Viet Road Trip Day 8 (part 2): To Hoi An. The sound of disappointment

Viet Road Trip Day 8 Part 2

This is a blog series about my solo scooter trip through Viet Nam, going day by day. This is the second part of day 8. Part 1 can be found here.

I think I may have blown my wad on the first part of this day. Now that it's time to actually sit down and write about the second half of the day, I'm drawing a blank. There are only so many ways that a person can say "it was awesome" and "I was blown away".

That'll have to do for my introduction. Here are the photos and videos of the journey towards Hoi An.

A river ride, with TCQ

I love water buffaloes, and I don't know why. I will post every water buffalo picture that I have, no matter how bad it is. Sorry

Random bit of riding

What the....

OK, I actually stopped and turned around to get a picture of this sign. Is this where you get emergency luggage handles or something? I know what it's supposed to be, but I've never seen a phone icon like this before. It seemed weird to me at the time, but now that I think about it, maybe the sign isn't what's weird here.

Riding through town

Rice paddies and a small village

Bigger rice paddies and a bigger village

Quick snapshot while riding

Nice small road

After I got out of the foothills, there were two routes to choose from in order to get to Hoi An. I chose the slower, but less busy route. I think I made the right choice.

The road wasn't much bigger than a golf cart path. The path seemed to go through 50 different little villages, and the people seemed to get more and more friendly as I progressed.

I also happened to be riding through when all of the schools were getting out. It was crazy, like 50% of the kids would yell "Hello!" to me, or wave or say something in Vietnamese. It was like I was a B level celebrity or something. It was funny and I was catching it all on video. It was awesome!

I was so stoked I had to stop and make sure everything was cool with the camera. Here's my reaction.

Skip to 0:40. DOH!

Yeah, that sucked. I was pretty sure that I had just captured my favorite footage of the trip so far, and.... nothing. So yeah, I turned the sound back on, on my Gopro.

Maybe it's not too bad. My celebrity status improves every time I tell this story. With no video to keep myself in check, pretty soon I'll be like Michael Jordan going through the villages signing babies and getting keys from the mayors.

I still captured some decent footage of the little path and the ride into Hoi An.

Wait... is that a... did I just see a....

WATER BUFFALO!

A little traffic and mud

The outskirts of Hoi An. You can tell you're getting close to Hoi An by the foreigners on bicycles.

My entrance to Hoi An. Below is a little tour of town as I tried to find a hotel.

Hoi An ride through

I found a hotel and went exploring for food and beer.

Hoi An is a beautiful place. Awesome lanterns hanging everywhere. Amazing architecture everywhere. Nice restaurants everywhere. Fancy shops everywhere. It's very picturesque. It's very safe. And it's very clean. I disliked it almost immediately.

I didn't have a bad time in Hoi An, but I didn't like the place. That will be discussed in my next post. Until then, ride safe!