Day 427 - 11 Sep ‘24 - Ho Chi Minh City to Hoi An. Today was our last day in Ho Chi Minh City, so that meant a sleep-in! The only thing planned for today was a visit to the dentist.
Dan did a quick load of washing, phoned my parents (my dad was in hospital), then quickly caught a car to the dentist.
My teeth have poor enamel, and I get sensitivity. I go to the dentist every year, and get my teeth cleaned once a year as well. Unfortunately, our travelling meant I missed my dental hygienist appointment, and my annual de-sensitising fluoride paste application also didn’t happen.
And so, 14 months into our trip, I could no longer put up with the pain, and booked an appointment with a dentist recommended on TripAdvisor.
A consultation, a 3-D xray, and teeth clean, (followed after lunch by four composite fillings), cost just $212NZD. By comparison, my last hygienist appointment two years ago, cost $160!
After the X-ray and teeth clean, we went to a couple of nearby malls for lunch under the instruction of the dentist, who kindly agreed to do the fillings in the afternoon.
I left Dan and the kids at the mall, and walked back to the dentist. I soon found out a possible reason why the fillings were so cheap.
No anaesthetic!
Lots of air blown on the holes (Jesus Christ), followed by the filling material (sweet mother of God), had me gripping my sweaty hands and jerking in the seat. The dental nurse did a phenomenal job of patting my shoulder.
The best part? Once the first one was done, I still had three more to go! What fun!!
“Didn’t he drill the holes out?” Dan asked when I met them back at the mall.
“Nope,” I answered. “I can only hope he deemed them clean enough to fill up, and with no visible decay. But, if not, I’ve spent $212 on making my teeth only 25% sore, as he said the fillings will reduce the sensitivity by 75%. The X-rays were otherwise clear, so that’s good at least.”
The fillings had definitely done their job though, as the blast of air the dentist put over them when he’d finished, didn’t hurt at all. And you know the sucky straw they put in your mouth to remove all the water and saliva? At the end of the visit, the nurse told me to close my lips around it, and it sucked ALL the fluid out in two seconds flat! Why has no other dentist ever had me do that?!
We bought some supplies for dinner and breakfast at the supermarket in the mall, then went back to our apartment for a few hours and packed up.
Going on a sleeper train is something I’ve ALWAYS wanted to do. I absolutely love train journeys, and I reckoned sleeping on one would be a fun experience.
We left the apartment at 5:50pm for a 20-30 minute drive, which ended up taking 40 minutes, thanks to the truly insane traffic. Thousands of scooters jamming themselves in every conceivable gap between shops and cars. It’s remarkable the cars didn’t get scratches on them, or the scooters end up underneath a car!
We had read a number of reviews about the sleeper trains, so we knew roughly what to expect. We would have clean bedding only because we were the starting station, potentially cockroaches and/or bedbugs, noise (naturally), movement (obviously), freezing cold air from the air conditioner, no dining car (a man who sells snacks up and down the corridor), daylight through the curtains at dawn, and a toilet that would gradually get less and less desirable to use (so best not drink).
Our children had been slowly driving us up the wall today with their constant noise. They had methodically and masterfully chipped away at our patience as the day wore on, and now we were all stuck in a small cabin together.
“Only 17 hours and 42 minutes to go!” Dan said.
“Yep.”
“Not too late to get a plane…see ya!”
“What do you mean, ‘see ya’? I’ll be coming too!”
“Who’d look after the kids?”
“They’ll be fine. They can lock the door, and we’ll meet them at Da Nang.”
“What?” yelped Alex. “How would we know when to get off?”
“Abi’s got a watch, and the train gets there at 12:30pm, so just make sure you’re ready on time as the train won’t stop for long.”
A major benefit of a sleeper train is the cost of travel and accommodation in one. Except for us, that didn’t end up happening, as we paid for an extra night at the apartment we were in so we could stay there during the day.
“So really, we’ve just paid for a long and noisy train trip with all of us in extremely close proximity, when we could have flown in an hour!” Dan pointed out.
“It’ll be fine! It’s the experience we’re paying for!”
“Let’s just see how you feel after tonight.”
