5.3.23
Slept well in the Raon, none of us died from any mould induced illness.
It was lovely to go up to Lauren’s room and have mummy daughter time while John slept.
Mornings are my usual photo upload and publishing blog times but they’re on hold for the next few days.
Being with my beautiful girl is my only priority right now and blogs will be published as and when.

After a beachside stroll and egg coffee we found a little side road where everyone seems to have breakfast.

Danang is far more westernised and there was an abundance of avocados and granola on the various menus.

We’ve never stayed anywhere like the Raon before, the relentless messages continued, even asking what time we were checking out!

None of us felt like spending more time in this city, yes, the beach front is nice, but that’s been the only selling point for us so far. We feel like we don’t know where the best parts are and not getting any clues online.

Today is the lunar celebrations in Hoi An, so our plan was always to be there for that.
We saw a taxi on the side of the road, the price was 350,000 vnd (£12) so we finished packing and set off to Hoi An.
Hoi An was our favourite part of Vietnam when we came before and I so wanted Lauren to love it.
As we got closer she said that she felt like she was on holiday now.

The high rise landscape changes to beautiful green rice fields, rivers and traditional houses.
The drive is just over 30 minutes, but further onto where we were staying, so closer to £15 by the time we found it.

We’d all loved the look of Coco Island Villa online. First impressions – it didn’t disappoint, lovely warm welcome from the staff and beautiful rooms.

We stayed the other side of Hoi An town 9 years ago and didn’t have time to explore the beach and islands side.
We hadn’t realised that each time we needed to go anywhere we had to get off Coco Island, but it looked like a nice riverside stroll.
Lauren’s room was ready, so we left our bags there and set off to town via the river, after much bickering between Lauren and John as to which direction, we turned right.

Within minutes we heard a dog squealing, it sounded like it was getting a beating.
The next thing we saw the little thing launched into the river and swimming along to the bank.
John started to remove his shoes, the owner then got in and met the dog by the little bridge where it climbed inside a muddy drain hole.

I was shouting expletives , furious, 2 people were laughing and the guy in the river just ignored us, rinsed the dog off and it climbed up the bank.
No idea what it was all about, it was wagging it’s tail afterwards. John and Lauren are sure he’d been washing it and threw it in the river to rinse off.
I’m still convinced he was a vile dog torturer.

Not a great start..
There were various other dogs around, none friendly, many showing aggression and not like the spoilt happy dogs in Tam Coc.

We decided we wouldn’t be walking that way again.

The rest of the walk was fine, a real view of local life, washing hanging on trees, piles of wood, seeds and coconut hair(?) drying in the sun, chickens and ducks and the weather is warm and toasty.
At the end of the river we had to cross what became known as scuff arm bridge, although none of us scuffed our arms ; the tiny pavement made me quite disorientated if I looked over the bridge and not at what I was doing.

We had various coffee and food pit stops, walked almost every small road and saw every market stall – they all sell the same things but you still look – over several hours.
It was very busy, everyone expectantly waiting for the lantern festival.

When it went dark it was stunningly pretty, so many boats with lanterns lighting up the 2 sides of the river and little candles in what look like Burger King boxes being bought to float away whilst making a wish.

It was wonderful being back in beautiful Hoi An, the photos just don’t do it justice.

Having spent many hours on our feet it felt like it was definitely time to go back to Coco Island Villa and relax.

Lauren introduced us to a new card game, Arsehole.
Over the years I’ve played Spit (can you remember how to play Jane?) and Shithead, but this is worse – no one wants to be the arsehole, so glad it was John, even though he was cheating.

As kids Lauren and Curt thought I was good at shuffling cards.
This evening that memory was shattered as it was revealed just how awful I actually am.
I didn’t get Grandad Smarts shuffling gene, he was amazing.I can still visualise him so clearly splitting the pack and the cards falling into their places like magic.

Night night from a very happy mummy and John in Hoi An.

So looking forward to what the next few days bring.