Day 5 - Sunday 11 May 2014

Hoi An - Vinh Hung Riverside Resort

Didn't have much chance to look around the resort last night but woke up to find a lovely place with lush gardens, a couple of swimming pools, cabin-style accommodation, garden staff wandering around in conical hats and friendly little geckos crawling up the walls.



The resort faces a river - who's name I'm not sure of - but the one constant is the noise of the putt-putting of  river boat engines. Mufflers are an unknown concept in the river boat world of Vietnam.  

Today was unbelievably hot - almost 40oC - and the humidity was energy-sapping. Even the staff were wilting in the heat - and they usually look cool, calm and collected all the time. "Very hot, madam. Very hot."

Jim made friends instantly by photographing everything and everyone. I was told by one of the bar staff - "Your husband, Jim. Very nice man. Take many photos." The pool boy asked him to post his photo on Facebook so he could show all his friends. Lots of photo opportunities in a tropical garden!

Spent quite a bit of time by the pool in the shade - but even that was exhausting after a while. Thank God for the cabins with good airconditioning.

Didn't feel like eating lunch - but at 4 p.m. everyday a number of locals come in to the grounds and set up stalls cooking and serving food for free. They call it Happy Hour - but without the drinks.
It was quite interesting - although some of the food was strangely bland. I wonder if they tone it down for Westerners?



We were serenaded during Happy Hour by a Vietnamese Elvis - who played a mixture of classical and popular songs on the guitar. Certainly very interesting.

In the slightly cooler conditions of the evening (only 30oC), we ventured out of the resort and into Hoi An Oldtown.
In the resort, it's easy to feel very isolated and the streets directly outside were half empty. We thought this must be a very quiet sleepy place.

Then, turning a corner, we found a veritable street party going on - and apparently it happens every night! Street stalls selling anything and everything, children trying to get you to buy candles in little paper boats to send down the river for good luck, enormous lotus-shaped lanterns in the middle of the river, an illuminated bridge and people, people and more people.



We had dinner in a little restaurant up a terrifically steep flight of stairs. We avoided drinking alcohol so as to prevent mishap on the way back down.

Am looking forward to seeing Oldtown by daylight.