Hoi An again

The minibus picked me up from my guesthouse a bit after 8.15am for the drive to Da Nang. The driver had Formula 1 ambitions – lots of overtaking in tiny gaps and taking the racing line around blind corners! I’d heard that the journey was 6-7 hours so I was hoping that would give me time to get a bus from Da Nang to Hoi An.

On the way I remembered that when I was in Hoi An in December I heard about a photographer running sunrise and sunset tours into the countryside. I looked up his website on the bus to see if there were tours this week and found that his monthly 3 day workshop starts on Friday. When the bus stopped for a lunch break I sent an email to find out if there were any spaces.

The bus arrived in Da Nang and I walked across the bus station to find out how long I’d have to wait for the next bus to Hoi An. Two minutes! The Da Nang – Hoi An bus is notorious for overcharging foreigners by charging for luggage. I’d asked the conductor about the bus time in Vietnamese and when he told me the price I repeated it back to him in Vietnamese and suggested a lower price. He laughed and I got on the bus. When he came round to collect the fares, I handed over a larger note and was surprised that he charged me the amount I’d said, not the original price. I’d had a big fight and lost with a different conductor on the same bus route in December so was happy that this was better.


Hoi An six months later is looks very different how it looked in December. No floods, all the shops and restaurants next to the river are open and thriving. The boats are back on the river instead of the streets. There are so many more tourists – mainly Chinese it seems. I got a reply to my email and there are places available on the photography workshop. I’ll go to the office tomorrow and find out more.