It was already dark when we pulled out of Saigon station, and we watched all the lights and people and scooters flash by. A sleeper train is obviously not a smart way of seeing the countryside, which is the main point of train travel after all, but luckily for us we would have about seven hours of daylight tomorrow to watch the scenery.
The beds were firm, so not entirely comfortable, but the kids went to sleep fairly quickly (once they settled down). By 10pm both Dan and I were yawning away, so we settled down into our bunks and kept our fingers crossed.
Day 428 - 12 Sep ‘24 - Hoi An. As far as sleeps go, it wasn’t too bad, all things considered! It was bumpy and rocky, it was noisy, the train stopped and started quite a few times, the beds were rock hard so I had to rotate frequently, the temperature seemed to fluctuate, and we were woken at dawn by the sun shining through the curtains. However, when I was asleep, I had a good sleep! I did not feel tired when I eventually ‘woke up’ at 8am.
“I would definitely do a sleeper train again,” I said. “How about you?”
“Yes! It was loads of fun,” replied Alex.
“Yep - I had a great sleep!” said Abi.
“Only if I had no other choice,” answered Dan.
We had our breakfast of room temperature sushi triangles and chocolate milk, then watched the towns and rice fields out the window. Lots of the rice fields had family tombs in them; on our tour of the Mekong Delta, our tour guide had told us this was so their deceased family would still be with them while they were at work!
The train arrived bang on schedule into Da Nang, and then we grabbed a car to Hoi An, where we would stay for the next five nights.
It was a lovely hotel in the old quarter of town, with bougainvillea blooming everywhere, and a wooden bridge over a small swimming pool. We ignored the foul-mouthed Australians who were on the loungers smoking, and ‘relaxed’ in our room for a bit.
“Alex has put his stuff all over the desk!”
“No, I haven’t! It’s not your desk anyway!”
“It’s not your desk!”
“It’s not YOUR desk!”
“IT’S NOT ANYONE’S DESK! For crying out loud! It just doesn’t stop with you two, does it? Abi, bring your bag down here, right now. I’ve had enough!”
Abigail and her belongings were relocated to the extra bed downstairs (there were four beds in our room), and we all went out for a late lunch.
“It doesn’t work, Nic,” said Dan. “We know it doesn’t work, having everyone in the same room.”
“Yes, I know, but it’s much cheaper…”
“And nobody gets a break, and we all end up angry!”
“Yes, I know.”
Hoi An is well set up for tourists. The street we were on was just restaurants, bars, and spas, and just one block away from us Dan had found a restaurant that could do any of the Vietnamese meals gluten free!
It was a delicious meal, and we all ate from each other’s plates again. We had a traditional fried rice flour pancake with bean sprouts and prawns, chicken in Hoi An chilli, and garlic and prawn fried morning glory. So good!
Later that afternoon I took the kids to the pool for a while, since the Australians had gone. It was only a small pool, but they had fun playing with the life jackets and pool noodles.
It started pouring around 6:15pm, followed quickly by lightning and thunder. At 6:30pm, just as we were thinking about what to have for dinner, the power went out. Pitch black.
After 20 minutes, I realised the hotel staff had not been around to check on us!
“That’s a bit poor form!” I said.
“I agree,” said Dan. “Not even a knock on the door to see if we needed a torch, or to check that nobody was hurt.”
“And you know what else it means? If the power’s out here, then it’s out next door, which means nobody is cooking anything.”
Dinner tonight: half a packet of crisps each.
The power was restored at 7:40pm but it was still pouring, and neither Dan nor I felt like walking out to find some takeaway food.
“Never mind,” Dan said as his stomach grumbled. “We’ll just be starving in the morning when we go to our breakfast buffet!”
Day 429 - 13 Sep ‘24 - Hoi An. Apparently, at 1am, we had another power cut. Dan told me this in the morning, as he got woken up when the room got hot. I, on the other hand, slept peacefully until the dawn brightened the room through cream curtains. What is with light coloured curtains in hotels?!
We made it to breakfast shortly before 9am, and it was semi-slim pickings. Breakfast finished at 9:30am, and they didn’t replace anything that was finished or almost finished. The only thing they would do for us was cook some other eggs.
That being said, we still managed to have enough to eat each, although we only got half a glass of juice (which had to be ladled out of the almost empty urn).
