Day 59! I think I’ll be saying this every post that I’m in Hoi An… but another great day in this superb town! I’m very much enjoying relaxing and staying in one spot for the time being!

The weather said it was supposed to rain all day today… but I woke up to a beautiful morning and no rain!

I headed over to the main hostel for another breakfast of pancakes, bananas, passion fruit, and an egg Banh Mi! It’s a great way to start the day.

I then promptly went back to bed as I had noisy neighbors that kept me up till 2/3am. Nothing a couple power naps can’t handle!

At 11am, Lea and I hopped on the free shuttle into town and went to a vegan restaurant that was suggested to us for lunch!

The restaurants name is: Hao Sen – Vegetarian Banh Mi.

I got a delicious bowl of quang noodles, however it was a bit small. So I was craving something more!

I needed to pick up my motorbike at 1pm and it was close to 12:30pm, so we started wandering towards the mechanic.

On the way I saw a very cheap smoothie stand and this was exactly what I was looking for!

I got a smoothie of every fruit mixed together for only 20,000 Dong! It was really good and was filled with jack fruit, mango, avocado, dragon fruit, and more (that I can’t remember).

We got to the mechanic a bit before 1pm and my motorbike was still being worked on. So Lea and I took a seat and watched them as they pieced Kilby back together.

Just before 1pm, the repair was complete! The mechanic was VERY apologetic and worked diligently to correct their mistake.

I tried to pay him 200,000 Dong for the labor he went through, even though he insisted I didn’t have to pay. But eventually he accepted the payment!

With a, hopefully, fully working motorbike, Lea and I made our way back to the hostel for some much needed beach time!

Unfortunately, it was far too windy to sit on the beach and we were absolutely pelted with sand. And after 15 minutes we headed back to the hostel to hang by the pool.

I didn’t want to just sit, so I went into the hostel, found the guitar, and strummed away next to the pool!

I played for an hour and a half and had a blast! It’s been a while since I’ve played for that long and it made my day.

It was now time for a snack before another power nap. So I got a vegi stir fried noodle and wandered back to bed for a bit.

A couple hours later, Lea and I got a Grab and hit the streets of Old Town Hoi An!

This day had been full of food already, but I was definitely very hungry. We found a new restaurant that had a number of cheap dishes. So instead of each getting one, we got 3 and split them!

We then went on another wander around the busy town and enjoyed some sherbet from the place we went to the other day!

It’s been a fun number of days hanging out with Lea but our time together is coming to an end.

Tomorrow (as long as the weather permits) we’ll be riding the Hai Van Pass and hitting some stops I didn’t hit the first time I went through it. I’ll then be dropping Lea off at her hostel in Da Nang so she can catch her flight to Indonesia the following morning!

Goodbyes are always sad, but I like to think of them as “see you laters” since I’m sure a lot of these people I’ll run into again.

Lea is another example of how easy it is to connect with people on the road and a testament to that there are so many good people in the world! I’ll be looking forward to the next time our paths cross!

But now I’m hoping to get a full nights sleep as tomorrow’s adventure will require my full attention to make the most of it!

– Elie