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Old 28 Mar 20, 06:37 PM  
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DisneyDaffodil
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Hoi An Temples and Back to Ho Chi Minh ~ Day Six ~ Vietnam July 2019

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We woke up around 8-ish and headed to breakfast. We all had our usual coffee and food for breakfast. The only photo I have from breakfast is this really exciting photo of my bacon, sausage and cheese plate haha.

We then went back to our room to pack up the last of our things, ready to travel back to Ho Chi Minh that evening. We planned to spend the morning relaxing around the pool, before heading into Hoi An Old Town before lunch to explore the temples and other ancient buildings around the town and having lunch there.
After packing was finished we headed to the other pool, which we hadn’t been to before on the trip. This pool was bigger and seemed to be popular with the Australian guests, as we ended up sitting by a couple who we chatted to for a while. I went in the pool, as I couldn’t resist, despite it meaning I needed to go back to the room later to change and dry my hair to go out. It was really hot again, so going in the pool was very relaxing and cooling.


When I came out of the pool, I decided to go for a walk alongside the river. Alongside the river bank were hundreds of crabs crowding around. It was really cool so I spent quite a lot of time standing here taking photos. We had all been amazed at the amount of wildlife that we had seen in Hoi An and especially at the hotel itself.





We then went back to the room for a final time so Georgia could change and get our suitcases to take to reception to pick up later. We then caught one of the hotel’s shuttle buses into Hoi An where we met Ian and Claudia for the day. Again, Hoi An was very hot today but we really wanted to see as much of the town as we could. I was carrying one of our travel bags around all day too, which made it even hotter for me, so I may look very red in the photos from today haha.
When we got into the town, Ian bought all of us a Hoi An Old Town Entrance Ticket, which cost around £4. This ticket allowed us to enter 5 different ‘attractions’ (out of the 22 available) around the Ancient Town, including the Japanese Covered Bridge and many of the temples and pagodas. We first went to the temple nearest to where Ian had bought the tickets. We decided to go in it as it looked very pretty from the outside and was as beautiful inside. There was no one else inside this one when entered, so it was nice to take photos here without it being too crowded (unlike some of the other temples we visited that day) There’s not a lot to say about this temple, we enjoyed looking around it and it was very pretty but that’s all there was to it. The photo of me and Dad inside the temple really shows how I felt all day haha.




We then walked towards another temple, stopping to buy bottles of water on the way as we did throughout the day as it was too hot to walk anywhere without water. The next temple was slightly busier and smaller than the first one but still as ornate and beautiful. It also had a fishpond!



As we walked, we looked in some of the shops and stalls selling things in the town. After looking at many of them, I saw a set of chopsticks that I liked. There were four pairs of chopsticks, each with a yellow bamboo cover. Again, we can’t remember the price of these but Claudia bartered to make them slightly cheaper (although I don’t think we thought they were expensive to begin with) I was very happy with these and we use them all the time at home when I cook stir fries and other noodle dishes.
After this, Ian suggested we stopped at a café for a drink, as we were all very hot and it was going to be a long day. We walked along the river front and stopped at a café that was open fronted and overlooked the river. Ian and Claudia had iced coffees, I had orange juice and Rob and I had a coke. We didn’t take any photos here, as we were enjoying sitting down and relaxing, away from the heat.
After stopping for drinks, we continued to go to more of the ancient ‘attractions’ around the town. We decided to look in one of the museums, the Museum of Folklore (although it covered a lot of aspects of Vietnamese culture and history) This museum was small and we didn’t take long looking around it, but it was nice to look around. It was laid out over two floors and had an outdoor courtyard. Upstairs, one of the windows overlooked the river and Georgia and I enjoyed taking photos from here.



After leaving the museum, it started to rain slightly and the weather forecast said that the rain was going to be continuous for the afternoon, although this was the heaviest bit. So, we all decided this was a good time to have lunch, so that we could shelter from the rain and as we were starting to feel peckish.
It took a while for us to find somewhere that we all wanted to eat at but we were really happy with the place we did settle on. We were the only people in this restaurant eating but we’d all liked the menu outside and it had looked nice. The service was very good here (as per usual) and the food was very well cooked and presented. It was possibly one of the most ‘fancy’ meals we had in Vietnam (although it wasn’t much more expensive than the other meals, especially when compared with UK prices) I really, really enjoyed this meal. I had the lemongrass chicken, which came with rice (but as I don’t like rice I didn’t eat this). Despite not eating the rice, it was extremely filling and the flavours were amazing.


Rob and I had the beef skewers, also served with rice, salad and a sweet chilli sauce. The beef had a strong ginger flavour to it and was really tender.

Ian had duck and told us all how nice it was and Claudia had (we think) sweet and sour pork, which she also enjoyed.
We stayed here for a while, with a few drinks as it was still showery outside, chatting and enjoying the time together. I enjoyed watching people walking past the restaurant, as similarly to a lot of Vietnamese restaurants it was open fronted so we could see outside.

