More photos from Quy Nhon

Quy Nhon

We have now been in Quy Nhon for 10 days.The first 5 days we spent in recovery mode, after weeks of continuous travel it was great to unpack our bags for longer than one night.
We spent the days swimming in the sea.relaxing and made early morning and evening forays to explore the city, when it is cooler.
During the day the city is extreemly quite
you only venture out if you really have to.
The locals cover up completely when they go out, hands, face all over. (They look like they are off to rob a bank!!!) They also do not want the sun to darken their skin. (I went to buy some face cream, it all had whitener in it!)
The now main street 10 years ago was the airport runway.
The beach is busy from 5am until 7.30am then it is totally empty untill 4.00pm until dark about 6.30pm.
The city comes alive on dusk.The streets are full with everyone having a good time eating and drinking, (mainly fruit drinks cold tea and coffee with ice and condensed milk) and socialising. It is just a little cooler.
We have had some great meals out with different people we have met and learnt so much.
There are very few westerners here so we do stand out. We have nearly caused a few accidents!
One day we took a local bus out to the Quang Trung museum about 1 1/2 hours away in the town of Phu Phong. We were given a personal tour by an English speaking guide and learnt a great deal.
Over the last few days we hired bikes so were able to cover a lot more ground early morning and stupidly into early afternoon.We always look forward to returning to the hotel and a swim.
Yesterday we biked out to Quy Hoa beach and the Leper hospital.The beach was beautiful and totally deserted. Well worth the struggle up a steep hill and down again with both brakes on full. It was 5km one way. We explored the other end of town in the afternoon.
Today we sadly say Goodbye to Quy Nhon and fly to Saigon then on to Bangkok.

Hoi An to Quy Nhon

This was a one of our more challenging transitions!
The first stage involved hiring two motor bikes at 7.15am to take us and our bags to the next town half an hour away on the main highway. It all went well for the first few ks until the bike Jeff was on just stopped, so I was left on the side of the road while Jeff went on. Eventually I was retrieved and deposited onto a very busy roundabout and with a vague wave in the direction we were to flag the bus down. We made it across the road and saw the bus speeding along so with us madly waving it miracuously stopped.We were bundled aboard and squished into the back seat. This was a forteen seater.
It didnt take long to realise the driver was in training for formula 1.(I am really amazed we survived.) He went straight through every red light and spent most of the 5 1/2 hour journey on the wrong side of the road.
At one stop,(the bus was full), another three and a motor bike were stuffed on board. I counted 20 heads.
We eventually arrived at our destination with great relief and were met by another wall of rude taxi drivers.We managed to escape and with umbrellas up we headed for town to find a hotel.
After a lot of leg work we found a very nice hotel right on the beach.

Hoi An- a trip to the beach

The beach was only 6kms away fron Hoi An, so early one morning we borrowed some very rickerty bikes from the hotel and off we went though the traffic into the country,paddy fields,animals etc
The beach was beautiful the water just right and we were the only ones enjoying it. After an hour or so we pedalled on to the beach town and another swim,then back to Hoi An.It was extreemly hot so the unbrella was necessary.

Hoi An -a delightful town

We felt very comfortable in this compact,clean,tidy,friendly and colourful town.It has many historical buildings of importance,including the Japanese Bridge.
Hoi An is on the tourist route so many of the locals have a passable understanding of English and put up with tourists with a smile.The menus are in both languages which is a great help.
The streets were full of colour,flowers by day and lanterns by night.The smell of burning insence wofted by.