Hoi An Riverside

... hungry though, so we headed two doors down to Cafe 43, which I had heard good things about in the HostelWorld reviews of my hotel. It was rather nice: run by a lovely and very friendly family, with excellent food and service. Afterwards, it was about 3pm. Mervy left for his hotel, and I decided to do some blogging on the computers in my hotel for a few hours. In the evening, I was tired and my throat was absolutely killing; every time I swallowed my left tonsil and my left ear were agony ...

... ride to a couple of the tombs. The first thing we realised is that a Vietnamese kilometre is at least double that of a "normal" km, so we were riding for much longer then we had inticipated before coming across the first temple, but this was ok as we were riding through the stunning countryside and it was all fairly flat! <br><br>The temples themselves were absolutly huge with amazingly intricate detailing. All Emporers are laid to rest surrounded by all ...

... but also many good days. Everyone worries when it rains &amp; there have been "storms" in the region, but luckily no repeat of the big one. We have had huge numbers of frogs at night, croaking from the sodden blocks of land on both sides of our house. You might remember from the last blog that we mentioned there had been an elusive lizard in the house. After not seeing it for a week, Mark came across it in the front room upstairs. He opened the front doors, got the broom and they chased ...

... br><br>"Stu ck" in Hoi An for an extra day because of the tropical storm hitting down south. Strong Wind and heavy rain all day long, Emma decided that we should do some more shopping...<br><br>The river jumped off its bed today (sorry, french expression!). But the locals are used to it !

... alongside the pretty water to the Japanese Bridge. The old town here is famous around Vietnam (it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and is certainly very picturesque with old colonial buildings fronting narrow streets. Another reason why Hoi An is famous is for all the clothes tailors there is here - it is said there are over 400 shops! We visited one that our hotel recommended and checked out some catalogues for some ideas. Cesca was unsure of what she wanted so I stepped up ...

... way, which probably cost as much as a taxi-ride would have cost anyway. We apologized profusely to our fellow travelers for holding up their return trip, but they didn&#8217;t seem bothered. It was a large, spread-out complex of various buildings, with a half-full swimming pool, together with a large dose of that old-time Hanoi &#8220;service&#8221; that we used to get way back in the early 1990s. While drinking and chatting by the pool as the sun was going down, Russ and I ...

... s'est mis en place par la suite. Ils en sont sortis unis du Nord au Sud. Et en route vers leur avenir et la reconstruction a la vitesse de leur énergie travailleuse et persévérante.<br> Un peu comme des bulldozers qui détruiraient tout sur leur passage au prix de la reconquête de leurs terres, comme des forcenés bourrins voulant sortir les conquérants de chez eux. On s'attend a trouver un peuple 'grossier' dans ses usages. Grossier dans son mode de vie. Parce que il doit ...

... bottle shop for restocking. Six months of carting drinks, and other things, on the bike has now resulted in Mark getting a new basket for his bike. The other one had not quite given up yet, but it was becoming a bit disreputable and he considered it best to avoid calamity. Our guests hired bikes for the week, and survived the traffic and dodgy roads. <br><br>Another friend, Peter Hansen, was also here at the same time, but only for a few days. We all went out for dinner in Old Town ...

... No, I declined once more, I like being alone. <br><br>Anyway, this went on for a while. It was my fault for not insisting that he leave me alone. I am Vietnamese after all and can be as polite as they come.<br><br>At last I am alone, dining under the stars - the wind and waves my orchestra.<br><br>Do people pity me because I&#8217;m traveling alone? Or am I just an easy target because of it? This bears consideration.<br><br>Cong, in ...

... bought up the entire beach for hotel and high rent apartment property. A shame it was, but we tried to leave it in the rear view and focus on Hoi An... where we needed to find a hotel yet.<br><br>I'd called and emailed the place we had stayed before, and where a number of friends had stayed, per our recommendation. Unfortunately, they didn't get back to me right away and the place went and booked up while we waited. I'd looked for something ...