This morning we borrowed some of the hotel bikes, and went for a ride through part of the old town.
It was very much a tourist town, with all the shops selling vibrant lamps, beautiful dresses, decorative fans, or painted conical hats. The town itself was very pretty, with bougainvillea blooming everywhere, and lanterns strung across the streets.
We bought a tourist ticket that gave us entry to five places in the town, and the first one we went to was the Quang Trieu Assembly Hall, established in 1885.
In the central courtyard was a very colourful statue of a dragon and fish, decorated by large mosaic shards of pottery.
Around the courtyard were large moulded paintings of Chinese scenes, again in bright colours.
At the back of the building was another garden area, this time with a massive sculpture of multiple dragons around a pink pearl.
Our next stop was the Japanese covered bridge, which was built in the 17th century in what was then the Japanese quarter of the town. It was pretty plain in appearance, and obviously rather old, and had a small temple on one side of it (that we didn’t go in).
Nearby the bridge was an artist doing beautiful paintings, and he had quite a gathering. No wonder too, as we watched him quickly paint a custom design for one customer, then amend an existing one for another. He was very talented, and we ended up buying three from him!
The tourist ticket we’d bought had been organised into architectural groupings, and the ticket seller advised us to pick one from each colour group, as representative of that style.
Rather than be the tour guide and go where I thought would be most interesting, we let the kids choose the next site.
“The museum of trade ceramics,” Alex said, quite definitely.
“Are you sure?” I queried. “You didn’t want to go to the museum of traditional medicine, or the museum of folk culture?”
“Nope, the ceramics.”
Thus, we shortly found ourselves looking at broken bits of pottery in cabinets. It wasn’t very interesting at all. The only redeeming feature was the fact the museum was inside one of Hoi An’s oldest houses, which still had original wooden beams and architecture.
It was 7.5m wide and 36m long, and comprised a front house, an open courtyard, and a rear house with kitchen outside. The upper storey that surrounded the courtyard was quite cool; there was an opening in the floor in the front house too, so lots of airflow everywhere.
We returned to the hotel to drop off our art and return the bikes. One of the pedals on Dan’s bike had come off, and it was a little inconvenient cycling through the town while trying to look in the shops and/or take photos.
We walked back to where we’d left off, found a small restaurant to have lunch, and then took our time meandering around the streets. It really was a lovely part of town, even if it was positively swimming with tourists!
It was a balmy 33°C and 70% humidity, so we were feeling the heat and getting more and more thirsty as the sweat dripped off us. Time to go back to our air conditioned room for a while!
I took the kids to the pool again, and even got into my swimming costume with the intention of getting in, but it had clouded over by the time we got there and started to rain. Both Alex and Abi complained about the water being cold, so after the first couple of raindrops we went back to the room. Good thing too, as it started to properly rain not long after.
We left our room later on to get dinner (no power cuts today!) and what a difference the town was! So many tourists, queues of people everywhere, lots of hawkers, and heaps of pretty lights all over the place!
The bridges were lit up, the ‘I heart Hoi An’ sign was glowing, and all along the river were people in boats with colourful lanterns, as well as multi-coloured floating candles.
We wandered around the streets, enjoying the much cooler temperature, and went to one of the stalls the kids had wanted to buy something from before. There were so many art stores, I really could have spent a fortune in.
“Where would you put them?” Dan pointed out. “You’d run out of wall space!”
“And I can’t carry them in my rucksack. AND we’ve still got China and South Korea to go! I need to save space and money for there!”
We came across some traditional Chinese lion dancers, which was pretty fun to watch. It was also incredibly loud, with members of their group banging on cymbals and drums.
We wished we had better behaved children so that we could stay out later, but alas, that was not the case, so we were back in our room at 8pm. They had been argumentative, nit-picking fights, and either ignoring us or answering back most of the day.
Perhaps tomorrow night we could go for a boat ride…if they behaved…
Day 430 - 14 Sep ‘24 - Hoi An. We made it down to breakfast at 8:30am, but it wasn’t much better than yesterday. There were more empty dishes than full ones, or even partially full ones. Two cold, fried eggs, two small spring rolls, one half of a passion fruit, no butter for the toast, and we again had to ladle our juice out of the dispenser.
