19th – 21st October 

I’d booked a tour the following day to take me from Hue to Hoi Anh, on the back of a motorbike!! Recommend by the lovely Becky Graham, I’d been looking forward to this since arriving in Vietnam. 

TIP: There’s a few companies that offer this tour, I booked with Le Family Riders (find on Facebook) and the tour was around  $60 USD. It’s good to book in advance – I was there in the low season and booked a week in advance, my first date choice was already full! I would highly recommend this mode of travel if you can fit it in!

Ridin’ in style!

I was picked up around 8am and myself and all my luggage were transported on the back of a motorbike to the start point. Here I met 4 Irish guys who were in my travel group, 1 was also riding on the back of a professional and the other 3 were riding solo with their own bikes – I for sure didn’t have the guts for that, especially in Vietnam! Our luggage is taken separately, so we can sit back and enjoy the scenery. I felt so cool on the back of that bike 😂

After getting out of the city, the view got better and better! We made a couple of stops for a cold drink and to learn about the area and the locals before arriving at our first main stop – elephant waterfalls!

Elephant Spring

This was a great place to have a little swim and cool off from the crazy heat. There was, of course, rocks to jump off into the natural pools and the staff even provided a beer! Bliss. The area is named elephant spring due to a main feature rock shaped like an ele, I’m assuming man mad! It was also nice to see locals there enjoying the falls and a family lunch.

The next main stop before the high Van pass itself was for lunch. The place was amazing, a restaurant out on a pier on a beautiful lake. We had a mainly seafood based lunch, which I loved! And of course with rice and veggies. I was very impressed! 

A Top Gear Special

The next part of the journey took us up into the mountains – the stretch of road is called the High Van Pass and became famous worldwide due to a Top Gear episode filmed there. The scenery was beautiful and the road was a lot of fun to travel on! An old military bunker was built on the top by the French, which was later used during the Vietnam/ American war. On the way down the heavens opened up and we got soaked, had to put on the emergency ponchos and over trousers for 15 mins or so! 😂

Marble Mountain 

Driving through Da’ Nang, a major city, was pretty scary. The non existent road rules apply big style and I was so glad to be on the back of my rider’s bike! We stopped just past the city at the ‘Marble Mountain’, so called due to its marble rock – there were soooooooo many marble shops around the area as a result! We were all a bit tired by this point, so wandered round in the heat, slowly taking in the tourist temple and cave sights. Th view from the top over the city was also pretty awesome. Then it was on to Hoi Anh, our final destination.

Lantern Town

Hoi Anh is a recommended place to visit in Vietnam by just about everybody you meet and every guide book you read. Based on a riverside, Hoi Anh is famous for it’s quaint streets and small river boats bright and glowing with lanterns. Due to this is very touristy, but I always say there’s a reason things become touristy! 

The town is also well know for its quick and cheap tailor shops, where you can have a good quality suit, dress, or pretty much whatever you want made and tailored to fit in just a couple of days! Of course one of these shops is where we got dropped off by the bike team, a tailors shop run by family members of the bike company. I nearly ended up ordering a dress, but luckily I needed to get to my hostel ASAP as the reception had technically shut half an hour before I arrived!

Tribee Hostels

The dominant hostel chain in Hoi Anh are the Tribee hostels, there’s at least 5 of them all within a 10 min walk of each other. You can use any of the facilities at a sister hostel and at night they move the drinking parties on to one of the hostels to amalgamate the drunken tourists! They run free tours on different days, at least half an hour of free beer per night (that tastes pretty crap, but it’s free!) and there’s an epic buffet style breakfast included, good option in Hoi Anh. (I was staying at Tribee Ede, which must have been a converted hotel! It had a large corner bath in the en suite bathrooms, fancy interior and a pool and bar out the back!)

René was staying at another Tribee hostel down the street, so after finding a tasty, cheap eats Vietnamese soup from a lovely street food lady with one of my roommates, we headed over to René’s hostel for the second round of half hour free beer in her hostel that evening. We formed a larger and larger group and went from playing cards on to playing the drinking version on jenga they provided in the hostel. Some of the younger ones had been moved here from other Tribee hostels, including mine, and were then taken on to a late night bar. I went to bed 😂 (pushing 30 and all!).

