Day 56! We ended yesterday’s adventure as I embarked on another night bus, this time for 14 hours! This adventure had its twists and turns and led me to a town I fell in love with earlier on my travels in Vietnam!

Almost 3 hours into the sleeper bus journey, the bus came to a halt.

It turned out we were at one of our only rest stops of the entire 14 hour ride! Fortunately this sleeper bus had a bathroom (not all do).

I’ve had my eyes on Bao buns since coming to SE Asia again and finally got my hands on one for 15,000 Dong at this rest stop! It was everything I’d hoped it would be! Nice, soft, warm, and delicious.

At the rest stop I chatted with Lea and some other people from the bus from all around the world: Germany, England, Australia, and probably some others I’m not remembering!

The bus continued on through the night, stopped for gas a few times, but 14 hours later I awoke to the sun being up in Da Nang. This is the city directly next to Hoi An.

This is where a very strange situation arose…

The bus PASSED Hoi An.

Everyone still on the bus was very confused. The bus stopped 30 minutes away from our hostel for the night (one you might remember) and people decided to just get off there because they didn’t know if we’d make it any closer.

Lea and I couldn’t check into our hostel till 2pm so we were in no rush. There were some other people on the bus that were in similar boats so they stuck around too.

Randomly while we were sitting in this spot, the bus driver started blasting music. I honestly thought he was going to play the meme song, Rick Roll (Rick Astleys’s Never Gonna Give You Up). But it ended up just being Vietnamese music.

EVENTUALLY, the bus finally started moving and for the next 30 minutes it felt like the bus had no clue how to get to Hoi An.

The bus ended up making a full loop and ended fairly close next to where we already were and told us to get off…

So Lea and I threw our bags on Kilby and started our 30 minute ride to the hostel.

After a drizzly ride, we made it to the Seaside Bungalow! I was super excited to be back and to see the hosts T and V again, along with their cute foster dogs and cats.

On my ride over though my bike started acting funny… so tomorrow I’ll take it to the shop and see what’s wrong. I’m a little nervous it’ll be a bigger mechanic cost than my others, but only time will tell!

I got food and relaxed at the hostel and finished the book I was reading! I’d highly recommend the Jack Reacher series to any action and thriller fans!

I then found the guitar and some new faces to sing and chat with!

This hostel is such a nice place to hang out and meet new people! This is the area I was hanging out in for most of the afternoon!

It was a drizzly day, so no beaching yet. But the weather eventually cleared just in time for a ride into old town!

Lea hadn’t seen it yet so we caught it just before the sun went down to see how different it is in the “morning” and night time.

We made our way through the hustle and bustle of tourists exploring the majestic town! We then settled on a curb next to the river, watching the boats and eating some fresh mango!

We then kept walking around old town and then went across the bridge to a restaurant I went to with Jack and Chloë last time I was here!

The place is called Vietnamese Chopsticks and it’s in a very quiet part of Hoi An. But this place was VERY popular tonight and we got the last table available.

Last time I was here I got a great crispy noodle dish. Instead of doing that again I got a cashew, pineapple, and chicken dish with rice. It was incredible and a mix of fruity and savory flavors!

One of Lea’s friends that she made in Laos happened to be in Hoi A too and she met us for dinner! Her name is Rins, from the Netherlands.

We continued our wandering after dinner and found a Nutella banana pancake to snack on while we walked!

At this point, another traveler from the hostel, Martin from Switzerland, joined us as well for our walk around!

This town is just as pretty and crazy as I expected it to be! It’s very nice to be back and get to spend even more time here!

I ended my night with sitting and chatting with new people and even a guy that’s been traveling for the past 11.5 years! He’s from New York and still has your stereotypical New York accent. He shared some very interesting and hilarious stories from his time on the road!

He also told me about some unique places to visit in SE Asia which I might add to my list of places I want to go 🙂

It’s going to be a fun week or two here! I’m looking forward to getting to hang out with old and new friends and see where the adventures take me!

There’s also a laundry list of things I need to do before motorbiking into Laos, so that’ll be in future blogs to come!

See you soon!

– Elie