Orient Hotel Da Nang

... Fortunately we have been very lucky &amp; not had a bad experience. <br><br>Tomorrow is going to be an early morning as we leave for our excursion @ 0630. We will be doing a full day touring around Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon)...oh ya.. and it is supposed to be 34 degrees...on the plus side.....and we have to wear long pants, long sleeves &amp; shoes &amp; socks to go into one of the temples on the tour.....oh joy!!

... as good as it would have been the day before.. oh well at least we weren't driving through a typhoon! <br>At the top we stopped for photos, a look at a US army base up there, drank tea and got ripped off by some desperate Vietnamese women who guilt tripped us into buying a load of tacky bracelets we didn't want so their kids could go to school. <br>We went back down the pass and stopped off at China beach in Danang before we arrived at our hotel in Hoi An at around 3pm. <br>So ...

... in the house, Mark noticed quite a few of the locals out in our street, cleaning up all the mud and silt and debris that had been left post-flood. He went down and helped them with the clean-up, scraping mud down the slight incline, with hoses following. He tried not to think about what he might have been trudging through and actually enjoyed the process, as did the locals. <br><br>Before the road was cleaned, Mark had been pondering the &#8220;curse of Puma&#8221;. You might ...

... one that you climb &amp; visit. It was another unbelievably hor day &amp; climbing up hundreds of steep roughly cut stone stairs had us pantiung for breath &amp; sweating like I never have before.<br> <br> Seriously we were as wet as if we had been swimming &amp; it was running in ...

... so far. So we hauled over three bags of clothes and then found out that she actually charges by the piece. It was still a bargain despite the fact that we handed over half our wardrobes, and when it was returned to us everything was damp and subsequently wrinkled right back up as soon as we put it into our suitcases. <br><br>And for those of you who identify with bug-a-phobia, while trying on earrings at a storefront display, we noticed a panicky 2&#8221; cockroach ...

We had been warned that Danang was a bit rubbish but we quite enjoyed it (except for the rubbish weather!).<br><br>Danang is a business town so there didn't seem to be any other tourists which was quite nice after Hue. We only spent a couple of nights there; we visited the Museum of Cham Sculture which was weird! There were loads of stone carvings/sculptures that had been ...

... our way out (luckily losing the old ladies in the process) we found an awesome street of restaurants where I had one of the best meals so far (impressive considering we´d been staying in 5* hotels and this place was effectively just a little cart with a rice cooker). Then we headed for Asia -the shop in which me and alex had a total 21 pieces of clothing made... and that was us being (very)restrained.<br><br>(Harri is now in the UK so I've taken on the epic ...

We have been traveling in Asia since the 18Th of June it has been extremely hot and we have been hanging out for the beach! So danang here we come just a 3hr train ride from hue, and was amazing scenery. Straight off the train you get swarms of people in your face asking if you want a motorbike taxi or a mini van etc.. it gets quite overwhelming especially in the intense heat. This one guy kept on ...

... haben, also vielleicht liegt es auch an mir, dass die mich hi** mehr od** we***** in Ruhe lassen. In Ha Noi habe ich dann **stmal das volle Programm an Touren gebucht. Ich bin nach Halong Bay gefahren, wo und habe dort eine Nacht auf einem d** Junk Schiffe v**bracht. Danach noch eine Nacht auf d** groessten Insel von Halong Bay, Cat Ba. Halong Bay ist eine Ansammlung von kleinen Inseln, durch die man den ganzen Tag mit dem Schiff kutschi**t wird. Es gibt ...

... me; he had fought against the Vietcong back in the 60's and claimed he had not talked to an American since then, so one can only imagine his excitement. He was stationed at China Beach which was an American stronghold during the Vietnam war and specialized in communications with American allies. Towards the end of dinner, I mentioned that I was going to see the Filipinos play, but needed a ride. One of the family friends, a motorbike driver ...