Day 9 - Hue to Hoi An - Riding the cliffs
The lads at the local Yamaha garage changed my bike’s oil for free, which was a good start.
From Hue I boosted to Danang on a great coastal road, which wrapped itself around steep cliffs, with hundreds of varied turns, which was fun. You can kind if pick out the road here -
At the top of a tall cliff I stopped at the ruins of an old American fort. There were plenty of tourists but they scarpered in and out of their tour buses fairly quickly. I met a tiny lady who tried to marry me to her daughter, which was not fun.
On other side of Danang I spotted a huge white figure on a cliff so I headed over there.
At the base of the giant I found a big monastery with serene gardens and monks chanting. Chilled.
The clouds on the mountain top make this photo for me -
I arrived in Hoi An by late afternoon, the first thing I noticed were the foreigners, I hadn't seen this many Western faces since Hanoi. The sight of their fat obligatorily enormous DSLRs aimed at the disheveled locals was enough to make me want to leave. I soon found a decent cheap hotel just by cruising around the tight busy streets. I met a few nice travelers, most memorably a lovely Australian chap called Kim who had traveled a lot in his retirement. Just by observing he had learned a lot about how the Vietnamese live and work, from building concrete boats (something I had already seen in China) to fixing motorbikes. His advice and knowledge was much appreciated.