A buffet breakfast this was not!
I pointed somewhat angrily to the empty plates and asked a staff member if anything was getting replaced. Since breakfast started at 7am and went until 9:30am, one could reasonably expect food to be constantly replaced until at least 9am.
Four small savoury pancakes and a plate of mango slices were brought out. We took them all.
Alex also asked for more spring rolls, and they eventually brought out four.
I felt sorry for the other seven diners who turned up after us, and left once they’d eaten a croissant and a couple of slices of dragonfruit.
“It would seem we need to be here at 7am!” I said to Dan.
“Mmm…maybe we have to come down for breakfast then go back to bed!”
We decided to have a lazier day around town, so we finished watching a movie we’d started yesterday before we went out. Our tourist ticket was still valid for today and tomorrow, and we had three places left to visit.
We walked to the furthest place away, the Quan Am pagoda and Quan Cong temple, but changed our minds when we got there as they weren’t very big and looked uninteresting from the outside.
We then walked to the Phuc Kien Assembly Hall, which was much grander than the one we’d visited yesterday. There was a large open courtyard with some scale models of mountains, and even one that looked like the Great Wall of China.
Inside the assembly room were the same incense coils hanging from the ceiling that the last place had had, although we couldn’t take pictures then. In the middle of the coils were handwritten messages containing the person’s wishes, written in a variety of languages.
Out the back of the building was again a pottery covered dragon fountain, this one with a very large, and very inquisitive, white fish, that was intent on trying to eat Alex!
We carried on walking down the same streets we’d been on three times now, and stopped at the Quan Thang Old House, built in the 17th century from wood that had been shipped over from China.
Everything inside was stained black, and the horizontal beams and window bars had been hand carved. The black wood made for a very dark house, and one I could imagine felt rather oppressive to live in.
“It’s not very interesting really,” I whispered to Dan.
“No,” he agreed. “At least the house yesterday had broken pottery to look at as well.”
We contemplated using our two remaining tickets today, but Dan needed air-conditioning as his headache and dehydration was getting worse. On our third attempt, we found a restaurant that had an air-conditioned upstairs room…that was unfortunately switched off.
A lady kindly set up some fans and switched on the air conditioner, then brought us some cold towels while we waited for our meals.
We had planned on heading back to the hotel once we’d finished, but got waylaid at the bridge by drums and lion dancers going in and out of shops. While standing there, a man approached us offering boat trips around the island.
“Do you want to?” I asked Dan.
“Air conditioning, shade!” the man pointed out.
The air conditioning was, of course, the wind as we moved, but it was definitely much cooler than walking! We got to see the waterfront side of the old quarter of Hoi An, where lots of the buildings were painted yellow.
We passed under the Cam Nam bridge that had a large golden arch, and a few minutes later we turned around.
It seemed ‘around the island’ was actually ‘up the river for 15 minutes then turn around and go back’. The boat got slower and slower (possibly could have walked faster), so we think he was conserving petrol.
Even though we didn’t get around the island like he showed us on his sales pitch pictureboard, we ended up being 40 minutes, and we did get to see more of Hoi An.
Once we got back to the hotel, Dan lay down in the air conditioned comfort of our room, while I took the kids for a Pokemon Go walk for 25 minutes. Alex and I went for a swim in the pool to cool down, then the kids wrote their diaries while Dan and I sorted out some more of our trip.
We went to a nearby burger/Korean joint for dinner, then Abi practised her buying skills on a lantern seller across the road. She’d seen them yesterday, but we told her she had to work out how to carry it in her rucksack before we would let her buy it.
“We can’t carry it for you, as Daddy’s already got your raincoat and jumper, and now I’ve got three paintings to work out how to carry, and your lacquer board!”
Purchase complete, we decided to go on a lantern boat trip, and got haggled into buying a more-money-than-I’m-sure-it-should-cost ticket by a lady who stopped us on the way to the ticket booth. It was the lantern part I’m sure we got ripped off by, as the ticket price for the boat couldn’t be changed.
That being said, for just $26.40NZD we had a 20 minute boat trip and got four paper lanterns, and we had a lovely time, so was kind of worth it. The lanterns had candles in them, which we lit and made a wish over, then let them go on the river.
