Day 17

First I ate a chickennoodlesoup at a restaurant near my Hotel, somehow the pictures I took from it are not there anymore… It was very nice and I actually made it for the first time to eat everything up with ease 😅
After that, Bon picked me up and drove me to the Tailor. The shirts fitted perfectly, just the Suit had a little short arms, but that was no problem, a few hours later I could come back and they changed it.
I later ate a Duck rice soup at a small stand at the street. In the soup were all the parts of a Duck, like the lungs, the Airways and other stuff. And I really have to say that ducklungs are really tasty 😅 They are those dark spongy parts you can see in the picture^^

After that I went again to the ancient part of the town and to a café because it rained, I drank there a ginger tea which was strong as hell, it literally burned my throat Everytime I took a sip^^

It turned evening and that meant it was food festival time! 😋
I got some food of Russia, Sri Lanka and Greece. Everything was very tasty although the Russian dish was a little bit basic with just some battered and fried fish (red snapper) and a bechamel sauce with it.

Russia 🇷🇺
Sri Lanka 🇱🇰
Greece 🇬🇷

Today was also the day of the “Earth Hour”, an international festival where all the lights are shut down for one hour to raise attention for the climate change that needs to be stopped. It was very nice to see that all the young people also took part in it and build some nice things like a big 60+ (which is the symbol of the Earth Hour) out of candles or other nice things.

In that hour all of them were partying and there was music and karaoke and dancing everywhere, it was really cool to stand there and see all the cheerful atmosphere. I even got to see some real nice streetdance performance, but sadly the police came and said that they had to leave because they formed too many people around them and because of the food festival they did not want any big crowds.
I got to talk to the dancers and they wrote me their name and Facebook page and even a YouTube video I can watch, if I have time I really have to watch it! The crew name is “Nosher Crew”

A trailer video of the crew I found on YouTube!

When the Earth Hour was over I intentionally wanted to go home, but a French girl spoke to me and told me about a bar where she works, that I could meet there some nice peoples and that I could get unlimited drinks for the whole night (until 11:30pm) with just 100k VND which are like 4-5$. So I gave it a shot because I really had nothing to do and meeting some people is always nice^^
I met there four French guys who are in about my age. They told me that Hue, the town I intentionally wanted to go next, isn’t that big of a deal and that I really don’t miss something if I don’t go there. They also told me that they were heading to Da Lat and that they wanted to do a motorcycle tour from there to Ho Chi Minh City. They offered me to come with them and so I cancelled my bus ride to Hue and going to Da Lat tomorrow ^-^

Day 16

Today I met with a motorcycle-driver who drove me also last night, we wrote on Facebook and he was kinda my “personal” driver for today^^
When I walked out of the hotel a woman asked me if I want to go and visit her store, where I could get some good clothes. So I went there and it was a store for suits and stuff, after some negotiation about the price we agreed on ~ 100$ for two tailored Shirts and one full tailored suit. I can pick them up tomorrow afternoon. That’s not just incredibly fast but also pretty cheap! I hope the quality is also good, but I think it will be good, there was a guestbook with many reviews in different languages who all wrote that this Tailor makes a good job, so let’s see.

Scenes from the motorbike rides today

After that I bought some souvenirs for my friends and family back home and went then to a restaurant called “Blue Dragon” at the small river at the Market. I ordered a fried duck with lemongrass and ginger and a mango lassi, which is not really Vietnamese but holy shit was it good, I had really a LOT of Mango lassi in my life and this one was really one of the best I ever drank, it was freshly made and tasted so intense of fresh Mango 😍

After this good meal, Bon, my driver, took me to the Terracotta park. I didn’t went inside because he meant he can show me everything without a ticket. I think I missed some things but for that he went with me directly to the potterers and I could see how all the things were made and I could speak a little with them, so it was fine.

