Where's Vic?: 'Nam part 2- Central

Having made the very smart decision to fly to Central Vietnam, I landed in Da Nang and got a cab down to Hoi An. Vietnam is so cheap, it made travelling solo much easier without feeling the "single tax"*, so I could get taxis and private hotel rooms whenever I wanted.

I was going to be staying at my friend John's for the week in Da Nang, which is about 40mins away, but wanted to do a night in Hoi An because it's a lantern town. But also because it's famous for it's tailors, where you can get custom made clothes for the fraction of custom made in the UK. And obviously I wanted to get my order in.

I'd had this plan up my sleeve (pun most definitely intended) for a while. Myself and my cousin Beth had both bought identical dresses in 2011 in h&m when we were students, some how it was most the perfectly shaped dress ever. I've not found one like it since. So this was the moment. I got Beth's measurements and she picked out some material (God bless whatsapp) and did the same for myself. My major issue is that I am sooo fussy with dress materials/patterns so it took FOREVER for me to choose. Then the following day they told me it was different to the sample. I couldn't spend a moment longer looking at samples, so kept it the same and hoped for the best.

Anyway, back to that first evening, and a wander round Hoi An where it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. The whole old town is lit up by paper lanterns like some sort of Disney film. Plus no motorbikes were allowed so it was pedestrianic bliss.

The following afternoon, I headed to Da Nang to my friend John's place. We know each other from doing the same course at Uni and then working for the same company in Italy. I hadn't seen him since he came to stay with myself and my Bristol housemate Conor (who also worked in Italy) in 2019 so it was ace to be reunited. His friend Dale (another expat, usually Hanoi based) was also staying. That night we headed out to watch/perform in an improv night at a nearby bar (a good one to put on my improv cv!).

On Saturday, while John was working, myself and Dale headed for a day out in Hoi An. I needed to pick up my dresses, plus there were loads of cool touristy stuff I hadn't done yet. Dale even managed to persuade me to get on the back of a hired motorbike. It is the preferred mode of transport in Vietnam, but my previous experience in Italy I'd actually cried haha. Luckily, I felt very safe this time and proved a useful fear to have overcome later on in my trip. We took a trip on the famous round boats, a tiny boat for three people. The trip was full of hundreds of boats, and weirdly at points, floating Karaoke stations (which have since been banned), you could pay to be spun too by a bloke standing up and singing, so obviously I said yes. We also did some "crab fishing" with a piece of bamboo, string and bait. We were not successful. I don't think I'll apply to be on a Bear Grylls survival programme. After dinner at the beach, we also went on the paper lantern boats in the town, where they give you candles in paper boats to release. Probably pretty awful for the environment but it looked lovely.

The next day the three of us hatched a creative plan. Dale is a keen filmaker and wanted to take advantage of the fact me and John trained together, and also knew stage combat. So we decided to film a sketch that was based around a cool location that involved a fight. John knew of a random "pirate ship" on the beach, so pirate themed it was. We spent the afternoon filming on this random wooden sail boat parked on the sand (presumably for tourists?).

It started to rain, so we stopped with the intention of filming the rest the following day. We played games of monopoly deal that evening (thanks to my cousin Sarah for introducing me to the game!).

Unfortunately I had bad food poisoning that night. John and Dale had been enthusiastically ordering me food all week ("try this!" "What do you think?") in random places that were more often than not someone's front room turned into a little restaurant. So it could've been anything.

The next day was beautiful sunshine, but filming our sword fight was clearly off the cards.

When I was ready to move the day after, it was chucking it down, obviously. Myself and John walked home in water halfway up our shins that evening. Luckily I had learnt that waterproof sandals were the only way forward in Vietnam...

I couldn't face 2x 7hour bus jouneys to my next destination (Phong Nha), so made a good call to just fly to Hanoi (1hour) and stay in the chilled out Tam Coc for longer.

I definitely made the right choice and it was onto the north and my biggest adventure yet!

*on average, a person travelling by themselves spends a significant amount more, I've read a few articles coining the phrase "the single tax"