Hai Van Pass to Hoi An & on to Nha Trang
- mollyben98
- Feb 21, 2018
- 4 min read
The drive along the Hai Van Pass was pretty spectacular, you can see why Top Gear did a special here! On route we visited the Elephant Spring (a natural rock formation that looks like an elephant in a group of waterfalls and springs), Harvey took some drone footage of the views and bends and then stopped in Da Nang for what was promised to be amazing fish and chips - unfortunately like a lot of places this time of year it was closed for TET (Lunar New Year) so we headed to an American burger joint for a feast before our final leg to Hoi An.
(Our noble steeds)
We all split off when we got to Hoi An as we were staying in different hotels, so we headed Memority Hotel & Spa (£25 for two nights). Desperate for a shower after four hours on the bike we were slightly disheartened when we opened the bathroom to find out shower pointing directly out of the bath and soaking the entire bathroom. The hotel staff tried to fix it with cable ties and ended up soaking themselves! After a little persuasion I managed to get us a free upgrade (with a working shower), which was really nice!
After sprucing up we took a stroll into the beautiful ancient town then grabbed dinner at Thai Market Kitchen - which again, was fantastic, and very well priced.
Our hotel offered free bicycle hire so the next morning we cycled to Superfit gym (https://mollyben98.wixsite.com/picturepassport/single-post/2018/02/14/Hoi-An-sessions) then cycled out for brunch. After filling up on a BLT and muesli we cycled around the old town, passing a very tidy astroturf football pitch where I joined in with a few young local lads, across to the countryside and then out to the beach. That night we went for dinner at a restaurant called Pause, and it was beautiful! I had the grilled seabass and Molly had a chicken clay pot, along with copious amounts of beer (16p per half pint) and gin & tonics (90% gin). We met up with the others guys after that and carried on drinking into the early hours in an array of bars on the old town.
The night before had meant that this day was a bit of a write off, I wasn't too bad but Molly was not well. As it was Valentines Day I nipped across the road to the bakery to get breakfast for Molly and I before lounging by the pool while she tried to sleep off the hangover. Once we were both up and ready we hired a moped and drove to Rosies Cafe for brunch (highly recommended) then drove to An Bang beach to meet up with the guys.
As with most hangovers you often crave a take-away style food, so for our Valentines dinner we went for an amazing curry at a place called Ba Ba's Kitchen. The place was rammed and we had to queue outside for 15 minutes before getting seated – and we actually ended up sharing a table for four with another British couple who happened to be staying in the same hotel (the lad also happened to be from the neighbouring town to my grandparents), which was nice. Perhaps not the Valentines meal they had in mind though!
Now although it was incredible to be in Vietnam for TET (The Lunar New Year) it did cause a bit of chaos as so many shops, restaurants and travel services closed for their national holiday – thankfully it didn't effect us too much. We still had the bike until 12:30 so we drove to the gym (which was closed for TET), then thought we'd head to Rosie's for a nice breakfast (also closed for TET) so ended up back at our first breakfast spot in Hoi An by the river. By that time we had to drop the moped back so we ditched the motor and cycled back to An Bang beach where we read our books, had some lunch and I fell asleep and got a tad burnt. We went for dinner that night at yet another great restaurant called Red Dragon (slightly more expensive) with the guys before cycling into town to join in with the New Years celebrations. The ancient town was packed – a sea of colour and banging bass across the river. Molly and I watched some of the New Years Eve show then caught up with the others for a few beers in a bar before we all took to the bridge to watch the firework show at midnight.
As it was the first official day of the Lunar new Year (of the dog) loads of places were closed, so we grabbed lunch where we could then spent most of the rest of the day planning, booking flights and lounging by the pool – waiting for our 12 hour overnight bus to Nha Trang. We managed to get the top and bottom back rows of the sleeper bus (with the added leg room) again so popped a sleeping pill and went to bed, ready to wake up at 6am in Nha Trang. Told to get to other guys hotel by 5 - taxi at 5.30 only big enough for 5 people and bags so I got on the back of a moped - waited at a travel office for an hour and a half - walked around the corner, bus turned up 10 minutes later - got the back row as hoped took a sleeping pill and fell asleep, ready to wake up at 6am in Nha Trang.
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