The Little Hoi An Boutique Hotel

When I booked this hotel - months ago - I requested that in the 2 rooms we have a twin bed configuration.  

When we arrived, the gorgeous little lady (I seem to be calling everyone 'little'.  It's not meant to be patronising, it's just that compared to me - they are little.... tiny in fact) checked us in and showed us to our rooms.  We walked into Chris and Marie's room first and  spotted the mistake straight away.  I explained that I had booked both rooms to be twin beds.  She took hold of that situation and she was right on top of fixing it.  She rang downstairs to sort it out and we were all taken to the next floor up and Chris and Marie were again shown their room, which was fine.... then she showed us the other room for Jenny and myself.  She flung upon the door and did a big Adriana Xenidis - Wheel of Fortune display hands and said, 

"This is the best room in the hotel."  

I replied, "with one bed."  

She dropped her hands and said, "What?  You want twin beds too?"

So she rang down again to sort it all out.  She was so concerned that we weren't happy, but really, it has to be a first world problem if the only worry you having to share a bed, but she handled the situation beautifully, with pure professionalism and everyone was happy.

When we got into the room, me Jenny and I like to get the compendium out to read about what's on offer.

Here's what we found in the Rules and Regulations section:

1. Please do not cook, wash or iron in your room (pretty safe with that one)

2. Please do not take weapon, flammable and explosive substances, pets, foul things into the hotel (I can't make any promises with this one)

Thog Blog

I spotted this in the local Vietnamese newspaper (the English version)

Sunk!

Anyone up for the swan boat ride?  Maybe tomorrow?

There's A Couple Of Dummies Out There Who Don't Have A Leg To Stand On!

Unusual..... Noice..... Different

Picked up from DaNang airport by a chap who thought he might challenge Daniel Ricciardo for a spot on the next Formula 1 race.  He screamed to a halt at this DaNang beach for us to get out and take a photo.....

What is it with the posing in this country? ⬇

The beach was nice enough with lovely white sand, but the water was a little brown and murky for my liking.  We sure are spoilt in Australia with our beaches.

Let me just start by saying one thing.....

I LOVE HOI AN!  

I just love it.  It's my most favourite place in Vietnam that I have visited thus far.  It is such a beautiful town that even during the war, both sides - the North and the South agreed that they would not bomb Hoi An to preserve it's historic beauty..... And what a beauty she is!  The buildings are incredibly old and there are some that have you wondering how the roof is being held up.  

The streets are lined with colourful lanterns that are lit up at night which gives the place an more magical feeling.

Hoi An sits on the Thu Bon River which is a lifeline for the town.  There are hundreds of fishing boats and nets catching fish old school.  It's great to watch them fling the nets out from their boats that are big enough for 2 people.

The people are friendly and there is a welcomed sense of calm here that you don't get in the bigger cities and..... the shops are different!  

After spending time in Hanoi and Nha Trang we have craved something..... anything different.  I just don't understand how the sellers make any money by selling the exact same thing as the 6 shops either side of them.  We've spent the last week saying "If just one person had a different idea - they'd be a million-dong-aire (which I realise isn't a huge amount of money), but they'd have tourists (us) swarming to their stall.

So on our first jaunt through the shops of the Hoi An Ancient Town, we were giggling like twits at all the lovely, creative and DIFFERENT things there were to choose from.  There were still the same lacquer ware shops and bamboo bowl shops and shops selling the exact same clothing, but in the mix was a little bit of different and oh how we love a bit of different.

Hoi An is full of artists from all over the world.  It is a photographer's paradise and a painter's dream.  It is very difficult to not be inspired by the beautiful surroundings here.

There are also not as many people in Hoi An, meaning not as many motorbikes, which means not as noisy and much more room on the footpaths!  There are also rules about what time motorbikes can be ridden through the central part of the old town, making it quite pleasant to wander around.

We stopped at a place called Mango Mango for our first Hoi An luncheon and it did not disappoint.

We ordered a variety of entree sized dishes for a bit of a tapas experience and me Jenny and I ordered this plate of absolute divineness.  It was tasty, it was fresh and it had all the required elements of sweet, spicy, soft and crunchy.  It was a party for one, right there in the bowl. 

