The the day after
my unexpected Hue Party, I awoke fresh and ready to leave town before
any more locals could coax me into a day of drinking. Having taken in
the compulsory sights of Hue, it was time to move to Hoi An, another
historic town/tourist trap, but by most accounts a far more quaint
and pleasant one than Hue. The drive, which rolls over Hai Van Pass
and through the big city of Danang, is known to be very lovely. And
lovely it was:
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| Bigger vehicles can take a tunnel through the mountain that'll knock 30 mins. off travel time. Worth it?... |
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| Love a good hairpin pic |
Hoi An is marketed
as an important “Ancient City,” and indeed it was for many years,
acting as a major port of call for traders from all over Asia and
even as far away as Europe. As such, the city boasts a good deal of
foreign influence – especially in its food and architecture –
originating from long before the war, tourism, and modern
development. More recently, it has become known for its pleasant Disneyesque ambiance and dirt cheap tailoring shops (of which there
are too many to count), and is one of the most frequently visited
tourist hot spots in Vietnam. I rolled in to town, easily found the
accommodation that had been recommended to me (a bar/guesthouse
hybrid dubbed The Sleepy Gecko), and headed for the beach. Despite
the fact that Hoi An is not known for its beaches, it has a few
nearby that are pretty fantastic.
The following day,
I joined forces with a couple of French siblings staying in the dorm
with me, and we made a trip to nearby Marble Mountain outside of the
big city of Danang. Marble Mountain is exactly what it sounds like,
only better. A few small mountains outside the city were found to be
full of high quality marble stone, so naturally they threw a billion
marble shops around it and started mining the hell out of it. The
interesting part is, after they'd presumably taken as much stone from
the mountain as they could, they turned it in to a tourist attraction
so they could keep making money off of it (savvy, no?). While I
wasn't expecting much, Marble Mountain turned out to be something of
a sightseer's playground. There were loads of caves (not naturally
occurring, but still cool) full of monuments and such, and lots of
areas to climb around on and explore. We worked up quite a sweat
hiking up to the top, and while the pictures don't do it justice, the
views were amazing.
Read on for Marble Mountain Pix, and
hear about yet another mishap – seems to be a running theme...
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| Seems ancient, but its not. Still cool tho |
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| A view: the mountain I drove over the previous day, plus development |
After the Mountain
and a beach-side dinner, we headed back to The Sleepy Gecko, and met
up with a teaching friend of mine from Hanoi who we unexpectedly ran
in to at the beach. We all hung out, played some pool, and eventually
got some well deserved rest. My next destination, a beach just
outside of the tourism hub of Nha Trang, was quite a ways down the
coast, so I decided to break the ride up in to 3 easily manageable
days of driving. The first leg would be knocked out in the afternoon
of the following day.
I had a nice
morning taking in the sights and sounds of Hoi An's old town and
bustling market, and got all packed up and ready to go by lunch time.
I checked out, saddled up the bike, and hit the road. Traffic was
pretty light, and I was making good time, so after an hour and a half
of driving I stopped to get a bowl of noodles and rest my butt before
going the last hour to Quang Ngai, where I was staying for the night.
As I sat down to my
snack, I realized that I had 3 missed calls and a text on my phone,
an unusually high amount of cellular traffic. The text and 2 of the
calls were from my French friend, who was trying to reach me to let
me know that I'd forgotten to grab my passport from the Gecko when I
checked out....
siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh
They'd called me
only about 20 minutes previously, as they didn't catch the mistake
until I had already been driving for an hour. Sooo obviously I had to
turn right back the way I came (not the first time that's happened
this trip...) and got back to Hoi An around 3PM. By then, it was much
too late to turn BACK around and try to get to where I had been
going, so another night's stay at the Gecko seemed the only
reasonable course of action. Not what I'd planned, but not the worst
scenario that could've played out.
Next time: The biggest day of driving
yet, plus some much needed beach time.
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