Lantern Love!

Woke up this morning not even sure what day it is anymore! But today was the day we have free and we had rented the bikes at the hotel in the hopes of riding out to the beaches. When we discovered that we had got the worst bikes in the spot we still persevered and headed towards An Bang beach. Tamtam had given us directions but somehow we kept having to consult with Google maps because these roads are very complicated! Along the way Delaney’s bicycle chain kept falling off so poor Frank kept having to put it back on as we wound our way towards the beach. We also came across a guy and his water buffalo right on the side of the road he pulled the kids on one by one and posed for photos next thing you knew he was asking 100,000dong! We tried to give him a fraction of that and he didn’t want any part of that waved us on in anger – we quickly cycled on our way to the beach. About an hour and a half after we left we were at the beach and one person after the next was directing us to “parking parking parking!” We discovered that you were not allowed to take your bikes to the beach but have to park them in the parkades right before the beach so we dutifully paid our 20,000 dong for four bikes and headed off with our towels to the beach. Once on the beach you are presented with beach chair after beach chair and if you choose one you have to use that restaurant for lunch later in the day. You can just sit on the beach but there’s not really room left after all these beach chairs and umbrellas are up. We had heard Soul Kitchen was a good place to eat and we were in search of their umbrellas and chairs. We quickly found them and settled in for a warm day on the beach. The girls were quick to jump into the ocean – the South China Sea was quite warm and they had a lot of fun in the waves. You could see the factories of Danang to the north end this is a little bit unsightly for me- when you have been to the Hawaii’s of the world. A great beach day though the weather was really hot and we were ready to just sit back and relax with a coconut and some beer. Around lunchtime we headed up into the restaurant. A huge open air restaurant with benches and tables and daybeds and people lounging around. We chose our spot and had a delightful lunch of fish dishes and pizza and sandwiches! By this time it was super hot and of course we thought it would be the perfect time to ride a bike back home. We started back on the road – the heat of the sun pounding down on us but the ride back was quite enjoyable despite the fact that Delaney’s chain kept slipping off again! We made it back into town within an hour in and Frank and I headed into town as we had to pick up our clothes that we had been tailored the previous day. We dropped the girls at the hotel called a cab into town as it was just too hot to even walk. About 30°C right now. We headed into town found the tailor who had made our clothes and tried them on; everything seem to fit perfectly my dress just need a slight adjustment on the zipper. We trusted the tailor she seemed pretty honest and we have no reason not to. Paid up our bill and she told us she would have it all delivered to our hotel by seven tonight. We took one last walk around the market just picking up a few things -it’s so hard not to there are so many beautiful things in this town. I made managed to pick up a leather purse for $25! And a few pieces of jewelry that are just beautiful and handmade. Then it was back to the hotel – hard not to catch a cab when it’s about two bucks in one direction. Back at the hotel started the great pack up as we leave tomorrow going to be sad to leave this town behind it is really gorgeous. We had found a place called Brothers which look like a delightful sitting for dinner we headed down there and had no problem finding a table. It’s a really large restaurant in a gorgeous garden setting overlooking the river. We ordered a meal and waited as one by one the dishes come to the table- in Vietnam it seems that whenever dishes are ready they just serve it, they don’t serve you in one group. Which is kind of disconcerting as you can finish your meal before your partner has even gotten his! We finished our dinner which was just OK the setting was probably more beautiful than the food. And we took one last walk into town we’re drawn to this beautiful town of lanterns like moths to a lightbulb. We wandered around for the last time admiring the prettiness of the towns and all the lanterns. The guys decided they were tired and headed back to the hotel we took one last little amble around and slowly the lights started turning off – one by one this town really does shut down quite early and by 9 o’clock everything seem to be closed! Oh well that’s it until next time. We will hopefully be back one day a day as you are beautiful.