It was still drizzling when I made my way about a mile from the bus stop to the Golden Sun Hotel. I stayed in Hoi An for nine days revisiting the sights I had seen in my previous visits.
The hotel was clean and comfortable, and the staff booked me for the Hoi An Memories Show— with over 500 performers, and the all day tour Ba Na Hills, where I especially wanted to see the Golden Bridge held up with giant hands and popular on Instagram—-those Instagram pictures failed to show the huge crowds that I experienced.
Hoi An is my favorite place in Vietnam to visit despite its wall-to-wall tourist businesses. It is a UNESCO historical site with over 800 preserved historic buildings with over 25 of these open to the public.
During the Vietnam War—they refer to it as the American War—both sides agreed not to bomb nor war in this city to preserve it for generations to come.
To visit the Ancient Town, I bought an entrance ticket for 120,000 dong. With this ticket, I had access to 5 of the 23 buildings and attractions, including the Hoi An Traditional Art Performance House where they now performed traditional dances to a packed crowd.
When I was last here in 2016, they performed modern dances which apparently didn’t go over well with the tourist crowd.
I visited the complex that included the Quan Temple and Pagoda, Minh Huong Commual House, and Hai Nam Assembly Hall—some were being renovated.
The Japanese Covered Bridge was first constructed in 1590 by the Japanese community to link them with the Chinese Quarters. Over the centuries, this trading village was home to Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Indian, Filipino, Indonesian, Thai, French, British, and Americans. Inside the bridge, they had old pictures of the bridge and the people that used the bridge.
It is a beautiful waterfront setting during the day with the riots of bougainvillea hanging over the worn paint and moldy facades of the many restaurants and stores laced with silk lanterns and calling out for tourists.
I visited this wharf side market where all types of fresh vegetables and fruits are stacked up for sale along with a variety of fish and meat, eating stalls, and clothing and other goods including trinkets for tourists.
I ended up buying a silk shirt there for just 150,000 dong—about $6.
While I was here, I also got a Mani-Pedi at this place from Vi and frequent massages from Thao. The Mani-Pedi was $20 and the 1 hour massages were $11.
At night the tourist crowds really came out and the many silk lanterns displayed their multicolor beauty. Along the river, the boaters enticed tourists to ride in the lantern festooned boats.
Opposite the Ancient Town waterfront, the colorful lantern decorated restaurants display this beautiful scene. Vendors also sell small colorful paper floats with candles to join in the lantern armada.
These restaurants compete for who has the best and loudest musicians who put out the standard travelers' music. One group even performed “Hotel California“ which has been a long time anthem of travelers and ex-patriots ay bar scenes around the world.
From the Ancient Town center, I walked to the pedestrian bridge that crossed the Son River to the Hoi An Memories Show that opened at 4 PM with the main performance starting at 8 PM.
Before the show, I had some pho ba in a little café, and then watched all of the mini-performances throughout the area until the main stage opened.
After getting seated near the front, they repeatedly informed us that no cameras were allowed during the performance. Many people ignored that morning as did I.
It was a wonderful epic performance that described the history and phases of Hoi An. It included hundreds of performers as well as huge bursts of flames around the lake. I was 10 rows back from the front and I could feel the heat of the flames.
The following day I took the Ba Na Hills tour featuring the Golden Bridge held up by gigantic hands.
In our mini bus, it took us about an hour drive to the foothills of the Ba Na Hills, where we boarded a gondola straight to the Golden Bridge held up by gigantic hands.
The place was filled with tourist as our guide took us around and then gave us free time.
The tour also included a buffet lunch, which was pretty good.
After lunch I joined Bonnie, from Canada, to ride down the roller coaster which was very exciting. I took this video on the ride down and before we started up the return track, one of the operators told me “no camera”. It was too late for that warning so I restarted my video on the ride up to the start of the journey.
There were also some performances throughout the place and breweries with their beer halls with German music and dancers.