Discovering the Town

The next day was pretty chilled. René and I got up quite early to go to the gym! She had arrived a day earlier than me, had found this modern gym and bought a free day pass, so naturally I had to join her. After a good workout, followed by a good feed at the all can eat breakfast, I spent the morning and early afternoon wandering round & having a look at the town. It was soooooo hot so I was dipping in and out of the shaded shops. I bought a couple more small paintings to add to my souvenir collection and then bumped into René – we made our way to a fancy health food cafe that had been recommended by my roommate and had a smoothie bowl (again 😋).

As I was on a 15 day visa, I’d been struggling with days to get down the country and, well I’d nearly run out. It was stressing me out! So after much deliberation I went into one of the many tour agents and finally made the decision to book a domestic flight from Da’Nang to Ho Chi Minh City. It was a bit expensive in comparison to the buses, but it was cheaper than flying directly to Cambodia, so I went for it. Always feels better after you’ve made a decision!!

Hoi Anh by Night

My hostel had a free street food tour on a Saturday, which it was, so René and I joined. (By free I mean the tour itself is free, not the food, which is super cheap anyways!). It was really good, we went to about 7 different places making traditional Vietnamese dishes, some of which were only found in that central region of Vietnam. I even managed to find vege or fish dishes on the tour! We are ate sooooo much yummy food, but after branching off from the tour near the end René and I still managed to squeeze in an ice cream 🍦 😋. We had a wander round the town and down by the river to see the place lit up with multicoloured lanterns, it’s so pretty!

Back on our bikes

Both of us had buses booked around 5pm the next day, so after another early gym sesh, we made the most of our final day in Hoi Anh, and as travel buddies!, and went off once again on bicycles to explore the area. I think most people hire them earlier on in the day, as everyone seemed to have these nice shiny new looking bikes and we both got clapped out old bangers 😂. Oh well, our moto is if it’s battered already they won’t be able to tell if you cause any new dents!

We went out to An Bang beach, had a wander then chose a cafe to have chill, and another smoothie bowl 🙄. We then biked out to the rural outskirts of the town, where we saw how local people live and views of beautiful rice fields. Such a nice way to see the sites!

Like most hostels, we were able to have a shower before our bus, even after checking out (much appreciated after a sweaty bike ride!). We then said goodbye for the last time! After being travel buddies on and off for 3-4 weeks that was our last stop together! 🤧 

Oh D ang

The bus to Da Nang is less than an hour. I thought I’d made the smart decision to book a hostel within walking distance to the airport, so that the next morning it would be easy to catch my early flight – wrong. The walk to the hostel from the drop off point at the airport felt soooooo long in the heat with my backpack on, every few metres a bike taxi shouting ‘bike?!’ or just gesturing a bike revving hand signal at me. But the real bad decision was the hostel. It was horrendous and I felt uneasy alllllllll night long. I was counting down the minutes the whole time until I could leave!! The ‘Like Backpackers Hostel’ is located on a HUGE, busy main road and is not in a great location for food. The hostel itself consisted of a dim reception and a large communal room with private ‘beds’. I arrived around 6.30pm and immediately got told off for putting the light on, by the hostel receptionist, as there were people sleeping…… The beds were ‘private’, with wooden boards up around each and a tiny curtain. The bathroom in the room was disgusting and the tap didn’t work. The whole place made me feel alone and uneasy!

TIP: Pay attention to ratings and reviews!! What may seem the easy option is certainly always so and the transport in Vietnam is sooooo cheap, especially when using the Grab app, it ain’t worth staying in a crap place no matter how convenient!!

I went out to find food (and anywhere else to be) and eventually found a Chinese restaurant. I had a couple of chats to Tom on FaceTime, who made me feel a bit better. I decided to get an early night, but the bed was like sleeping on hard wood and I woke up at least every hour feeling uneasy! I ran out the next day at 5.30am and walked a cooler trip to the airport, finally safe!