We woke up just before 9am, chucked
something on and made our way downstairs for the breakfast buffet. It looked
better in photos online but was still very satisfying. Gotta love some
watermelon and rice for breakfast! We then picked up our washing and went back
upstairs to pack ready for check out and the bus at 1pm. Chrissy bought some
elephant pants, we had a small lunch in Why Not and got on the bus.
The journey was only about 4 hours and
the bus even had wifi which made the time pass faster. Sunflower Hotel offer a
free pick up service from the bus station and were waiting for us when we
arrived, which was lovely, making the journey even easier!
We arrived in Hoi An
late afternoon and as it was the 14th day of the Luna calendar
(making it a full moon), the monthly Lantern festival was on. We walked down to
the river early evening and the river was already filling up with little paper
lanterns, lit with candles inside.
It was beautiful to see them floating down
the river and just seeing the whole town come to life with people and
celebration. I think what made the difference was lack of cars and motorbikes
to disturb the atmosphere, it was just being filled with music and people
instead. We walked around for a while and then stopped for dinner in a
restaurant overlooking the river.
We decided here that we should join in with
the whole thing, so after dinner we hopped on a little boat, which only cost a
couple of quid and included two lanterns for us to put in the water. It was
very romantic and also felt a bit like we were in Tangled. After here we walked
through the busy streets back to the hotel.