Bon then had something to do and I went to a café and waited for him. After about 15 mins he took me to the beach and I stay there some time and enjoyed the last glances of the sun before it went down. The beach was fuller than the one in Da Nang but it was still very nice. I didn’t jumped in the ocean, although I would have really liked to do that, but sadly I had nothing to change with me. I think, by seeing the others in the water, the ground was much deeper than in Da Nang, there you could stand in the whole area and the water would just go to your hips.

On the way to the beach we stopped at a place called the vegetable village, which is a big area where many vegetables and greens are grown, Bon showed me the different greens and I could also try them fresh from the ground, awesome! There were greens like Thai Basil, rosemary(?), Salad, chives and many more. It was really nice to see and try them 🙂

Before Bon dropped me at my hotel we went to his house and he introduced me to his family, he has four children, they and his wife were all very friendly and it was nice to really see a Vietnamese family 🙂
In the evening I went to the food festival again and ate some high-class cotlett from Russia and an really authentic and awesome Lamb Curry from India 😋😍
If you love food and you’re accidentally in Vietnam between the 20.-27. March in Vietnam you should definitely go to Hoi An and check it out! There’s also a live show with music and lights and everything.

After watching this show a little bit I went for a beer and a place to sit in a bar and loaded my smartphone so I had enough battery to find my way home with Google maps. If you’re traveling you should really take a power bank with you so you can load your phone even if there are no plugs around. It can sometimes really save you from running out of battery which happens pretty easily when you’re taking many pictures and using Google maps very much^^
Also when you’re in Vietnam you should definitely get a Sim card at the airport or somewhere else, it’s so cheap! Freaking 9$ for a whole month unlimited high-speed Internet *-*
If that would exist in my home county…
Oh yeah, the bread that you see is a fried baguette, the woman said there was meat in it but I didn’t find any^^ pretty tasty though!

Day 15

Today I went to a Hill full of Temples called “Chùa Non Nước”. I went there by bicycle which I could use for free from the Hotel as I said. It’s very nice to ride the bike to this place, the street is very calm and it’s only about 15 mins away. At the hill there are many shops who offer you to park your bicycle/motorbike for free in exchange to look through their items when you’re back from the Hill. At the hill is a elevator which can bring you up to the temples if you’re to lazy or can’t climb the stairs, it costs 15k VND. The Temples at the mountain are awesome a hell! There are also some big caves which cool you a little down from the sweating climb up and there’s a way to the “Heaven Gate” which is one of the highest points of the hill,the view is awesome! Although you have to really climb to get there because at some point there are no more stairs. But it’s pretty fun to climb up there and the view is really worth it. There are about 5 Temples or so and they are all so beautiful, you really wonder how the managed to get all the statues and everything up there. The climb itself costs 40k for adults, which is pretty good. If you go there and want to see everything and take your time, you should plan at least 3h. I had about 2½ h and I had to kinda hurry because I had to be at my hotel at time so I won’t miss my bus to Hoi An. It wasn’t like I had to rush through the temples but if you want to see everything with calmness and walk slowly through the temples you definitely need some more time.

After the climb down I drove back to my hotel, packed my stuff and went to the place I booked a shuttle bus to Hoi An, which was like 5 min away. I can really recommend my Hotel, the owner is very nice and helps you with everything, you get a bicycle and laundry service for free and the location is also pretty good, with 10 min to the beach and 10 min taxi drive to the city. And it’s really cheap.
The drive to Hoi An was pretty fast with nothing special on the way.
Hoi An itself is awesome from the first impression! The small river through the city looks very nice, the streets are full of local markets and souvenir shops, there is a pretty nice nightmarket and at night there are so many colors! Also at the time I’m here there’s the “international food festival” with stands of countries from all over the world with chefs who cook awesome food for you! *-*

The festival goes until the weekend and everyday they cook a different national food, it’s like heaven for me!
I ate fried seafood noodles from the Malaysian stand and a Russian fish soup called „Ukha“ stand, both were really tasty! Sadly it’s a little expensive with 60k per plate and the plates are not that big^^ which is okay because you want to try everything but it makes it a little more expensive. But it’s totally worth it to spend there some money 😋😍