I will be short about Ho Chi Minh (ex-Saigon) – we pretty much hated it. We spent there only one rainy evening after 14 hours of flying, and the hectic city with population of 8,2 millions was a little too much. It felt that all of these 8,2 millions have their own scooter and that they were all on the streets at the same time. Every crossing felt like a Russian roulette. The beautifully lit super tall buildings were nice but still we had enough during that one evening.
Next morning we flew directly to central Vietnam, to Danang from where we took a taxi to a town called Hoi An. Hoi An is pretty touristy, especially the old town, but it was still nice. It seemed to be focused on three things:

• Clothes and tailoring. At least every second shop on The streets is a clothing shop where they can also tailor you anything you want, cheap and fast. The tailoring scene was pretty crazed around there and I had to struggle with myself so that I would not buy any pretty dresses that I wouldn’t use during our long trip.
• Local food. Hoi An has several own speciality dishes, of which we tried some and most of  them were really tasty.
• Lanterns. On Friday we actually got to witness the Full Moon festival, during which these little floating lanterns are sold and people put them into the river. The sight was beautiful, but again, there were way too many people for our taste.

What worked well on both places were the hostel and the homestay. The staff in both was very friendly and their breakfasts were probably the best food we’ve had in Vietnam. In Hoi An the Lakeside Homestay had also a very nice terrace with a river view. 

And they gave us bikes to use for free. Those were old grandma city bikes, but it was fine: first of all, in all that heat you’re not on a racing mood anyway, and second, Hoi An is super flat, so you don’t need any gears. We used bikes to get to the old town (around 3,5km), to the beach and to the nearby Cam Kim Island, which was a very beautiful rural island with rice paddies, gardens, cows and bulls and friendly village kids shouting ‘Hello!’. Cam Kim island was definitely worth a visit, even though the bridge to get there was kind of worrying – super narrow (not suited for cars), and yet full of scooter traffic. The island itself was calm and mostly tourist-free.

In the next post we will tell about My son, the remnants of the Hindu temples of Champa people. 

-Valeria