Hoi An, Vietnam

Hoi An, my second to last stop on my tour through Vietnam, was quite a pleasant surprise after the torturous bus ride from Nha Trang. The bus ride was supposed to be about 11 hours so I decided that I would take an overnight sleeper bus so that I could sleep through most of the journey. I was to be picked up from my hotel to be taken to the bus at around 7pm, but once again nobody showed. This was the second time I hadn't been picked up from my hotel in Nha Trang, maybe because my hotel was in a somewhat obscure location, but I have a feeling its more likely just the way business is handled with tourism in Vietnam. Unfortunately the tourism industry is fairly new to Vietnam and the bugs haven't quite been worked out like they have in places like Thailand, where things run like a finely tuned BMW.
Anyway, back to the bus... Luckily I was able to contact the booking company and they immediately sent a motorbike to come get me. The bus was running late so I was still able to go. But as I got on the bus, I immediately had the feeling that maybe taking the bus wasn't such a good idea. I suggest to anyone who may be making the trip from Nha Trang to Hoi An or Hue to definitely take the train (or fly), you're body will thank you for it. The bus was completely packed, and the sleeper seats were so small that anyone over 5'8" almost wouldn't fit. The arrangements of the seats reminded me of fallen dominoes, all stacked on top of each other with your legs cramped underneath the seat in front of you. We finally got on our way, but less than an hour later the air-con on the bus stopped working. We stopped, there was some fiddling with the fuse box, fuses replaced, and we were quickly on our way... until about fifteen minutes later when it happened again, then again shortly after that. We finally pulled over at a rest stop and sat there for hours while we waited for somebody to come out and make the required repairs. We eventually got on our way, but that wasn't even the worst of it. The sleeper bus is supposed to have a toilet on board, which it did, to make the journey shorter as they wouldn't need to make as many stops, but it was pad-locked so that nobody could use it. Apparently to keep the smell down. So everybody was at the complete mercy of the drivers who would only stop when THEY needed to go, and this generally meant somewhere along the side of the road along the way. Not so bad for the guys, but I definitely felt sorry for the girls. All in all the journey took over 17 hours!
After the rough journey, I took my time trying to find a comfortable place to stay and found a nice little hotel in the center of Old Town Hoi An, balcony and swimming pool included. I relaxed for a while, grabbed a bite to eat, and spent the evening strolling the streets of Old Town amongst the glow of all the busy restaurants and cafes. Hoi An is also an excellent place to get affordable custom-made clothing. In this town of only 80,000 residents there are over 500 tailors!
Worth checking out in Hoi An is the Japanese Covered Bridge. The bridge has a temple built into one side of it, and a roof over it for shelter. It was constructed in 1593 and could use a fresh coat of paint once again. But according to legend, construction began on the year of the monkey and finished in the year of the dog, which would explain the monkeys guarding one side of the bridge and the other side by dogs... statues, not real ones of course.
Hoi An is situated on the Thu Bon River and is an excellent example of Vietnam's yester-year as it was left relatively untouched by the damage from the Vietnam war that took its toll on so much of the rest of the country. And although Hoi An is situated riverside, beautiful Cua Dai beach is only a short 5km ride away, and bikes are available everywhere for about $1/day.
Hoi An is a beautiful and charming town, and a must stop for any itinerary on a trip through Vietnam!