The meal cost around £37, including a few rounds of beers. The rain was starting to ease at this point, so we decided to continue visiting the temples and buildings of the Ancient Town. One of the larger, more ‘impressive’ temples was near to this restaurant and Ian recommended we visited this one.
This temple had two different courtyards, the front one had a mosaiced statue of a dragon and the one at the back had a larger statue of a similar style, a large frieze on the wall, as well as small ponds around the sides. We spent quite a while in this temple, taking photos and admiring the artwork. This temple was much more crowded than any other we had visited so far, but it didn’t detract from the beauty. It was cooler now than it had been earlier, as the rain shower had seemed to cool the air and it was less humid. This was my favourite temple that we visited, as the artwork and statues (although being old) had a modern look to them as they were so bright and vibrant.





The next thing on our list to visit was the Japanese covered bridge, which we had seen from the outside on our first night in Hoi An but we were going to use our admission pass to go across it and look inside. This was the most crowded place that we visited, as it is the biggest tourist attraction of Hoi An and has the disadvantage of being a very small space. We had to wait here to take photos but we didn’t mind as it meant we had time to enjoy looking at it all. There isn’t very much to see in the bridge, but its sort of a ‘must do’ in Hoi An as it’s so iconic and it is a beautiful bridge. I liked the monkey statue at the end, which I’m sure has some cultural significance that I don’t know.



Somehow, after this we visited another temple, even though we’d already been to five of the attractions on our attraction ticket. We assume one of them didn’t take a ticket when we entered or one had been free and not included in the pass but don’t remember. This is a really random thing that probably no one cares about, but Dad and I spent time looking in the plant pots outside this temple (and a few others) as they were filled with water and had guppies living in them (which I loved being a biology student haha) We’d seen a lot of temples by now and although this one was nice, we can’t remember it really standing out for anything in particular.




We decided to head back to our hotel now, to get changed, get our suitcases, etc. before heading to the airport later. We caught a Grab out of Hoi An for the final time and to our hotel. We’d really enjoyed our stay at Hoi An and I think I would have enjoyed another day or two to explore more parts of Hoi An and the surrounding area, such as Da Nang and My Son (ancient ruins nearby). We had originally planned to visit My Son but never arranged it and the unexpected change in heat in Hoi An compared to Ho Chi Minh had made it harder to go places during the day, which we regretted later but we enjoyed what we did regardless. After the first evening in Hoi An, I hadn’t expected to enjoy the town so much but this day and the night before had completely changed my mind, as we saw the beauty of the lanterns, temples and night market without the huge crowds of the first night.
In our hotel, we quickly got changed into fresh clothes (which I was particularly relieved about after the heat of the day and carrying the travel bag. Those clothes DEFINITELY needed a wash ). We sat in the reception as the sun set, with what was probably the most beautiful sunset ever. The colours were so pretty so I spent a lot of time photographing this.




We waited for Ian and Claudia to arrive at our hotel, as they were going to order a taxi for all of us to take us to the airport. When they arrived we ordered a Grab to the airport. The Grab driver played Charlie Puth ‘hits’ when he realised we were Western and we spent a lot of the journey being amazed how many Charlie Puth songs we’d actually heard, as none of us are Charlie Puth fans .
It took a little longer to get to the airport, as there had been a fire in a building in Da Nang, so we had to detour. Our Grab driver used a translator app to explain to us what had happened, which we thought was amazing and really clever. He was the friendliest driver we’d had in Vietnam and it was nice to talk to a local.
Da Nang airport seemed very confusing here. We checked in and went through security quite easily, although we didn’t really know what we were doing. We followed the crowds and hoped we were going the right way. Thankfully, we were. Once we got through into departures, we checked the board and found out that Vietjet were already delaying our flight (as it had been on the way out).
We decided to have food while we waited in the airport. There were a few options here, but some of them weren’t open or had sold out (Claudia tried to go to the place that sold pho in the airport, but they had completely sold out of pho). So, we all decided to have Burger King, as it was simple and we didn’t know where else to go. Mum’s saying they took ‘ages’ to serve the food, however they took longer than the average fast food place but ‘ages’ is a vast exaggeration. As I was saying, they took AGES to serve us the meals and it was relatively expensive (we ordered too much food really, as we weren’t 100% sure what to order) and I didn’t enjoy it at all (I don’t like fast food places at home and find them too greasy, which I felt about this one too). I, on the other hand (and Dad), quite enjoyed this Burger King (especially the mozzarella sticks). No photos unfortunately as I was hungry!
The flight was delayed 2 hours, which we actually didn’t think was too bad considering the delay on the way to Da Nang (we wouldn’t usually say a 2 hour delay was good haha) As soon as we got on the plane, Rob fell asleep and continued to sleep through the whole flight, only waking up after we’d landed. We took off around 10pm and it seemed quite a bumpy, noisy flight (which somehow Rob slept through) I don’t remember anything about this flight but I took some photos (but I don’t remember when I took them so they may be of taking off from Da Nang or landing in Ho Chi Minh, probably the latter)

