by Day Nine was my birthday, and we had a very satisfactory programme: An Bang Beach, a seafood lunch, coffee, cake and lantern shopping. No mountain climb required. Given the state of my knee, this was already shaping up to be a considerate birthday.
An Bang Beach: A Morning with Very Little to Prove
We took a short ride from Hoi An to An Bang Beach and settled into the business of doing very little. Loungers, cold drinks and fishing boats in the distance made a pleasant change from staircases. The pale sand and the sea suited the day perfectly. Lunch was seafood with a view of the water—a good setting for accepting that another year had passed.
By midday it was the hottest day we had experienced on the trip so far. We headed back to town for a nap, which suited the knee as well as the temperature. It was not a medical prescription for laziness, although I was quite prepared to treat it as one.
Coffee, Cake and Three Lanterns
Later we went back into the Old Town for coffee and cake. A birthday seems a reasonable occasion to let cake become part of the itinerary rather than an optional extra.
The real souvenir mission was lantern shopping. I love decorating our home, and Hoi An offered considerably more temptation than a luggage allowance should have to face. We chose three lanterns to take back to the Philippines. At the time, I was already picturing them on the porch: a little reminder of these evenings long after the suitcases were unpacked.
Those are the souvenirs I enjoy most—something linked to a particular place and day, rather than an object bought simply because we were leaving. Three lanterns, a birthday and Hoi An’s evening streets made a rather good combination.
One More Stop in Vietnam
The next day would take us to Da Nang before our flights through Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh. There was more travelling ahead, and I hoped the knee would cooperate. For now, resting after a beach day, cake and shopping felt like an entirely respectable birthday finale.
Our next diary follows a day in Da Nang—a city that turned out to suit us rather less than Hoi An. Not every stop has to become a favourite.
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