“I think this would be the only time that the sheer number of tourists is a good thing,” I said to Dan. “Can you imagine how miserable the river would look with only one or two lantern boats on it? But now there’s so many lanterns everywhere it’s magical!”
On the way back to the hotel, Alex got to try his negotiating abilities over a plastic toy you throw in the air. We’d seen them in Thailand, and they were pretty to look at at night time, but not good value - his money though!
As much as we would have liked to have stayed out longer, we were driven inside by the continuous hassles from people trying to sell us massages, “no thank you”, or toys, “no thank you”, or taxi rides, “no thank you”, or manicures, “no thank you”, or happy hour drinks, “no thank you”, or paper fans, “no thank you”, or boat trips, “no thank you”, or bicycle rides, “no thank you”, or ice cream, “no thank you”, or banana pancakes…”NO THANK YOU”…
Tourists are one thing to have to contend with, but everybody else was too much. Time for our quiet room!
Day 431 - 15 Sep ‘24 - Hoi An. I’m pleased to report that breakfast at 8am was better than 8:30am. We had no real desire to go to breakfast so early, but since we were woken at 5:30am by the dawn, then fully awake at 6:30am, there seemed no point in waiting.
Our time in Hoi An was never meant to be this long, but during our travels we have learned it’s best to stay in a good value place over the weekend, as prices tend to climb.
Since we’d already walked most of the streets a few times, we stayed inside and watched a movie, then did some work on our computers (maths for the kids, and trip planning for us).
We went next door for lunch and wandered a few streets trying to find a hairdresser for Alex, whose mop badly needed taken care of. When that proved fruitless, Dan took the kids back to the hotel while I went to an art gallery.
The man whom we bought our paintings from had done an excellent job of rolling them up, but I needed something sturdy to protect them in my rucksack. The art gallery lady showed me her selection of PVC drain pipes, but I couldn’t work out what size I’d need. I would have to go back later.
Back at the hotel, I sat in the pool with the kids for a while, then we went back to our room again, and watched another movie. Today had truly been a day of doing nothing!
Just as we were about to head out for dinner, Dan suddenly exclaimed:
“Oh no! I left my umbrella on the boat!”
“Bugger! I really liked that umbrella. I was going to keep that one,” I sympathised.
It was only a $10 umbrella, but we had been using them every day for shade (something I will definitely be doing in New Zealand at summer), and Dan burns super easily.
We went to yet another restaurant for dinner, and for what was probably only the second or third time ever, Dan sent his meal back. He had ordered duck and ginger, and the duck was as tough as three-week-old beef; he reckoned it had been frozen and reheated in the microwave.
When the waitress asked if everything was alright, I told her the duck was really hard, and she tried to justify it by saying it was because it was wild duck and not what we’re used to in our country! Ha ha ha!
She offered to replace the meal with chicken, which I urged Dan to accept; she came back with chicken and lemongrass, which was lovely, and stressed to us that if we don’t like it she would replace it, as she wanted us to be happy. The manager also came out to check it was okay.
Amazing service!
After dinner, as we’re walking back along the street, we saw the man who sold us our boat ticket last night, so I asked if Dan’s umbrella had been handed in.
“Don’t be silly mum,” said Alex. “You even said it would be gone.”
“There’s no harm in asking,” I said. “The worst they can say is there’s no umbrella, but sometimes you need to have a little faith in humanity! When I was younger, I left my clarinet at the bus stop, and didn’t realise I’d left it until I got to school. A bin man found it and handed it in to the local police station. After school, I phoned the station to ask if someone had handed it in, and what do you know, somebody had! So you should always hope for the best.”
The man directed us to go back to the ticket desk, which we did, and I spoke to four ladies and showed them a picture of the two boat crew in the background of some of our photos from last night. They asked some of their colleagues on other boats until they’d identified the people in the photo, then one lady led me across the bridge to another lady, who said the umbrella is at her house and she can bring it back tomorrow at 6pm!
“See Alex? Have a little faith!”
Rather than head straight back to the hotel, we decided to use the last ticket entry to visit Cam Pho Communal House. When we got there we were told our ticket had expired, but the man kindly let us in anyway.
“We were still on our third day though,” I said to Dan, confused.
