More Hoi An

Our second day in Hoi An was more of the same.

We had another nice lunch at Streets. I had a crispy pancake, which you are meant to turn into yummy little rice paper rolls, but I quite liked it as it was too. the cocktails were a bit too sour though. But they gave us a crispy rice paper thing with satay sauce, it was so yummy.

We visited the tailors for a fitting.

We had a drink at some little wine bar.

We had some icecreams.

We explored the town. There was a little bridgey section of the road and on the other side of it there were just more little shops but it was much quieter and very nice to shop at. While I was there Jim went to a Market that sounded really great, I'm sad I didn't get to go.

We went back to Cargo Club for dinner and oh my god, it was the best.

Jim's entree was White Rose dumplings, yum! Mine was a crumbed warm Camembert with cranberry sauce and bread. It could have been hotter and more runny, but for five dollars it was pretty good, v tasty.

Jim's main was some kind of beef with salad and eggplant chips. Mine was fillet steak with potato dauphinoise. It was SO GOOD. It was cooked perfectly and had barely any fat or manky bits and the potato was so yummy. I think it cost $15.

The drinks were great as well, strong and delicious and safe to drink because their ice is made from mineral water.

For dessert we had the $1.50 creme brûlée. The top cracked nicely but the custard wasn't silky, I think the egg was overcooked.

I'd still give the meal about four to four point five stars though, highly recommended. Just get the chocolate truffle cake instead.

Vin Hung 3

Our hotel in Hoi An was called Vinh Hung 3 and overall our experience with them was pretty lousy.

It started at the airport: we had emailed the hotel to arrange an airport transfer but they never wrote back, so we arranged it ourselves with a cab company. When we landed the guy from the cab company was waiting for us, but so was the guy from the hotel with another driver! Nice of them to organise it but why didn't they tell us?

The room itself was okay and clean enough but small and very basic. We weren't after luxury in Hoi An, it was more of a practical stop, but seriously this place made the Cat Huy look like the Hilton.

Nothing was provided. There was no quilt, just a sheet and a horrid velour blanket. No mini toiletries, just a large liquid soap dispenser by the sink and another of shampoo in the shower. The mini bar consisted of two waters, two Cokes and a beer. They did provide two bath towels, but no face cloths - not even a hand towel. The bathroom window was one of those wooden slat things that didn't close properly and there were no fly screens (hello malaria if you're reading!). I had a cold, itchy, terrible night's sleep.

The disappointments continued at breakfast the next morning. We went down quite late so weren't expecting things to be super fresh, but we did at least expect them to be edible. They had some bread and butter. They had some fruit. They had some Asian dishes in those big silver thingies with burners under them, but the burners had been turned off so everything was stone cold. Oh, and they had an omelette station with eggs, tomato and onion. That's all. Not even cheese.

And when we left, they organised a taxi pick up for us that arrived over ten minutes late, and only then because we asked what was going on and they called the driver.

The lady told us we should get the taxi at ten; I'm glad we insisted on 9.30 or who knows what would've happened.

I don't think I'll be back.

Hoi An

Now we are in the "Ancient Town" of Hoi An. It used to be a port or something and now it is pretty much a tourist district famous for its tailors.

There's no airport here so we flew in to the nearest town, Da Nang. It's a young city but very big. There didn't seem to be much international tourism but it looked very lovely and interesting.

Hoi An is beautiful. They've kept all the old buildings and such, so even though it's a tourist town it doesn't have that fake touristy aesthetic.

We had a lovely lunch at a French-style patisserie slash cafe called Cargo Club (not related to Cargo Bar). My chicken and leek pie had the most delicious pastry and the chocolate truffle mousse cake we shared for dessert was incredible.

It was better than any posh patisserie cake I've had at home and guess how much it cost?

TWO DOLLARS!!

The service was kind of slow but when you get an amazing meal for eight dollars who even cares?

We spent the afternoon visiting tailors, then stumbled across a restaurant called Streets, which we had read about but forgotten, and decided to stop for dinner.

Streets is a charity restaurant that employs disadvantaged local youth and trains them to get jobs in top restaurants. It's like Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurants.

The food was excellent. We shared one Western dish, chicken panini, and one Vietnamese dish, which was some kind of noodle dish comparable to Pho, and also had the local specialty of White Rose dumplings for an entree. They were super tasty.

The service was great too and the drinks were unbelievable. I asked if they had any cocktails and the waiter hooked me up with their awesome lemon and ginger house special that wasn't even on the menu. We ended up drinking four between us.

We also stopped at Q Bar (not related to the one in Sydney) for another cocktail, which was pretty nice, but for James the highlight was their funny cushions. I don't know.

Sheraton Buffet

On our last night in Nha Trang we walked back to the hotel from Crazy Kim's talking about where to have dinner. We didn't really know what we wanted, but we happened upon the Sheraton and James wondered if they had a buffet.

We went inside to ask and sure enough they did! It cost a little more than the Novotel but was still cheap at about $25 and the service was great, they even showed us around before we made up our minds.

It didn't take us long to decide because they had everything. They had a sushi bar, so many beautiful salads, Indian food, Vietnamese food, make-your-own-pasta, fresh cold seafood, raw seafood that they cooked on the spot and even a wood fired pizza bar where you could choose your toppings and they would make it for you. And of course the desserts were super too.

I really enjoyed the Novotel buffet a lot but the Sheraton one was probably twice as good.

We also snooped around the pool area, which was beautiful.

When we get back to Ho Chi Minh City we are staying at the Sheraton, I can't wait!!

More Stuff I Did In Nha Trang

Our hotel was at the top of the main tourist area but a little further north of it was a bridge so we crossed over to the non-tourist side of town one night for a little explore.

We also went to the beach! Jimmy enjoyed his swim but I just had a nice paddle, it was a bit cold. We collected some nice little shells too, I will put them in a glass jar in our bathroom when we get a flat. You might think this is naff but I don't care.

We wanted to get some cheap massages and "cures" (as James calls them) at the Louisiane but we couldn't. We had always though they did them on their private beach because the sign and price list is there, but actually they have a special place for them around the side. Future travellers keep this in mind or you too may not figure this out until they are closing up for the day.

Anyway, we decided to go instead to a place called Crazy Kim's Spa and Gym. I'm serious, that's what it was called. It was just like a normal salon except with mannequins in 80s aerobics gear in the window, the uniform was a t-shirt saying "keep the children safe" and if you spent a certain amount you got a free mojito. Crazy is right.

We had massages, manicures and pedicures. They weren't as good as at home - the massage was your typical cheap massage and the polish colours were a bit dated, plus there was no pumicing or cuticle pushing (just cutting, eek!) - but I felt relaxed when I left and my nails looked pretty nice. Plus it was eight bucks per massage and four per cure.

I was pretty happy but next time I would probably try the Louisiane, because it was a bit cheaper and was nicer, being on the beach.

Also we saw some awkwardly racist dolls at the Market and checked out the Vietnamese cinema.

Nha Trang Novotel Buffet

One night we took a break from our hotel restaurant routine and went to a different hotel restaurant: the Novotel seafood buffet!

It cost a little over twenty dollars and was really lovely. They had lots of different dishes, both Asian and western, and a huge selection of desserts.

The best thing by far was the tuna sashimi. I don't usually eat sashimi at home because I feel like I'm eating a chunk of gross raw fish, but I'm so glad I tried this because it was so thinly sliced and tasted beautiful.

I also had a plate of different yummy salads. I have been avoiding such things here on account of the water, but the Michelia has treated water so I figured the Novotel would too. We had ice in our drinks too. It was nice.