Hội An - bikes, bartering and delicious bahn can.

We booked three nights in Hội An thinking that would give us enough time to scope it out for our return visit in a few weeks. Since we delayed all the historic stuff until the return visit, two nights probably would've been enough.

The town is pretty charming...

especially along the river

and at night

when they turn the lanterns on

... but unless you're shopping for hand-tailored clothes or visiting the historic sites, there really isn't a whole lot to do in Hội An itself. Other than, of course, spend your money on other things.

like these disappointing $3 pastries -

where's Porto when you need it?

So we hopped on the free bikes provided by our guesthouse and went for some rides.

just like everyone else in town

(bike ferries! why doesn't the Willamette have this?)

Hội An is both small and super bike-friendly, and we had no trouble meandering around the back roads just seeing what we could see.

neither of us are really bikers

which is odd considering

we lived in Portland

but the countryside was lovely

and their scarecrows would make Portland proud

There are marked bike routes around town and the surrounding villages, and we ended up doing almost all of them (maybe 30km or so?) over two days.

we stopped briefly at Tra Que Herb Village,

renowned for its fresh greens and herbs

we wandered through coconut groves and bamboo-making facilities

(pictured: bamboo drying on the roadside)

we saw some baby goats

we pretended we were going to buy this house

Otherwise, we made every attempt to avoid the madness downtown. Hoards of camera-cyclopsed tourists roamed the streets. Restaurateurs shouted at us to buy a drink at their happy hour, which was apparently every hour. Shop ladies beckoned to us to have a look at their fabrics and clothing, and fruit stand ladies shouted at us to buy fruit. (Really - that's what they said, "you buy some fruit!" We loved their straightforward approach.)

instead of all that we did a lot of this

And it was good.

Food notes:

• we happened upon this cary chay stand around the corner from our hotel, and it was amazing

(vegetarian curry)

• we took a chance on a local cafe for dinner one night, and while it wasn't the cleanest establishment (which we didn't really learn until we'd ordered), our meal was delicious

(we think it's squid and noodles)

• we had lunch at the market one day, a bit overpriced but still an amusing experience

lady on the left: the queen of multitaskers -

she could take your order

while cooking your neighbor's food

and recruiting new customers

• we had surprisingly inexpensive vegan noodles downtown at Quan Chay Dam one evening

lots of locals were eating here

which means it's good

• we tried Loi's cao lầu (a Hội An specialty) right across from Mermaid Restaurant

pork, greens, noodles -

its simplicity was delicious

• but the real treat was Tuat Banh Can, also across from Mermaid Restaurant, which we randomly found on a food blog

wonton-like quail eggs and

fresh pork sausages

OMG OMG OMG

• and yes, we did buy some fruit

Lodging notes: Nature Homestay was a little expensive compared to other hostels/hotels, but a decent breakfast was included and they had free bike rentals (which were $5/day on average elsewhere), so all in all it was worth it. The homestay was also far enough from downtown that we found cheap eats and snacks at local markets for a fraction of the downtown prices. But not so far from downtown unless you have issues with walking 20 minutes.

(and we had a sitting area which was nice)

Hội An isn't easily accessible by public transit and you definitely pay to get there and to leave, and the train station is in the next town so you can't book tickets yourself.  The homestay offered all kinds of booking services but we saved money by finding agents downtown to book our car to Danang and our train from Danang to Hue. It was a lot more time(and patience!)-consuming but worthwhile considering we probably saved $10 (that's like, five meals for one of us).  We learned some valuable lessons booking on our own... Most importantly: never pay sticker price for travel services, and shaking your head and walking away is a pretty effective way to watch the price magically drop.

(There's some kind of fine line between politely haggling to get a decent price and shrugging, saying "it's just a dollar to us", and letting it go. We haven't mastered this fine line yet and we lean toward the shrug approach. In theory this just perpetuates the behavior of the merchants - and often times the money just goes into their pocket and not to those who really need it - but they're going to do it anyway so is our frustration really worth it? Jury's still out.)

