Day 10 -18/07/25

 Got woken up this morning by the sound of a Vietnamese handyman loudly changing the lock on our door at 7:30am. After quickly showering and packing up, the 3 of us were in the taxi to the airport for our plane to Da Nang!


After watching Dan accidentally queue up in the disability line, we had checked in our bags and in the airport lounge. I treated myself to a traditional Vietnamese burger from Burger King and had a few beers while watching the planes take off. Unfortunately, Dan booked this flight too late and it was sold out, so he had to take a flight 45 minutes earlier than ours. The cafe we sat in was playing 1970s Vietnamese films at full volume for some reason. After a long delay, Jagan and I were on the plane.


‘Viet Jet’ definitely takes the cake for worst leg room on an aeroplane ever, as I had to basically fold my body in half to get my legs in. Once we landed we heard news from Dan that because his laptop was in his suitcase, the airline decided to leave the suitcase in Hanoi and only told Dan once he landed. He was told that it would arrive on a different flight landing at 5pm, so the 3 of us waited in Da Nang airport for an excruciating 3.5 hours. At least there was a food stall called Sam at the airport!

Da Nang me, Da Nang me, why don’t you get a rope and hang me?

5pm eventually came and there was no sign of Dan’s suitcase, so Dan got on a flight back to Hanoi while Jagan and I got a taxi to our Airbnb in Hoi An. The Airbnb is actually rather fancy, they actually have running drinking water! We had some drinks at a local restaurant which was entirely built on wooden planks on top of a lake before we set off for central Hoi An.

Hoi An is absolutely beautiful - the whole place is adorned with lanterns and it has a much more relaxed feeling than Hanoi. We got some noodles at a local restaurant and enjoyed some beers by the river.



After 2 days of hiking our backs were in agony, so we decided to get a massage. The place was very nice, we soaked our feet in lemon water while they set up the massage chairs. Unfortunately the tiny woman doing the massage wasn’t quite strong enough to sort out the labyrinth of knots that exists in my back, but it was very relaxing nonetheless.


By the time we left, Hoi An seemed to be completely empty, a stark contrast to the 24/7 neon epilepsy risk that is Hanoi. We wandered to a livelier part of town, only to find ourselves in the ‘Bob Marley Bar’, which basically seemed like Vietnamese Benidorm.


After a few beers there we headed back and began to watch Apocalypse Now using the Airbnb’s projector. Finally at 1am Dan finally returned from Hanoi with his suitcase! Unfortunately there’s only 2 beds in this Airbnb and I drew the short straw so I had to sleep on the sofa. The sofa was surprisingly comfortable, so after a long day I headed to bed.





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