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Today was our last day in Cambodia, I'd finally written all the postcards from Cambodia but didn't have enough time to get to the post office, I asked the hotel staff if there was a post box near by and they said that they would make sure that they got posted for me, so I hope that you all get your postcards.
We started the day by getting breakfast at Asagohan Cafe, once that was done we went back to our room to finish our packing. Once done we went to reception to check out and wait for our car to the airport. 5 minutes later the staff came to us and said that the safe in our room was still locked and could they have the code so they could open it. It turns out that we had forgotten our passports and wallets, so it's a good job they checked.
We arrived at Siem Reap International airport an hour earlier than we needed to, this is because the flight had been changed but this did not update in tripit, the travel app that I have used for years. So being there so early check-in was not yet open, so we went and got a coffee, while we waited. The Airport is very new and opened in 2023, it was almost completely empty.
Once we had checked, we went through security which considering how many people were there took way longer than it should have done. Once all that was done we went and got some dinner before we needed to board the plane.
I also spent this time fixing the issue with my blog that occured due to there being so many posts in the SE Asia page. This was fixed by adding rules for when there were more than 12 posts:
permalink: "se-asia{% if pagination.pageNumber > 0 %}/{{ pagination.pageNumber + 1 }}{% endif %}/index.html"
Arriving at Da Nang International airport getting through immigration was super easy and no delays. When we arrived at the baggage claim belts the airport staff had trolleys lined up at the belts rather than being at a some kind of trolley bay, this is the kind of service that just makes you smile.
Once we had picked up our bags we went through customs and our driver was waiting for us. The airport very close to city so within 20 minutes we were at our hotel. As we were here for a few days we booked a suite in the Sunny Ocean hotel, this room was on the top room and had a great view of the sea, if it had been much lower the view would have been of the hotel across the road.
Susan wanted to check out the fitness centre in the hotel, while she did this I did some work on this blog and then went up to the roof to have a beer by the rooftop pool. The fitness centre was not the greatest and there had been some kind of leak as the carpet was sodden.
We decided that, that evening we would go to Hội An to get some food, Hội An is a small town, about 25 km south of Da Nang, that had been recommended to us by many people. We ordered a Grab Taxi (the South East Asia version of Uber), The taxi was there within 20 seconds. Our driver drove us along the coast to Hội An and we passed many Hotels all of them decorated with Christmas decorations to the max. If you think of going to SE Asia to avoid Christmas stay away from Vietnam!
We chose Chợ Quê Riverside Restaurant in the Old Town of Hội An, so we could see the lantern boats. The Old Town in Hội An, is a car free zone so our driver dropped on the out skirts of the Old Town. We walked through the streets the first thing that struck us was all the lanterns everywhere.
Once at the Restaurant we sat outside by the river so we could see the boats on the rive. After we'd ordered and our food arrived the river had risen and was encroaching on our table so the staff moved us to another table further from the river. It wasn't long before we had to be moved again inside the restaurant. The staff explained to us that on the Monday, 2 days before, the water level was 2 metres high and they couldn't open. This was due the immense amount of rainfall that had happened in Southern Vietnam due to Typhoon Koto.
I found just around the corner from the restaurant 7 Bridges taproom. On the way we walked through the night market which was also full of lanterns, Hội An is a very beautiful place.
7 Bridges is a Zero Waste brewery in Da Nang, unfortunately there is no taproom in Da Nang. I tried 3 of their own beers:
Once we'd finished we walked to the edge of the Old Town to get a Grab back to Da Nang. When we got near there were drivers with a screenshot of the Grab logo touting for work and they would match whatever price the Grab app would say. Not feeling confident we just booked through the app.