When we landed, we were all really tired as it was close to midnight and it seemed to take forever for our case to come off the plane. Eventually, it arrived and we went outside to order Grab cars. Ian and Claudia went back to their apartments and we ordered ours to our new hotel, the Grand Silverland.
I was falling asleep in the Grab car on the way to the hotel and only remember being half asleep and looking out the window where there was motorbike driving almost straight at the car. Usual Ho Chi Minh traffic. We were very relieved when the Grab arrived at the hotel, as we just wanted to go to bed, and we were even more excited when we saw the hotel. This was by far (despite all the other hotels being very nice) our favourite hotel we stayed in. I think we’ll cover this more in the next day of the report, as we literally just checked in and went to bed this night, but we have a lot more to say about how luxurious and beautiful it was.
We very quickly and easily checked in, despite it being around 1am. We had emailed them earlier that day to explain that our plane was going to be late, so they had stayed for us to check in that night. They took us to our room and despite being very tired, we spent quite a while looking around the room in excitement. The room was big, with an equally large bathroom attached. AND I HAD A PROPER BED! A DOUBLE BED FOR ME! This was the most excited I’d ever been about seeing a bed. The sheets, mattress and pillows were such high quality and so comfortable that it didn’t take any of us long to get to sleep (at last) We’ll include photos of this room later in the report (probably tomorrow, don’t worry!)

The next day we spent time at the Grand Silverland Hotel and visited the Ben Thanh Market and Street Food Market.
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Old 28 Mar 20, 09:47 PM  
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What a fab day! I love visiting temples - often so peaceful and tranquil places. Lunch looks delicious - though I am with you about BK!

Like Rob I can happily fall asleep on take off and wake up on landing! It is a useful skill

Looking forward to seeing the photos of the hotel (soon )
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2016 Quebec - Kuala Lumpar - New York City 2017 Dubai - Eurocamps France - Ontario and Quebec - So-Cal 2018 Montreal - Bangkok - New England 2019 Argentina - Quebec City - Hong Kong - 2020 Switzerland 2022 Arizona - Costa Med Cruise - Oslo 2023 Hong Kong - Gothenburg
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Old 28 Mar 20, 10:10 PM  
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The temples were beautiful, I love the tranquility too although a few were very crowded so not quite as peaceful. Still very pretty though.

The lunch was so good and it was nice to relax and chat together too. I prefer to forget the BK though 😔

I was so surprised that Rob dropped off to sleep. We sat down, I turned to chat to him and he was already asleep 😂 It is a useful skill though

Edited at 01:20 AM.
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Old 30 Mar 20, 12:32 PM  
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We had plans to visit My Son too. But relaxing by the pool won every day 😁
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Old 30 Mar 20, 01:20 PM  
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Originally Posted by justacey View Post
We had plans to visit My Son too. But relaxing by the pool won every day 😁
It is difficult with the heat to visit everything and relaxing by a pool is definitely a necessary part of the holiday too 😀
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Old 2 Apr 20, 08:12 PM  
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That was a jam packed day. Lots of sight seeing and what a lot of fab photos for us. I'm so glad you're continuing to post your trip report. Thanks so much for sharing it. I hope you and your family are all well and I'm looking forward to the next day.
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Old 2 Apr 20, 08:30 PM  
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Originally Posted by Goldia View Post
That was a jam packed day. Lots of sight seeing and what a lot of fab photos for us. I'm so glad you're continuing to post your trip report. Thanks so much for sharing it. I hope you and your family are all well and I'm looking forward to the next day.
I wasn’t sure if I should post as we are all missing our holidays but with Georgia home too it’s giving us lots of spare time to write it. We should even get the next day up soon 😀

It was a really busy day but there was so much to see there, we wanted to make the most of our last day in Hoi An.

We are well, although Ian has been very ill with the virus which was so worrying for us as he is so far away 😢 Thankfully he is on the mend now, although still very weak. Writing the trip report is a lovely way to remember our visit with him last summer
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Old 2 Apr 20, 08:35 PM  
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Originally Posted by DisneyDaffodil View Post
I wasn’t sure if I should post as we are all missing our holidays but with Georgia home too it’s giving us lots of spare time to write it. We should even get the next day up soon 😀

It was a really busy day but there was so much to see there, we wanted to make the most of our last day in Hoi An.

We are well, although Ian has been very ill with the virus which was so worrying for us as he is so far away 😢 Thankfully he is on the mend now, although still very weak. Writing the trip report is a lovely way to remember our visit with him last summer
I'm glad Ian is on the mend now. It must have been hard for you with him being halfway round the world. I think writing the trip report is a lovely way to celebrate the good times, and we all need to be able to do that now more than ever.
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2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
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2021: Jamaica. Rome.
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2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 2 Apr 20, 08:40 PM  
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Originally Posted by Goldia View Post
I'm glad Ian is on the mend now. It must have been hard for you with him being halfway round the world. I think writing the trip report is a lovely way to celebrate the good times, and we all need to be able to do that now more than ever.
I think we all need nice memories and things to look forward to even more than ever now Abbey xx How are you all coping with this? I hope you are keeping well x
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Old 3 Apr 20, 10:41 AM  
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Great pictures, it looks like a really good day. Very hot though!
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