As Vietnamese scooter professionals we mount our trusted stead after breakfast on the twelfth floor of our hotel overlooking both the city and the sea. We avoid the city and plan a route to Hoi An that requires us to remember two exits to prevent endless viewing the map and changing directions. Our trusted rain gear keeps us and out luggage dry as the downpour continues. As we pass the golden dragon bridge and leave the city of Da Nang behind us the rain drops become smaller and not long after the warm air gets a chance at drying our shorts once again.
After a stop for gas and a look at the map we realize we are on the route that would take us away from the coast and onto the highway. We take a left turn and ride a long a freshly paved road towards the sea. Without any warning the tarmac ends and is replaced by a sand road filled with puddles and slippery mud before we get back on to the tarmac. When we come to and intersection and debate on which way to go a passerby well interprets our looks and points to the right and says Hoi An, who needs TomTom. After another encounter like this we are on the coast road continuing south.
As we enter Hoi An we see many more tourists than we had in the past days and surprisingly many of the are on bicycles, this due to the fact that many parts of Hoi An are pedestrian areas. We find our hotel and after checking in we take the scooter to the An Bang beach where we are welcomed by a elderly women who manages the parking lot and is dead serious about it. Anyone on a bicycle or scooter has to park on here lot and pay the price, including people on there way to their hotel down the road. We pay the fee and walk onto the beach and with our feet in the sand we look at the waves rolling in and enjoy this wonderful holiday feeling.
We have a light lunch and relax between the palm trees before we cruise back to town and return our scooter and collect our backpacks. Even though it is still early in the day the people at the rental shop seem to have had a few beers already and together with our backpacks we receive a beer as well. We stroll back to the hotel where we drink our beers, relax and read by the pool and finish the afternoon with a little nap. Just as we plan to see more of Hoi An we fin it raining cats and dogs and decide to postpone our city tour. Fortunately it takes less than an hour for the rain to stop and we walk to the old city center to see the streets lite up with lanterns in all colours and have dinner by the river.
