Traveling in SE Asia has been an exciting and uplifting experience and we would highly recommend it to our readers. We have had the luxury of time so that we were able to be more spontaneous with our plans. This has allowed us to spend more time in places that appeal to us: Hanoi - 11 nights, Luang Prabang,Laos - 10 nights, Siem Reap, Cambodia - 8 nights and Ho Chi Minh City - 9 nights. This creates of feeling of stability and avoids the tedium of hopping from one place to another. Spontaneity came to our rescue on our visit to Hoi An, Vietnam recently when it became clear that the 2 days we had allotted to it was not enough.
Hoi An
This UNESCO World Heritage Site stands out as our number one choice of all the places we have visited so far. What makes it so appealing is its small town charm. We selected a hotel that turned out to be a real gem and offered us the luxury of being close to the market, the historic sites, river walks, excellent restaurants and great cycling opportunities.Hoi An is a good base to do excursions which are very affordable. Perhaps the main reason why people come here is for its reputation as the tailoring capital of the world. We met one lady from Australia who comes here once a year to update her wardrobe. The money she saves on clothes pays for her trip. The city has grown so much since Doug visited in 1998 when the city had a population of 10,000. Now the population is 100,000 and growing.
Nha Trang
We made a bus connection from Hoi An to Nha Trang and 16 hours later we finally arrived at Nha Trang. It was a poorly maintained sleeper bus with questionable standard of cleanliness. That is now behind us. Nha Trang is a beach community with a reputation as party central. We both had colds so the partying did not happen for us and that is our excuse. We loved the beach and we enjoyed some good meals for two days.You could spend more time if you wanted a beach experience. It does not have the same cultural aspects as many other places in Vietnam.
Dalat
The next bus ride - not as onerous and even enjoyable for only 5 hours - took us to the Paris of Vietnam, Dalat. We stayed here for 3 nights and this allowed us ample opportunity to explore this area of outstanding beauty. The high altitude gives travelers a break from the tropical heat. It was so comfortable that we did a 20 km hike. We chose a hotel recommended to us by a fellow traveler in October and he said be sure to stay at the Pink House and we did.
The hotel offers a motorbike tour that is only available to its clients. Needless to say I did not ride on the back of Doug's bike and yes it was not without incident. The leader's instructions were not too clear and guess what happened. Doug motored off all by himself and within 20 minutes ran out of gas. Meanwhile 3 people went looking for him and he was nowhere to be found. Three hours later Doug found the group and we continued on to have an amazing tour. We explored coffee plantations, a silk centre, a market, a cricket farm and the centerpiece of the tour was a visit to our leader's mountain village where we met some extraordinary people. Returning was a scary experience since the roads were poorly lit and people were burning garbage along the way which made visibility difficult. There was no buddy system so people did not ride together. There was a sign of relief when Doug got in last because the traffic on the narrow streets was heavy and made it easy to get lost. All said it was a great day and a great adventure. We found out at the end that the previous day there had been an accident and one person was injured. We left Dalat with good memories and after an 8 hour bus ride we arrived for the last hurrah in Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City. Tomorrow we leave for Chiang Mai, Thailand and a week with the elephants. More on that in a week's time.
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