We found a great hotel on TripAdvisor in Hué called Amigo who are so
good they picked us up from the train station for free! We booked a
city tour for the next day and were set to picked up at 8am.

Our tour was really good fun and we saw all the major sights we wanted
to with a very informative guide. The only downside was the other
tourists on the trip who were, to be frank, arses!

But we had a great time so who cares! The photo below is the Thien Mu
pagoda with 7 levels representing the 7 steps of Buddha. If we don’t
have that quite right you can blame a long day and local Huda beer.

Tomorrow we catch our last Vietnamese train to Hanoi which is an
overnighter and will get us in at around 4.30am on Saturday – eek!

Only a few minutes after our last post saying we had no plan for
today, we sat down in a restaurant for dinner and the man serving us
started up a conversation. He told us that he did tours out to his
village 15km inland from Hoi An and showed us book after book of
people’s thanks to him for his tours. With that many recommends and at
just $10 each for a whole day it was hard to pass up his offer so we
arranged to meet him back at the restaurant the next morning.

We showed up at 9.30am and were met by Mr Phong and another driver
(both shown in the photo – Mr Phong in the middle). We donned our
helmets and took a bike each out to the edge of Hoi An. There we met
up with 2 Dutch girls who had cycled ahead and we then rode in convoy
to the village.

As it got more rural the tall, blonde Dutch girls got more and more
people shouting ‘hello’ and waving which was hilarious. We arrived at
at Mr Phong’s house and his wife greeted us with tea and a big smile.
Mr Phong then talked us through Vietnam’s politics, war and religion
which was very informative and filled in many gaps. He then gave us a
tour of his village (most of which were part of Mr Phong’s family) and
everyone was so welcoming and friendly we felt part of the family
straight away!

At the end of our tour we returned to his house where his wife had
prepared a wonderful lunch for us all that was delicious. They drove
us back to our hotel around 4pm.

We can see why Mr Phong had so many nice comments in his books and we
made sure to add one ourselves.

P.S. As you can see, it was our 1st rainy day today in nearly 4 weeks!

Today we purchased our Hoi An tourist tickets which let us into 5 of
the many sights around the old town. It was great to learn about the
history of the area and wander around the smoke filled temples and
houses. The bia hoi is still flowing freely and the local food is very
tasty.

We have no plan for tomorrow so it should be a good day!

After a 9 hour train ride from Nha Trang to Da Nang we took a taxi to
our next stop in Hoi An (where the Top Gear guys got their suits made).

We arrived to find that every hotel was fully booked and we very
nearly gave up before we found a room at Thien Trung Hotel. When we
checked in the staff exlained that because it was a full moon the
whole old town of Hoi An would be closed to vehicles and the street
lights would be replaced with lanterns.

We made our way down to the riverside at 6pm and things were just
starting so we had a few Bia Hoi (fresh beer costing 15p a glass)
before exploring the amazing streets. We wandered into a stunning
temple where the smell of inscense was overpowering but the buzz
inside was amazing.

Tomorrow we plan to have another look at the sights when they are a
bit quieter and probably have a few more bia hoi!