Ho Chi Man City

We arrived in Ho Chi Man City today to much fanfare. Actually, we arrived to a lot of other stuff - Grady’s tummy is filling up bags all over Vietnam. It’s not bothering him though, other than the occassional motion related expelling.

We spent 1 night in Hue before traveling to Hoi An by train. Hue had a few interesting things to see, including Pagodas and tombs. The kids enjoyed running around the various sites. We didn’t have enough time in Hue to visit the Citadel, but that’s how it goes when you have limited time. We stayed at the Amigo hotel and I’d recommend it, the room was decent and the people were nice. Their focus was I’m keeping a quiet hotel which we appreciated. I was shocked by the huge backpacking scene in Hue. I’d guess there is a 2 sq.km. area full of little hotels and restaurants.

The train ride to Danang was nice as it twisted around the coast with beautiful views along the way. I know that you can hire a private car for a drive over a mountain pass but I suspect the train ride is as satisfying. From Danang we got a ride to our hotel in Hoi An, called the Hai Au.

Hoi An also had a big tourist scene. Mercy really liked the town an it was our first bit of sunshine. Some of the distances between thing in town were large though and with the hot sun it was really hard for the kids to walk very much. We took a few trips I’m Cyclos and taxis, with taxis being more comfortable and cheaper. Hoi An has some interesting homes and shrines that we visited, an we also took an early morning trip to My Son, which have ruins dating back to the 7th century. It was interesting albeit a bit hard on the kids because of the hot humid weather and kind of boring tour. I’m not convinced that the kids were enthralled with learning about the Champa people.

We managed to have some really good meals in Hoi An, eating at the Green Moss, Cafe 43, Cargo and the Morning Glory Restaurant. All had good food and even the most luxurious (Morning Glory) was rediculously cheap. The other big thing about Hoi An is it’s shopping. It seems everyone buys dress clothes there and it turned out that we were no exception. Mercy had 2 dresses made along with a pair of shoes. Emma bought two dresses and had the cutest pair of sandals made. Grady had a pair of shoes made. I drank a couple of beers and watched Arsenal lose to Wigan. Oh well, you win some and lose some.

After three nights in Hoi An we went back to Danang and caught a flight to HCMC (Saigon). Saigon looks more modern to me than Hanoi, although walking around won’t be nearly as interesting. We’re here just for the night and flying to Phu Quoc tomorrow. We’re hoping to go to a water park today but we’re not sure if Grady’s tummy can take another 20min taxi ride.

I’ve updated my photo gallery, so if you follow the link at the top of the page and go to the travel - Vietnam directory you can see the latest photos fr Mercy’s iPhone.