Hoi An – a ‘clothes horse’s’ paradise!

Us on the Japanese bridge

Hoi An has such charm, we’ve instantly taken to it, although it was not what we expected (imagining a big city) it is almost the opposite, set on the Thu Bon River with small street corridors and pedestrianised areas, which has a sign when entering saying for ‘the town for walkers and primitive vehicle users’..



The town encourages walkers and bicycles



The narrow roads of Hoi An

The shops, bars and restaurants have an old style build to them possibly French design from a colonial period past, however with their Chinese and Japanese lanterns and features the place definitely feels oriental. 

So many cute shops

Chinese characters along the river

Hoi An is filled with taylors everywhere and on every street corner! The styles and designs look very good, if we only had more suitcase space, we probably would have gone a little crazy! They even have shoemakers that make shoes in 2 days and with my love for them it could really get out of hand, LOL

A row of taylor shops

At night the place is lit by the laterns, its so pretty!





There are Vietnamese women constantly trying to sell you something or entice you into their shop or restaurant but all of them do so in a friendly enough manner, always asking, “where you from..?!” as an ice breaker…  ;P

Our hotel is so central and has wi-fi
and a swimming pool

A scam we discovered is that the hotel you stay in, will try to recommend you to taylors, restaurants and other such places, because they earn commission of it. And in reverse some shops, will try to gain your trust by telling you about this scam. We have heard it a few times now so when we hear it, J and me are like ‘really, wow, thanks for that..’   LOL

Jason and I have visited the local beach, which is lovely and we are spoilt for choice on where to eat and drink, we have already tried a few specialities including fried wontons, white roses (steamed dumplings filled with shrimp) and cau lieu, flat noodles in soup where the water to make the soup is from a special well here, croutons and vegetables, all good!

Me, chowing down!!

J getting to grips with chopsticks!!

Good morning Vietnam!

While onboard another mammoth bus journey of 13 hours, we came to the border crossing of Laos and Vietnam. This crossing actually got our hearts racing when, Vietnam officers took and recorded our body temperature with a gun pointed at our head…Jay had picked up a cold bug and had been coughing all day prior to that, this had us both praying he wouldn’t feel the urge to do so right at that moment..

Then when having our passports checked one officer didn’t take to kindly to me and had Jason and me both answer a few additional questions not believing we were who our passport said we were…LOL

Green Vietnam

Heading into Vietnam, what immediately stood out, was how beautifully green the place was, so much forest, rivers and mountains that went on for ages before we began reaching urbanised areas.

Rice fields

The traffic is crazy

We drove through Hue and were confronted with an experience, we’re told is synonymous with Vietnam – the traffic is chaotic!

So many people on bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles and scooters and driving alongside the cars literally do whatever they want, so many times we were onboard our bus tensing at every close encounter we came to colliding with one of them!! And we ‘re told Hanoi is worse..!

We reached Danang, which had the buzz of a big city however there was not much to do there and although it had the Han River running alongside it, there were few places to eat or drink along the river front to admire the lights shimmering in the water on the other side from businesses and billboards.

Danang was cool but not much to do

We spent a night there before heading to Hoi An. Along the way we stopped at the Marble Mountains which used to house Buddhist and Hindu sanctuaries and has an impressive pagoda built off it.

Marble Mountains

The pagoda

Marble from the mountain used to make these impressive sculptures. This is a dragon.

Marble from the mountain is taken and used to build all sorts of ornaments and statues that can be bought from the shops surrounding it. A family business it seemed, where all the shops we visited had their fathers and brothers sculpting the marble, while the women polish the finished pieces.  

Mother Buddah

J has a 'meet and greet' with Buddah

Along the drive up to Hoi An, the sites of development were clear to be seen, Vietnam is paying attention to tourism and has learnt a thing or too, about contruction from their northern neighbour China.

Sunset views to relax even the most stressed out!

Don Det sunsets are wonderful!!

After all  that excitement with the cave, Jason and me headed way down south to the region of Si Phan Don, a collection of 4000 islands all positioned within the Mekong River and one in particular that is habitable called Don Det.

Our tuk tuk journey down there was by far the most ridiculous yet.. We were crammed into it, surrounded by people, fish, ducks, pigs, rice and even furniture… Nothing suprises us anymore!!

Matt and Amy were cool

The only good thing from this journey was that we had the pleasure of being squashed next to a couple from New Zealand, Matt and Amy who are geologists from Austrailia that were heading that way. They had the good sense to have bought cushions to sit on, while Jason and I had to switch position, where possible as our butts kept falling asleep!!

The boats we sailed to the isalnd on

Reaching the lands end we boarded a boat and headed to the island passing a few of the islands on route.

