Hoi An

WEDNESDAY 27 JULY 2011

I remembered to pick up my laundry this time. I still haven’t managed to sort out the laundry I left behind in Hanoi. The hotel have been to collect it from the launderette but were told they couldn’t have it without the receipt, which I don’t have.

I hired a bicycle near the hotel and met Sarlet again, so we agreed to meet up for dinner. I needed to go to the Sinh Café to book my overnight sleeper bus to Na Trang, but had difficulty finding it. I asked a couple of people the way, and then a boy on his motorbike talking to his friends offered to show me. We went a different way to what I was expecting, and the streets got narrower and narrower until we ended up in a dead-end. He apologised and another friend of his with a motorbike helmet came along. At that point, I got scared and said I would find my own way, and peddled as fast as I could out of there! I felt safer when I was in larger streets with other people, and he followed me and then showed me where the café was. He may have been genuine, but I don’t think so because he could have taken me straight there on the main road.


On the way to the beach I was looking at various shops for a Kimono dressing gown. I wanted to buy one ready-made to avoid the fuss of having one made, but at one tailors they had the material I wanted and offered to make it in a day. A woman from Melbourne called Ann was also there and asked if I was free tomorrow night as she has been working with children from a small village in the country who were going to sing, and she wanted people to attend.

I then cycled the 4 kilometres to the beach, which was beautiful – although the sea at 30 degrees was too warm to cool you down.

In the evening Sarlet and I went to another excellent Hoi An restaurant.