“There must have been a time limit on it,” he replied.
The entrance had looked quite intriguing, but inside wasn’t anything too spectacular. There was an extensive collection of potted plants, one of which was a bougainvillea that had four different colours coming from one main trunk! I could only imagine the stems had been grafted on at some point, as I’d never seen anything like it before.
The main building at the back didn’t really have anything exciting in it either, other than a couple of pretty embroidered dragons hanging above a table.
But still, it was good to use up the ticket!
We walked back to our hotel room, again marvelling at the number of tourists (less than yesterday to be fair). It must be exhausting working here, if you had to put up with it every day of the year - we were tired of it after just three days!
Day 432 - 16 Sep ‘24 - Hoi An. Breakfast at 7:40am was the same as at 8am - still a limited selection and mostly empty dishes. The major difference at this time was a lack of tables and chairs. It would seem the sweet spot in a two-and-a-half hour buffet breakfast was 8am.
This morning we were off to Sunworld Resort at Ba Na Hills, which was the site of the Golden Bridge. The hotel manager had organised a driver for us, who picked us up at 9am, hence the earlier breakfast.
When we got to the resort, the driver very kindly walked us to the ticket booth, and then went back to the car, where he waited all day for us.
The queue for the ticket was non-existent. The queue to get in, however, was not. The queue also wasn’t very organised, with everyone just pressing forward until we reached the front, where it split into two.
We had no idea what each queue was for, and blindly followed a tour group past the escalators that led to the cable car, until we got to another building, where we joined a second queue.
The cable car trip was rather long, and we climbed a fair distance…into the clouds. Not ideal for photo opportunities.
Once we got off the cable car, we followed the signs to the Golden Bridge and joined another queue.
“Where does this queue go?” I asked Dan.
“No idea,” he answered. “The online interactive map is really hard to work out.”
It turned out that we were queueing to go on a funicular, which would take us to the Golden Bridge. The cable car entrance we passed right at the start was the direct route, and the one we had taken went to a different part of the resort altogether.
“Look at it this way,” I said to the kids, who had started to complain. “We now get to go on a funicular, and it looks to be a one-way trip as there’s nobody coming on the way down.”
The funicular trip was barely over one minute long, and we emerged into more clouds. We again followed the crowds along a path, with no clue where we were going. This path was pretty though, with mosaic tiles columns and stained glass ceiling panels.
At the end of the path, finally, was the Golden Bridge. The view over the hills was completely obliterated by the clouds; we could barely even see the Golden Bridge, held up by two massive hands, and by the time we got to the other side of the bridge, we could no longer see the start.
So, here are two photos: one, which I took, and the other, which is off the internet. Sure would have been awesome to see!
Since there was no point in hanging around on the bridge we couldn’t see, we got another cable car to the French Village.
Part of the resort is still under construction, but the completed fake rock carvings we passed on the way looked pretty impressive.
In the middle of the French Village was a lovely display set up for the Mid-Autumn festival (which, this year, happens tomorrow), with lots of pumpkins and flowers, some of which were strangely perched on a couple of cars and a piano.
I have to be completely honest - the Sunworld Resort made no sense at all. It was themed on a French village with a pink chateau, had a Notre Dame church in the middle, brewed its own beer in a three-storey Bavarian beer house, and had speakers everywhere constantly playing classical music. It was almost like it was trying to be Disneyland, but with nothing for you to do!
There was a single-seater coaster ride that we didn’t go on, a teacups ride (that we also didn’t go on), and some throw-a-beanbag-at-cans-and-win-a-prize stalls.
One of the castle-like towers housed a shop selling pop toys - I’m not entirely sure why the shop was there, or even the fascination, as they were just figurines of TV shows and movies, with a stylised appearance.
It was all just super weird, and we walked around feeling completely confused and dumbfounded. We could not for the life of us work out why so many people would come here, let alone stay! Granted, the view from the top of the hills would be a major drawcard, but why the stereotypical French/Bavarian styling? The only thing you could do at the top was eat in the innumerable restaurants, or ride the cable cars around to the bridge and back.
Our tickets included two free beers; the staff member even gave the kids a voucher each, despite neither of them clearly being able to drink! Since I don’t drink beer, and Dan didn’t feel like having one (never mind eight), we left the brew house and got the cable car back down.
