Day 9
Hoi An, Vietnam

July 12, 2009

Here's a clue about what we did for our last day in Hoi An; the first photo I have from that day is from dinner that night. That's right, we did almost nothing and it was absolutely lovely!

We have another leisurely breakfast with our new friends and then bring another 5 kilo load of laundry back to the same place to be done by the end of the day. The rest of the day, we lounge by the pool, read, get online (the rooms have wifi) and David has a "hand and foot" massage (about $40) in the hotel spa (he said it was very good). I did notice that there aren't any people working on the beach here offering inexpensive massage as there often are in Thailand.

Late in the afternoon, when we go to pick up our laundry, we check out a couple more local restaurants for dinner that night. There is a large restaurant called Hoa Hung, up on a small rise overlooking the beach, right at the intersection of the road into town and the road which runs parallel to the beach. We look at a menu and decide to come back later. Also at that intersection is a beach area which is very popular with locals. At night, there are many tables and BBQs set up on the sand and it looks it it was possible to eat there too, though we did not investigate closely.

Hoa Hung has tanks filled with all manner of live seafood; large lobsters, shrimp, clams, and fish still swimming. While these can all be ordered by the kilo, it's a little risky to do it this way when you don't speak the language and those prices aren't clear on the menu.

We order some steamed shrimp by the plate (2), fried calamari, sauteed morning glory (2), a bowl of ramen noodle soup for Rowen, and some fried noodles with pork. Everything is very simple and good, though not spectacular. In cases like this I always wonder what the food would be like had we been with someone local who did the ordering. With a couple of rounds of beer, soda and water, dinner is around 500,000 VND for five.

Throughout dinner and the rest of the evening we are treated to a spectacular lightening show. I try to get photos but it's an exercise in frustration because I don't have a tripod with me.

At the hotel front desk, we investigate the best way to get to the Da Nang airport for our 11am flight to Saigon tomorrow morning. The hotel offers a shuttle for $18 per person, but we opt for a taxi which will cost about $18 total. They say they will reserve a taxi for us for 9 am.

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