Anyway! So long, Hội An. We'll see you again soon with friend in tow and we'll enjoy your wonderful history then. For now, we need some mountains and caves... A brief stop in Hue (ed. note - which we liked a lot, more to come) and then Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park, please!

Skip Nha Trang and head straight to Quy Nhơn!

Crazy Bus #2, also known as the scenic ride to Nha Trang from Buôn Ma Thuột, trumped anything that touristy overpriced Nha Trang itself had to offer us.

long and windy mountain roads

(OK, Nha Trang's Long Son pagoda was nice)

We stayed there a night and hopped on a bus to Quy Nhơn the next morning.

Crazy Bus #3 was the craziest yet. This one (a four-bench Mercedez Sprinter minivan) featured about 12 passengers at any given time, packages shoved everywhere, and the driver barreling up the coast playing chicken with oncoming traffic the whole way and occasionally slowing down enough to drop off a passenger or package.

pre-departure, obviously -

you wouldn't have wanted to see us post-arrival

Good times! At least there were no actual chickens on the bus. (That'll be South America's adventure.)

Quy Nhơn was pretty calm in comparison to everywhere else we'd been. It's a university town so there were lots of youth, especially in the evenings on the beach...

beach volleying is very popular

(they don't bother with nets)

Motorbikes still ruled the road in Quy Nhơn but there were far fewer of them, and hardly any horns around town - unusual!

White faces were somewhat rare and we got some stares here too, less than Buôn Ma Thuột though. Kids still waved and said "hello" everywhere we went and one night at the beach some university students stopped to talk with us and practice their English.

One day we ventured to Tháp Bánh Ít and Tháp Đôi, ancient Cham towers in the area that date back to the 11th century. (Rusty Compass gives an interesting summary of Quy Nhơn overall and the Cham presence in the area if you'd like to know more.)

temples with a view -

Tháp Bánh Ít

a better view of the view - Tháp Bánh Ít

Tháp Đôi - restored but still impressive

And on our last day we visited the local cemetery.

so colorful!

(there is a cemetery blog post coming soon)

Otherwise we mostly walked around town and sat by the beach.

where every hour is happy hour

fishing boats at night

the main strip

The town's central market was the first we visited that wasn't geared toward tourists so that was fun, and we found some wonderful green spaces and great vegetarian food. Yep. Quy Nhơn was a nice break.

Food notes:

• the best spring rolls ever are at a street cart just outside the university

we went back three times

(tried for a fourth but she wasn't there)

• com chay at Tinh Tam (next to the pagoda)

our favorite places serve one dish
and do that one dish extremely well

• pineapple on the beach

but of course

• coffee on the beach

also but of course
(not pictured: coffee - they serve tea with their coffee)

• random pastries chosen based on their resemblance to aliens

taro deliciousness

I like purple!

• and sticky rice wrap which Patrick technically bought on the way, but who's counting

gummy yum

Lodging notes: we chose Hai Huong Hotel for the price and the balcony. Wise choice - the English-speaking kids who worked there were great and when they couldn't help us (like when we were confirming the bus to take to the towers), the mom stepped in to help and they translated. And we had a balcony! Four thumbs up!

Next up: scoping out Hội An for a second visit in a few weeks. But first, another crazy bus ride...

On not drinking nearly enough coffee in Buôn Ma Thuột.

From Dalat we headed north on Crazy Bus Ride #1 through the Central Highlands to Buôn Ma Thuột ("boon ma tote"). We wanted to see as much of the central area as possible and then we heard that BMT was the coffee capital of Vietnam... Well, as you can imagine, that sealed the deal.

