Part of the reason I was in such a hurry to see the north of Vietnam was because in the back of my brain, I kept shouting to myself, "Sand! Salt! Sea breeze!" I kept hanging out with these very nice people who were traveling in the opposite direction I was and they were all TAN. And it was all I could do to wait patiently for my time to come when I could be too.*
*Which is really a riot, because I spend most of my days at the beach--home or traveling--trying to hide myself under an umbrella or palm tree or even just a very wide brimmed hat--staying as far out of the sun as possible.
So part of what I loved about Hoi An was it's proximity to beaches. There are no beaches in town, but there are a couple great ones just a hop, skip and a jump away. Cua Dai is about 6kms to the east, An Bang is about 4kms to the north, and both are easy bike rides out through flat, picturesque rice paddies. Cua Dai is a bit more popular, as there are a few higher end resorts out there, so I decided to start with An Bang, hoping for some deserted strip of sand where I could park myself with a beer (cheaper than water!) and a book for the day.
And here's the best thing about Vietnam's beaches: you can rent a lounge chair--or as they so elequantly call it, a sun bed--that comes with an umbrella and usually a table, too. I have to tell you, at first I was very put out by this. What? You want me to pay to lay on your sun bed when I could sit on my towel for free?! Preposterous! But eventually, I realized this is the most awesome system ever. For a dollar or two, you can sit comfortably all day. You can lay in the sun or under a 12' thatched-roof umbrella. You can order a beer or two and not have to gulp them down in 10 seconds because they're skunking in the heat. You can hang your clothes and keep them sand-free. And you can do this all without lugging a hundred pounds of equipment with you. Ohmigosh, now that I think of it, why don't we do this at home?!?
So after the absolutely most relaxing day there ever was on An Bang, I spent the next few days exploring Cua Dia, and even hopped on a day trip out the Cham Islands, about 15 kms off the Hoi An coast, where we spent the day snorkeling a sadly-dying-from-neglect-but-still-mostly-alive-and-colorful-for-now reef, and bumming around another bucolic bit of sand.** So many perfect beaches to pick from and so little time!
**Ack, Megan, I need you to teach me a thousand ways to say "pretty beach" like, ASAP, or this is going to be the most repetitive blog EVER. Or the most pretentious. For christsake, I just said bucolic! Who says bucolic?!?
But at the end of my stay, on my last day in Hoi An, it was absolutely An Bang that I wanted to go back to again. A bike, a beach, and the South China Sea had made for such a perfect day the first time around, I was more than happy to replicate it. And to similarly pleasing results, I have to say!