Hoi An, Vietnam

The only stop on our train voyage through Vietnam that time allowed was in Hoi An. More specifically, the train stop was in Danang, and then we got a taxi ride to the ancient city of Hoi An, which is now basically a tourist resort. We only had 24 hours to spend, so it was somewhat of a quick stop.

The city of Hoi An is very picturesque because the buildings are so very old and have a unique architecture compared to the rest of Vietnam. It's pretty small, but I didnt' have too much time to explore the area:

One of the features of this town is that a river runs through it, making it even more beautiful. For some reason we witnessed a boat crossing the river completely crammed with motorbikes, bicycles, and people. I have no idea where it was going:

The river also included many entrepeneurs who offer boat rides for a cheap price. Kelsey and I caught a boat ride during the sunset, though it was overcast and getting dark so quickly. At least there was a nice pink hue to the sky for a while:

Me driving the boat:

The boat ride was nice, but we needed to refuel. Seeing a bunch of restaurants, we stopped at a random one and got an order of duck curry and duck rice. Here is my duck curry with a Vietnamese-style coffee on the side:

Our restaurant seated us very close to the street, so many street souvenir sales-people stopped by to greet us. This kid sold his small clay animal shaped ocarinas for quite a bit more than some places, but he was just so charming. He kept calling Kelsey darling, and she ended up buying a bunch of stuff from him:

I also bought a few things from him, as well as a few souvenirs from a girl raising money to put herself through school. Overall, the gifts sold in this town tended to be quite a mark-up from the rest of Vietnam. Hoi An did offer some great taylored clothing, though. Apparently a suit made in Hoi An is only half the price compared to Saigon or Hanoi. Kelsey used the opportunity to get a custom made dress. She ordered a dress at 8 something the night we got there, and they had it ready for her by 11 the next day. Pretty ridiculous, actually, for only about 20 bucks a dress.

We spent that night at a club with some other travelers and some ex-pats living in Vietnam. There were some interesting people from Russia, Belgium, Australia, the U.S., etc.

The next day was booked with walking through this market and getting breakfast:

This was followed by getting an hour long massage, picking up her dress, checking out of the hotel, and then eating lunch and getting out of town. It was a really nice place to visit, but 24 hours was a little too short.