Ho Chi Minh City....arrival...

Left Hoi An for Ho Chi Minh City to complete my two week visit of Vietnam.  To save 14 hours on a train took a plane for the same cost. 

Arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) Saturday night to see the full on craziness of the backpacker district where my hotel was located.  I suppose I am getting old and I retreated back to my hotel to get some sleep.  Like a lot of the hotels around here, it is located in a quiet alley just away from the action.

I have not traveled enough to lose the thrill of getting on a plane to go somewhere new....

Saturday night in Ho Chi Minh City....

...backpacker district

 

The next morning I found there was a market next to my hotel alleyway

Only busy until about 11am

Hotel alleyway...very quiet...but watch out for motorcycles

Small hostel with dorm rooms and privates

$7 for a dorm bed

Super clean like everyplace in Vietnam

Common bathroom and shower

My small room is on the top floor

Pretty decent room....

...just missing a private bathroom.  But only $15 !!

My nice quiet alley from the balcony view

Ho Chi Minh City....to be discovered...

Hoi An...changed hotels...

Planned to stay in Hoi An for 4 days and spent 2 of those in a guesthouse beside the rice paddies.  Like in Ubud Bali, the rice paddies are so nice for the beautiful views and for sleeping to the sounds of insects buzzing away.

Hoi An's center is touristy but that is a very small part of this city.  On the map near the center it advertises "authentic Vietnamese village" and I thought this would be another touristy area...but I was wrong and it was a living breathing fishing village and residential area. 

Bicycle is the way to get around as you are a distance from the town center.  And with a bike you can see all sorts of places that are just inaccessible by walking and need closer inspection than what you can get with a motorcycle.

Beautiful rice paddy views

Roof top breakfast patio

The kitchen

Cold noodles for breakfast

Not spending much money on this trip...but I know I have a lot in my pocket compared to some

Ordered a vodka coke with dinner and got a whole bottle for $3

Old town Japanese bridge

The market in Hoi An center

Amazing and "beautiful" restored American army jeeps

Very pretty and nice town for a vist

Feeling guilty having so much fun?  A little bit....so will need to work hard later to "pay" for the appreciation I have for this lovely adventure

Hoi An

Took the bus to Hoi An from Hue.  A mere $6 dollars and you get picked up at your hotel and dropped off 3 hours later in Hoi An.  A whole wasps nest of motorcycles awaited me on the other end to extort ridiculously high taxi fare.  I was able to save $5 by walking the 10 blocks to the hotel.

Hoi An is a big tourist draw and is famous as the culinary capital of Vietnam.  Of course I didn't try all the food here and it was very good everywhere but culinary capital is something the town council dreamed up I think.

The downtown core is quite touristy but pleasant enough.  In Hoi An you would want to get a hotel a few KM from the center and then use the hotels free bicycles to get around.  The town is very nice and authentic outside of the center and there are many very good restaurants.

My first day I took the bicycle two km to the local beach to have dinner.  It was very nice and easy ride and the restaurants there were very good and not expensive.  A nice family beach.

The bus was packed full of tired tourists

The bus allows you to see the sights

Passed through Da Nang

Another very nice $25 room.  Splurging but how to resist?

This pool was very nice and I made good use of it

A pool is a big deal for me....my past hotels around the world usually never have one....so it was a big treat

The hotel rooms had nice patios

Views of the city...next door was a tree nursery

This was definitely a family beach and full of kids

A successful day of traveling