Some Quy Nhon photos. Beach at noon, weather high 20s, water warm, we went in shortly after this picture was taken, 5 five other souls in the water along 1km of beach.

Quy Nhon update.

It is the morning after we have arrived, I have finished my morning wander and I can tell that Quy Nhon (pronounced "whee en gone") will take more than one post.

Our room at the Hotel Au Co is too funky by far. The stair from the narrow lobby is steep, the treads and risers made of red marble, the rail teak carved in a dragon motif from the lobby to the fourth and final floor.  And each floor has, count 'em, one room. Our room on the third floor overlooks the main drag, the promenade and the sea. It contains, apart from sideboards, tables and chairs, three beds - two queens and a double, and there is still enough room for a sexy dance party if we choose.

After settling in last night, we went out searching for dinner. We shunned the upscale sea food joints off the promenade and, down a dark side street, spied a crowded patio furnished with kindergarten sized plastic furniture and packed with twenty something Vietnamese kids eating, drinking and having a wee party. Sensing that this was the place, we sat and asked for a menu. No English. A slightly drunken young man joined us and tried out his extremely limited English on us, but the barrier was too great and he could not help at all translating the menu. After deciding we would corral a server and start pointing at things on other tables, a kindly young woman sitting next to us who works at one of the hotels offered her help. Her English wasn't great (and our Vietnamese is limited to hello and thank you) but she was able to get us two dishes, two beer, and slab of flat bread. We ended up with spicy beef satay in a salad and (we did not know this at the time of ordering) pig organ with rice soup, both really good.

After dinner we searched out and found the Quy Nhon super market - think a small Great Canadian Superstore - the first such beast we have seen since Thailand. Looking for decaf coffee - no go - we did find a drinkable Chilean Shiraz at $6.50 a bottle (the last wine we had was at our cooking class in Hoi An and six small glasses cost $45.00) which we consumed before bed.

During this morning's wander the beach and promenade (at 6am) were crowded with folks my age and older playing badminton, volleyball, soccer, practicing Tai Chi, stretching, running and walking. The beach is beautiful and clean, the water warm and the sun was poking through the morning marine air. I walked the beach, the broad avenues off the water, and wandered through the narrow streets and alleys of the town and, until I came back to our room, saw exactly zero Europeans.

I didn't have the iPad, so photos will come later. Kim is getting her swim suit on and we are off to breakfast and then the beach.

Our view from our new rooms in Quy Nhon.

Cam Kim Island.

Various around town in Hoi an, including a shot of Kim and her new BFF.

Boats on the river, Hoi An.

Hoi An.

After leaving Cat Ba town ( holy crap, that was months ago, wasn't it? ) our intent was to head down the Vietnam coast about half way to Hue. There is little on the coast between Halong Bay and Hue for tourists to see or do, so we gritted our teeth and travelled 21 hours by bus, boat, bus, bus, sleeper (not) bus to Hue. When we go to Hue, we discovered that the beach in Hue is 17 km from where the hotels are and it was raining and cool in Hue. We had a conference and voted "screw that", and added train and van, along with 4 hrs to our trip, and kept going to Hoi An. 

Hoi An is one of Vietnam's most prosperous towns based largely on it's tourist trade. Once a major port, Hoi An's fortunes turned when the Thu Bon River silted up in the 19h century, preventing ocean going vessels from using the port. For most of the 20th century Hoi An's allure diminished until the current boom in tourism. Most of the warehouses, merchant's homes and temples survived Hoi An's economic down turn and the old town area of Hoi An today retains the narrow alleyways and hundreds of years old wood facades on most buildings. The tourist boom has resulted in the rapid construction of resort hotels and associated infrastructure between old town on the river and the seaside (about 4 km). Hoi An, however, is on the Thu Bon delta and the many large islands in the river off Hoi An maintain an ages old agrarian way of life. (First time for either Kim or I seeing a field being tilled using a water buffalo.)

Our first full day in Hoi An was overcast, so after a sleep-in for Kim and breakfast, we rented bikes and took the ferry to Cam Kim island, just off Hoi An. Quite a large island,  it is entirely given over to agriculture, largely rice. Only small areas of high ground are developed for housing and the roadways connecting these areas are 4' wide concrete paths. Again, the folks we met there are very friendly. Our intent was to ride for a couple of hours, have lunch, ride a while longer and head back to the ferry. Instead, we got horribly lost spent way too much time and effort getting found, and headed back to the ferry and lunch in town. Our valentine fun was a cooking course where we prepared a six course Vietnamese meal and ate it, along with (finally) some nice wine.

Day two we again rented bikes and spent the afternoon lying on the beach. Not that warm and the water was cold, but nice.

As I write we are on our way to Quy Nhon by train.