There was no point in hanging around as the clouds were not lifting any time soon. We’d even heard a few thunder rolls!
Just yesterday, Dan had asked us what we thought was our biggest waste of money on our trip. Dan reckoned it was the $30NZD parking spot in Portland, Maine, when we found a much cheaper one across the street. I reckoned it was the hand-carved alabaster vase we bought in Egypt, which now had a smashed rim.
“I think this place is the winner,” I said to Dan as we walked past a garish fountain.
We enjoyed the cable car ride back down the hillside, and our driver met us at the main entrance. When we got back to our hotel room, it was shortly before 2pm.
“Do you realise we just spent $245NZD on some cable car rides?” I said to Dan.
“More than that,” he replied.
“What? Oh yeah - the $60NZD on the car.”
Bargain!
Obviously, a sunny day would have made the trip more worthwhile, but I still don’t think it would have been $305NZD worth!
We went to the nearby burger/Korean joint for lunch, although I didn’t have any, then walked to an art gallery across the river. The lady there had agreed to sell me some of her PVC pipe for me to transport our paintings in.
Dan and I have never fought, and hardly ever argue; in fact, the very few times we’ve argued, I wouldn’t even call it an argument, and more of a terse discussion that ends after a couple of minutes.
We had one of those discussions in the art gallery, about how to roll up the paintings.
“What are you doing?” he asked me.
“Taking one of the ends off,” I replied.
“Why?”
“To see if they fit in the tube.”
“You should do it back at the room.”
“But I need to do it here so I can see if they fit.”
“You can see they won’t all fit.”
“That’s why I want to see what size tube to get!”
“But they’ll fit if you take all the ends off.”
“Why would I take ALL the ends off?”
“To roll them up together!”
“But I was only going to take one end off each, and roll them up.”
“Then they won’t all fit. You need to take off all the ends and roll them together.”
“But then the paper will get damaged by the staples!”
“You’ll need to take the staples out!”
“Well, how am I going to do that here?!”
“That’s why I said do it back at the room!”
“But then I wouldn’t be able to see if they all fit!”
“Just do what you want…” and he walked out the shop.
The problem was, I didn’t really know what I wanted! The shop owner had politely given us some space, and after I’d rolled everything back up (with the ends on), I paid her the 66 cents for the pipe, and we walked back to our room, our conversation carrying on like normal.
I think the heat, dehydration, headaches, and my brewing cold, hadn’t helped with our temperaments. Inside our cool room, I finally grasped what Dan meant, and we set about removing the staples from the paintings. A few minutes later, all three paintings were wound around a single end, wrapped in a plastic bag, and carefully twisted into the pipe. The other five ends were put in another plastic bag. Sorted!
We were halfway through watching a movie when Alex suddenly asked:
“What time is it?”
“Why? What does it matter?” I replied, thinking, there’s nothing happening with Pokémon Go today.
“The lady!”
“What?”
“We have to meet the lady at 6pm!”
“Oh! You’re right! Oh no! It’s 6:04pm!”
“Quick, mummy! We have to go!”
“You guys go, I’ll follow you, I still have to put my socks and shoes on, and change into some trousers,” said Dan, as the kids and I were almost out the door.
When we got to the boat ticket booth, the lady started to ask us if we wanted a boat ride, then recognised us, and handed us Dan’s umbrella! Fantastic!!
“Thank you! Thank you so much!”
Rather than hang around at the ticket booth, we decided to walk back towards the hotel. There was a short, old, Australian women, who was using some choice language towards the ever-present hawkers. I felt her pain! They truly were annoying.
We met Dan on the street, where he was very pleased to be reunited with his umbrella. He took it and the kids back to the room briefly (Abi for the toilet, and Alex for a drink of water), then we went to dinner in one of the back street restaurants.
The food was the best we’d had yet, and the cheapest too. Mind you, that was helped by the fact Alex and Abi only had a smoothie each for their dinner, as they’d only eaten their lunch three hours earlier.
After dinner we sat by the water’s edge for a while, watching the lantern boats go up and down the river and listening to a Vietnamese man in a restaurant singing classic rock, then went back to our hotel room.
