved the best table in the place. With all the lanterns shining around this very pretty, UNESCO town, I was so grateful that we did not throw in the towel when the going got tough but instead, made a new plan!