Views on route to Don Det

Shop and bars along the river bank of Don Det

Don Det is the second largest island to Don Khong with the main attraction being rest and relaxation! With loads of hammocks everywhere and most of the bars having those cushions on the floor to relax on, it was hard not to! During the day people bathe and wash clothes in the river. The islands are home to water buffalo and rare Irrawaddy dolphins although Jay and I never saw any of the dolphins..boo who.

Our hut was the 4th along

Our accommodation was a traditional Laos house – a house on stilts with bamboo walls and a thatched roof. A family run guesthouse with the most amazing views over the river. Our hut was right on the river bank of the Mekong from which we watched the most amazing sunsets from the leisure of our hammocks. And when the sun dropped, we were treated to a proper star show! Out here the stars are so big and bright! 

Jason and I only had a short time here, so we spent it chilling out with Matt and Amy as we had one ‘mother’ of a journey to Vietnam ahead of us.

Hanging out watching island life was quite enough for us!!!

This lady was washing her hair in the river,
which later I found our clothes were washed in!!



Water buffalo in the rice fields



J chillin' out on our balcony

Another beautiful sunset

Little girls ploughing the field...so adorable!

Our favourite brew!

A fisherman casts his net upon the Mekong

Us on the boat leaving Don Det

‘Amaaazing Cave, are we near the end of it…?!’

‘This cave had better be worth it’, was the thought running through our mind when we began our journey to it, as we got onto a bus and headed to Pakse. We arrived at 11:00pm to a sleeping town and although guesthouses were closed with only the stray dogs up, we were fortunate to have our bus staff, actually drive around checking for a place to stay for us! Bless ‘em!

Tha Khaek

We had to overnight there and the next morning travel down to Tha Khaek to be closer to the cave, which was all good as we made friends with 3 girls who were on the same mission - wayhay!

Gemma from Surrey, Jenny from Befordshire and Sherry from Canada. All great girls and who made the experience for us better and more manageable because on the real – I was scared! – (You’ll understand in abit…)

The Kong Lo Cave is massive.

It is a natural beauty for its stalagmites and stalactites but was discovered in 1995, more so for its underground river (Bin Huan river)…It is a massive 7.5km cavernous space with some parts of its roof, reaching 100 meters high and is under a limestone mountain. To reach the mouth of the cave you have to travel by boat (long tail) to get there then walk along the edge into it, then sail through it again on a long tail boat.

In the middle of the aisle!!!

From Tha Khaek we caught a bus to Bin Khoun Kham where there were no more seats available, so we had to sit on plastic children’s chairs in the aisle..I kid you not, well if anything it made the journey more memorable, especially on the bus turns LOL!

Then after checking our cases into a guesthouse, we got on a tuk tuk and travelled a further 40 odd km’s through the village of Kong Lo to the cave.

Jay, Gemma, Sherry, Jenny and me!

Arriving at the rivers edge we got ‘life jacketed’ up – (Jason’s idea!) and headlamps etc for the journey. Only 3 to a boat, so we needed 2 of them. This was jokes as one of the guides only had one eye and looked like he lived in the cave! And considering the cave was pitch black neither of the girls or us wanted him and began debating how to handle this dilemma…A quick witted game of ‘paper, stones, scissors’ won Jason and me the good guide over one eyed cave man, which the 3 girls had to take!! Score!

The lagoon to the cave

The mouth of the cave...eek!

Entering the cave was incredibly scary and looking into the mouth of the cave you literally cannot see far, as all light disappears. Walking through the mouth of the cave and looking back at the daylight was so eerie, it had me wondering why we were doing this again..?!!

Goodbye daylight...

It was pitch black, total darkness and so quiet except for the engines of the long tails. We were so nervous we dared not even hang our hands over the side of the boat! Then we came across a shallow shore where the boats could not pass so we had to get out and walk through the cave to meet the boats on another side…this was also scary! But along the way you came across the stalagmites and stalactites, which are so beautiful, before getting back into the boat and sailing on.

Inside the cave

The rock formations were beautiful

At one point we turned off our lights, just for the fun of it and the total darkness was so overwhelming… I was the first to switch my light back on!!

Jay and our guide

It was so eerie inside the cave

Safety in numbers..!

We made it!!

Several well deserved beers followed our departure from the Kong Lo Cave and when we arrived back at our guest house we were invited to have a drink with a couple of locals of Lao, Lao whiskey. Which offends them, if you don’t oblige so who are we to argue..! A few shots later, as the drink is taken neat, we were very ‘Lao loved up’..to say the least!!

2 of the locals insisted we drank with them..

Let the drinking commense!

Several drinks later, we're not a pretty sight!

A great end to the day’s adventures!