I would give it, hands down, the title of the best meal I've had in Vietnam - ever!

As we've come down the coast, the dining experiences are changing.  In Hanoi the typical thing to do is to sit on the little plastic stools on the street to eat.  In Nha Trang, they cater more for tourists, especially Russians who I'm guessing prefer to sit up at modern, adult sized tables and chairs and in Hoi An, we're still up on the tables and chairs, but we're doing it in a quaint and gorgeous style, making it modern, but without losing any of the traditional charm.

This post is really becoming a comparison between Hanoi, Nha Trang and Hoi An.  It wasn't meant to be, but the differences really jump right off the page.

Take the alleyways for instance..... in Hanoi, the laneways were covered over and very dark and we guessed that they lead to where the locals live.  But here in Hoi An, they are a passage to somewhere.  They're an adventure.  They look like places you would want to explore.  They're quaint and they're crooked and I want to walk down each and every one of them.

Float Like a Butterfly.... Sting Like a Bee

Vinpearl Land

It's a bit like Disneyland without the oversized characters or fun tea cup rides. 

We caught the cable car that travels over the 3.3km between the island and the coast which wasn't the most pleasant as it resembled a sauna that we had to share with 2 Russian ladies and 2 young local chaps = squished!

It was a little bit daunting, cause none of us are fans of travelling via modes of transport where you can potentially plunge to you death.

But there was a fantastic view from up there.

There was a mandatory dolphin fountain and mountain goat infront of a sunflower statue a the entrance.

There were screaming people coming from the vomit inducing upside down blitzer, which made us turn a hard left to head to the Lazy River at the water park...

We wandered past shops all selling the exact same lacquer ware and souvenirs. 

There was western music being pumped out of the loud speakers.... what can I tell you - it moved me a little.

Walking around Vinpearl Land was very different to Nha Trang.  It was clean and  modern, but still bloody hot!

Underwater World looked air-conditioned - so in we went....

There was even a mermaid show...

There were all sorts of creatures there including these gorgeous turtles.  They were in the smallest little enclosure and there were signs that said "Don't Touch", but one lady saw that there was a desperate turtle trying to climb up a steep rock.  She just picked him up and popped him at the top.  It was a huge sigh of relief for not only the turtle, but for me as I was watching and telepathically willing him to get up that damn rock!

There were Lizards and spiders and snakes - but I could't take or put photos up of them because I hate them.  I know 'hate' is a strong word, but I'll stand by it.

This little guy reminded me of the Chameleon from the movie Monster's Inc.  Check out the eyes!

Hehehehe

Do you get it?

When in Underwater World......  There was a young couple taking posed photos of each other on this shell, so when they finished, I gave it my best David Brent.

As soon as we left the beautiful air con of the underwater world, it was hot as hell, so he high tailed it to the water park - for the main event - the Lazy River!

We got in and fun the lady river...... we were very excited to get in there and just relax in the coolness of the water.......

And it was closed - bastards!

So we headed down to the far end of the park to the wave pool.

We were in there for about 10 unrelaxing, wavey minutes and they finally stopped the waves..... and everybody got out, except us, we'd finally found our relaxing spot.  They might possibly want to place "pain the bottom of the pool" on their to-do list, but other than that..... it was lovely.

 But my favourite image of the day was this........

Or possibly this......

On the way out, we walked the long way around (to avoid the stairs!) and I managed to get a little waspy thing caught under my toe.  He clearly wasn't too happy about this as he either fell into me sting first, or decided that I was a danger to him and he'd give me a little what for.  Needless to say my toe bloody hurt. I managed to get the stinger out and with the fast first aid of my ladies, I was able to shake it off like a grown up.

And it was lucky that we were grown ups and not one of the many many children in the park because we came across this......

 We'd had our fun and were heading back to the mainland.  We got back into the cable hotbox and sweated all the way home..... but still managed to look like total spunks!

We made it back to the hotel in time for our Dim Sum lunch/brunch, which was lucky......

......because it was clearly standing room only!