After the 16 hour bus ride, including waiting for 4 hours for the typhoon to wreck most of Hoi An, we finally arrived. Because the whole town was turned upside down, we had a hard time to even find a taxi.
Abby, Becky and me decided to wait for a good while to find a taxi,. The mototaxi’s kept saying there weren’t any taxi’s due to the recent storm, but when I got off the bus I did see one driving. After about 30 minutes finally a taxi showed up and took us to the hostel.
Once there I met up with Paul, Dan and Sebastian, whhom I met before. I shared a room together with Paul, as this worked out nearly as cheap as staying in a dorm. Later on Paul showed me and a Spanish guy the city center on his motor bike he rented. Only then we found out how bad the town was hit. The river was far beyond its limits and most trees had fallen down. Apparently this was the 11th typhoon to hit Hoi An this year, so I suppose to the locals it wasn’t all that new.
Once I came back I had a shower and some drinks in the hostel. From there we went to one of the few bars that were open that night (most shops and restaurants were still closed because of the typhoon). The bar was a 10-minute walk from the hostel. The bar itself called Why Not Bar wasn’t all that fancy, but the whole hostel was there. Besides, for 100,000 Vietnamese Dong (3 euro) you can drink all nighth for free any cocktail mixer you wanted. It became a night with a lot of drinks as you’d imagine.
Day 17
After having a little sleep in I decided to check out town. I rented a bicycle for $1 and drove into town. There I saw Becky and Abby walking towards the center too. We decided to first have some lunch. After lunch I went into town by myself and checked out the different temples. Some of them were still being cleaned up after the typhoon. Yet, it was good to see that even after 1 day the town was nearly cleaned up again.
Later on I met Venessa in the hostel and a French guy I met when we went to the waterpark in Nha Trang. Vanessa went out to buy some dresses at the tailor shops. After a while the French guy and me decided to have some dinnne. Afterwards we had a little walk through the center by night.
Later on we went back to the hostel where I met up with Becky, Abby, Hannah, Lewis and Carly. They were just having dinner in the hostel. I had a beer and lalter on played some pool in the hostel bar near the swimming pool. After a shower I was all freshed up. We decided to check out a bar called Volcano, which is on the other side of town. There they do free drinks all night for 80,000 VND (2,50 euro). It again became a night with a lot of drinks. After a while we were done and headed back to the hostel.
We were already warned that that mototaxi’s outside alll wanted to overcharge drunk tourist as soon as they got out of the bar. After some haggeling I found one who brought me back for 50,000 VND (1,50 euro). Once I came back I ate a pizza in the restaurant opposite of the hostel (3am). Lewis got angry with some of the Brtish guys who were trying to piss him off. I tried to calm everyone down which worked in the end. After my pizza I went to bed.
Day 18
The next morning I had another little sleep in. Paul had already checked out the day before, s I had the room for myself which was nice for once. I had some breakfast with the others of the hostel and then we grabbed a bus to the next destination; Hue.
The bus ride took longer (as always) than advertised, so at the end of the afternoon Lewis, Hannah, Carly and I finally arrived in Hue. We said bye to Abby and Becky who were catching an overnight bus straight to Hanoi. We decided to stay in Hue for two nights and catch up with them in a day or two.
We checked in to a hotel called “Google hotel” (it even has the same color scheme as Google) and guests who stay at the hotel can drink free beers all night from 5pm. At first I couldn’t believe it, but its really true, Its crazy to think the drinks just keep getting cheaper along the way. In Cambodia the $1 beerrs were already a good price, but free beer? Too good to be true, yet very true.
We chillled out in the hostel bar and had some food. Later on we called it a night and decided to have a good nights sleep.
Soon more adventures from Hue & Hanoi!
Oct 15th 2013 – Oct 18th 2013
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