Left gritty and humid Saigon and arrived in even more humid Da Nang at midday. Raining and hot, I love the tropics. Grabbed a taxi and took the coast road for the 30kms to Hoi An. Huge apartment and resort complexes lining the beach side of the road. My guess, Saudi dollars. The driver made a phone call and handed me the phone. It was his nephew who told me his uncle couldn't speak English and didn't know anything about Hoi An. The guy is driving taxis in Da Nang 30 k's away from the most visited town in Vietnam and he does'nt know it? Full marks to the Viets again as further down the highway the cab pulls into a street stall and the nephew appears and hops in the cab and accompanies us to Hoi An.
Marley and Sally are staying by the beach in a swish resort and I have the cheap end of the stick, haha I think I got the best bargain, an ancient Confucian temple across the road and food shops abounding within a short walk . I stayed at the Hoang Trinh hotel, cheap and clean and nice people running the show.
Took a stroll through town in suffocating humidity and thought that maybe its worse than Saigon for being accosted. The reason being that every shop in Hoi An is tourist oriented whereas in Saigon that's not the case. So I said NO to about 20 of them but a T shirt seller got me in as I happened to want an iPho t shirt and he had one. I have put on so much weight in the past few months that he sold me an xxxxl size and when I got home it was too small! Now friends, I'm not that big its just that the sizes here bear no resemblance to reality.
I badly needed to get stamps so drippingly made my way to the post office. When I lined up I found that I had to know where the postcards would be going. I thought a general overseas rate would apply so I had to take a guess, 5 for Australia 2 for Canada and 2 for the US.
I was so sweaty by now I decided to get a cyclo back to the hotel so I went to the horde of drivers who were snoozing in the shade and after some humming and hahing they quoted me 60,000 about $3. I wanted to get a price as these guys are notorious for ripping people off. A lot of them are ex ARVN soldiers who cant get other employment as the communist government discriminate against soldiers who helped the Americans. (ARVN- Army of the Republic of Vietnam). Cyclo is a lovely way to travel, stately and leisurely, and we got back safely after weaving through the not so bad traffic. Of course he didn't have change so the 60k trip turned into 80k, $4. An extra dollar is the least one can do for an old soldier.