Day 433 - 17 Sep ‘24 - Hoi An to Hue. At breakfast this morning, as we were busy eating, a short, old, Australian woman started talking to us. It was the same short, old, Australian woman from last night, and she was intent on talking to us about our trip and all the trips she and her husband had taken over the last 50 years.
We listened politely, asked and answered questions politely, and then continued eating, politely. She eventually got the hint and moved on to another couple sitting at a different table.
“She sounded like she would have been an interesting lady to talk to,” Dan said when we got back to our room, “but maybe just not at a breakfast buffet!”
“I know! Did I hear her say she helped fly in weapons for the CIA into North Vietnam?”
“Yep, I’m pretty sure that’s what she said! She flew with American Airlines when she was doing international banking!”
We packed up our gear, which was a little harder than before, as Abi had a lantern to fit in her rucksack, and I had the PVC pipe of paintings and the five other painting ends.
“Mummy, can you help me put this in my rucksack?”
“Sure. You can’t have it at the side though, it needs to be in the middle.”
“But then my bag of clothes won’t fit!”
“Well, put your towel there then.”
“But that’s not where it goes!”
“You need to put things in different places to make them fit now,” Dan joined in.
“But that’s not where it goes!”
“What about that small bag of clothes, I’ll use that one,” I carried on.
“It goes in a different place!”
“Do you want me to help you or not?!”
Abigail eventually conceded defeat, and I packed her rucksack as best I could for her. Fingers crossed the bamboo didn’t get broken!
Today we were moving to the city of Hue, and the driver the hotel had organised picked us up at 11am. It was usually a three-hour trip, but he had agreed to take us up over the Hai Van Pass, which would make it a little longer.
The Hai Van Pass was listed as one of Vietnam’s most scenic routes, and it sure was hilly. At the top, we had a lovely view back over the city of Da Nang, although the other side was shrouded in clouds.
We carried on down the hill and the driver stopped at the town of Phu Loc, where we had some lunch. It was a peaceful little spot, and there were lots of traditional boats out on the water, as well as some huts by a jetty with some bright blue boats out the front.
It rained a little on the rest of the journey, but had thankfully cleared up by the time we arrived in Hue. We met our host’s wife who showed me the apartment while Dan waited for the host. She had no English, and had me supremely confused when she showed me a room with four beds, and then motioned for me to check out another room.
“I don’t understand,” I said through Google Translate. “Is this not our room?”
“Does your family not want four rooms?” she typed back.
Four rooms? What on earth? What was she actually trying to say?
“Dan!” I called down the stairs. “I’m really confused! Is this not our room?”
“Yes, but we have four rooms,” he called back.
“What?”
“You have four rooms,” the host answered.
One room had a queen and two singles, one had a king, one had two doubles, and one had a ginormous super king! It turned out the host rents the rooms out individually, but if someone with a family books it, they close off bookings to the rest of the rooms. So we had the whole building to ourselves!
Dan and I watched a movie in our room and enjoyed the break from the kids, who were playing in one of the other rooms. We had dinner at a local restaurant, and tried the regional soup and noodles, which was very tasty. After a short walk through the busy streets, we went back to our rooms.
“We’ve decided to let you two stay in the same room,” I said when we told the kids to get ready for bed, “but be warned, you are responsible for your own actions. Go to bed, go to sleep, or what…”
“We’ll be tired,” Alex and Abi answered.
“And if you’re tired, then…”
“We’ll be grumpy.”
“We’re trusting you!”
I don’t know why we bothered. Forty-five minutes later we heard a thump. Five minutes after that there were a couple more thumps. We crept down the stairs and listened at their door. They were running around and laughing, and had clearly ignored everything we’d said to them.
Dan quickly unlocked the door and found Alex and Abi wrestling on her bed. Both bums were smacked.
“GET INTO YOUR BED!” Dan roared.
“Every time! Every. Single. Time! We trusted you and you just threw it back in our faces! You just don’t learn! Abi, get your toys and get up to the other room,” I said.
Every time. Every. Single. Time.
They are exhausting with their consistency!
Tomorrow we didn’t have a breakfast buffet to get up for, but we were in a new bed with a mattress of concrete that was cleverly disguised as foam, and a building site right outside.
Bring on bedtime…
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