When it finally was sunny in Hoi An on February 28th, I walked the 4 km to An Bang Beach and enjoyed a walking along the long beach filled with beach lounge chairs with sun umbrellas for just 30,000 dong—about $1.
I was planning to stay in downtown Danang for 3 nights, and visit the Dragon Bridge with its flames in the evening as well as visit Ba Na Hills, but instead, I discovered the An Bang Beach area and decided to stay there my last four days in the Hoi An area.
This time, I took a moto-taxi out to An Bang Beach to check out accommodations. It was an exciting 4 mile ride for 50,000 dong— less than $2 USD—through the town and past the rice fields, and estuary.
Instead of using Agoda or Booking.com, I used Google maps and located the Pink Beach Homestay in the commercial area and near a walkway to the beach. The beach area was filled with lounge chairs and big umbrellas.
The innkeeper didn’t speak English so we used Google translator to book the place for three nights at $16 per night before my flight from Danang to Bangkok on Vietjet Air on March 7th.
The room was beautiful and also clean with tile floors throughout AC, a mini refrigerator and a hot pot for making coffee in the morning.
It was also an opportunity for me to get all my laundry done for just 70,000 dong—about $2.60. The woman even loaned me a shirt to wear along with my swim trunks while I waited for the laundry to be done.
Every day I walked to nearby restaurants to have a Banh mi egg and pate sandwich, mango smoothie with no sugar, and hot Vietnamese coffee for about 95,000 dong—about $3.50.
After that, I would walk down to the beach area and do my one hour walk along the beach before settling into a lounge chair under a sun umbrella to read my pocketbook.
In the evening, I went next-door to the Bamboo House Restaurant which served some exceptionally good food. One night I had a western meal of a medium-rare steak dinner with crisp cooked vegetables and mashed potatoes with mushroom sauce, another some curry chicken with grilled eggplant, and on the last night tamarind shrimp, bok choy, and crab meat with cauliflower. A mango smoothie was the drink choice every night.
It was a relaxing three days, and fortunately it was sunny all three days. As I was leaving on March 7th, it began to rain again. Lucky me.
When I first got to An Bang Beach,, I asked a taxi driver how much it would be to get to the Danang airport and he quoted me 300,000 dong—about $11.25. He posted his contact number on my WhatsApp so I arranged for him to pick me up at 6:30 AM when I was departing. The night before he re-contacted me to verify the arrangement.
Again, I used to Google translator to read the messages he sent me on WhatsApp to confirm our meeting time and location in front of the Bamboo House Restaurant at 6:30 AM on March 7th.
Tuan was waiting for me as I showed up at the restaurant at 6:25 a.m.
It took us about an hour to get to the airport.
Once at the airport, I found the restaurant and had an egg Banh mi, large Vietnamese coffee, and mango drink for 200,000 dong— about twice what I paid for back in An Bang Beach and not as tasty.
The Vietjet flight was just $74 for the 1 1/2 hour 540-mile trip back to Bangkok.
On my last three days in Hoi An, I was trying to open a cracker package with my teeth, and my veneer that I’ve had for 20 years fell out. I went to a nearby dentist to see if he could just glue it back in, but he wanted to redo the whole thing for 7 million dong—about $264 USD—and it would take three days.
I tried to make an appointment with Dr. Pacharee at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, who had done the original work 20 years ago, but I didn’t hear back.
After I arrived in Bangkok on March 7th, I immediately went to the Bumrungrad Hospital dental clinic to see if I could get an early appointment. Sure enough they squeezed me in on March 9. She was able to repair it rather do a whole new veneer for just $160. About 20 years ago it cost me $250 for the veneer Dr. Pacharee originally put in. By the way, she received her dental training at the University of North Carolina.
Here’s the before picture and an after picture of the dental work.
Once finished with the dentist, I headed to the Ko Samet island— a 3 hour bus ride followed by a half-hour boat ride—combined cost of ฿254– about $7.25 USD– to the east of Bangkok to finish off my journey to SE Asia.
