Jay and I arrived into Hoi An with minimum fuss and were soon wandering the Old Town in search of white roses (a hoi an dumpling speciality) and cau lau while basking in the mid thirty-degree heat. We then met up with Dean and Alecia and headed to the beach for some frisbee, swimming and beers. The beach and frisbee were a daily theme for the next 5 days in Hoi An as were nightly walks around the river, watching the lantern boats and tourists while searching for good food.

We took a day to ride scooters over the Hai Van Pass and up towards Hue. The way back to Hoi An was full of deja-vu as the scenery triggered memories from 5 years ago when Dean and I had ridden this exact road heading into Hoi An on our first trip in Vietnam where we rode from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. We also rode scooters south to Thanh Nien Mural Village where numerous buildings are painted with beautiful murals. After exploring the village, we took out scooters down into the beach to cool off by riding through the shallow water, splashing in and out of the lapping waves and battling for control in the soft sand. A delicious seafood lunch with a whole plate of scallops at a nearby empty row of restaurants and we left to make our way home to Hoi An. We had some minor hiccups on the return, losing Jay down a dirt road and then Dean running out of petrol twice made for an eventful afternoon. Dean and Alecia left that afternoon for Dalat and Jay and I spent a couple more days around the city and beach before taking a 17hr bus across the border and into Laos to end up in Pakse.