BMT is definitely off the routine tourist track and we got lots of curious stares and friendly "hello!"s as we wandered through town. (And we did a LOT of wandering - Google maps and BMT are not exactly friends yet, or maybe we were just map-inept or interpreting addresses wrong, but our hotel was shown in a completely different neighborhood than its actual location.  And when we tried to find the ethnographic museum we ended up in farmland in the outskirts of town. Some helpful kids pointed us in the right direction after we realized we were going nowhere - and from their reaction it seemed we weren't the only occasional tourists to have made that mistake.)

But in our lost moments we found a tree with what sounded like a million cicadas.

getting lost is sometimes a good thing

There are minority villages available for tours just outside of BMT but after discussing this, we decided not to visit. It just felt too voyeuristic and intrusive. Had we been going with a purpose, like to help on the farms or to learn a craft, or even if we planned to stay for more than an hour or two, it would've been different, but going just for tourism was too weird. (This is also why we headed east instead of continuing north after BMT as originally planned. The two main stops north of BMT are fairly untouched other than by tourists wishing to see ethnic villages.)

Instead, we took a quick walk through BMT's Ako Dhong village where stilt longhouses have been maintained... albeit in a suburban kind of way.

most have built newer housing behind the original long house

And then we visited the aforementioned ethnographic museum featuring really interesting exhibits and information on the local tribes. No life-sized dioramas, but you can't win 'em all.

a map of the numerous tribes

just in the central highlands area

gongs play an important role in these cultures,

and even neater - women play the gongs

longhouse kitchen setups look a lot like

Romanian village kitchens - neat

We think we learned more from the museum displays than we would have by visiting the local villages. The museum also had great exhibits about biodiversity in the central highlands (including coffee and pepper you could smell) and BMT during and after the "French" and "American" wars. It was definitely worth the time.

American plane wreckage

shot down by the guerillas in Cu Pong

1968

From war to peace...  BMT's Khai Doan pagoda is currently under construction but still beautiful. We got to watch a few guys carving and staining wood and a very nice elderly woman encouraged us to go upstairs even though it appeared to be closed off. (Buddhists are so welcoming this way!  During a future visit to another city's pagoda, a Buddhist man would offer Patrick a cigarette.  Neat!)

pre-stain

post-stain

altars, no egos

The next day we decided to try a DIY trip to Dray Sap and Dray Nur waterfalls about an hour outside BMT. And by "we" I really mean Patrick - I was pretty leery about this trip even though I really wanted to see the falls and I'd done the research on what seemed to be a straightforward bus ride. DIY in touristy Dalat was one thing, but going an hour out of town in BMT was more intimidating and as Patrick can attest, I wasn't really comfortable until we were on the bus headed home.

I still had fun though -

don't get me wrong

Very glad we did this trek. The motorcycle taxi guys at the bus station and the bus attendants were all helpful in getting us there and back (for the record, we took Bus #13 toward Krong No). Even in dry season and really hot weather, the falls were really nice and the butterflies and dragonflies were fun to watch.

flutterby

a river runs from it 

troubled bridge over just fine water

another DIY success

Food notes:

• awesome com chay (vegetarian) at Tinh Tam, just down the street from our hotel

pointing, nodding, smiling = success!

• fried bananas and sweet potatoes from a corner food stand

grease bomb goodness

• the first mystery meat of our Vietnam journey

some was pork but

we think some of it might have been liver -

iron is good, right?

• the co-op had tons of ramen and our hotel had a tea kettle, so...

it had to be done

• and some coffee... but not nearly enough

our reward for finally finding the museum

Lodging notes: OK... We only stayed here because it was the cheapest option on booking.com. But the Coffee Tour Resort was definitely the nicest place we have stayed in Vietnam. It was far enough outside of town center that we could see stars and hear crickets (and cicadas) at night; breakfast was simple, good, and included; there was a beautiful garden surrounding the hotel; and the friendly staff helped us get a bus to Nha Trang.

fancypants

hand-built mountain wall

breakfast of champions

BMT was a great three-night getaway from the usual tourist path. But the weeks are getting away from us, and it takes forever to get anywhere, so it's time to hit the coast and start motoring. Nha Trang, here we come!