Another nice day and an excuse for a drink by the river in Hoi An. There comes a time on every trip where you turn the corner from happy tourist to having seen enough of the place, and for me that took place this morning, with no power at the hotel for the day and being asked by the nice motorbike driver for the hundredth time if I wanted a lift anywhere.
Traveling solo has it's ups and downs. The advances of Skype, FaceTime and email make it a breezes to keep in touch with family and friends back home, but its still easy to miss the face-to-face interaction with people you know. To the point that by day three in the same place familiar faces are moving in ever decreasing circles towards the same people asking if I want a suit, motorboat trip or to risk my life on a motorbike.
Not to be deterred I borrowed one of the hotels bikes and made my way to the beach this morning, which involved leaving the old town and riding along a fairly busy local road. Once there the friendly life guards wouldn't let me park the bike anywhere (there must be a man there somewhere that can look after them for the day), so I got the obligatory photo and made my way back into town. Feeling a little bit seedy as last night I attended a cooking class where I was the only student, cooking up some mean lemongrass grilled chicken and drinking beers like they were going out of fashion.
The highlight for the remainder of today involves drinking beer by the river, heading out to watch the (rugby league) football later, and depending how I feel around 11pm, watching Australia get belted by the Netherregionlands in the round ball game. Tomorrow morning I check out of Hoi An, memories in tow and make my way back to Da Nang for a bit more of a look around, feeling I may have been a bit harsh on the place earlier in the week and it deserves a second glance.
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