We arrived on Cham island after our 2 hour ferry ride from Hoi an and were met by our lovely homestay host Ly Dai. She helped us onto a small wooden boat and we travelled another 30 minutes to Bai Huong, a less touristy part of the island where our homestay accommodation was.
It’s a small fisherman village, very quiet and far from the hectic life of the rest of Vietnam. We stayed in the house with Ly Dai and her husband who spoke no English along with the rest of the village. There was a lot of hand gestures and sign language that was not always understood. Instead they would just laugh and nod along.
I don’t think we have eaten so well in the time we have been away. Every meal there was 4 or 5 plates of different foods in front of us, all of it delicious, and most of it fresh seafood!
We went snorkelling in clear blue water in the afternoon, although the coral was mostly dead and there were no fish around but it was still a beautiful spot. Being told to jump from the side of a boat in the middle of the water was a little terryfing though, after trying some sign language of making a shark fin with my hand on the top of my head to ask if there were in fact sharks in the water our boat driver noded and laughed. (We have no idea if he was saying yes there are heaps of sharks here or just politely nodding and laughing because we looked like idiots)! All I could think of was how many sharks were waiting and circling the boat to have us as their main meal. Fortunately we left with all our limbs and no sharks in sight.
The next day we walked to one of the most beautiful beaches we have seen. Not a sole in sight and clear blue water we spent the day lying in the sun and swimming in the beach.
In between the few activities we simply lay in hammocks all day and had midday naps. Very lazy few days before we caugh a speed boat back to Hoi an.
When we arrived back in Hoi an we got stranded at the ferry station with no taxis to be seen, so in the boiling hot sun and our 15 kg packs we walked a good 2km till a taxi finally picked us up and took us back to the hotel we spent the first night in in Hoi an.
We decided not to stay another night and instead caught a bus to Danang. We thought we would try and see a new town as we had already stayed in Hoi an. Unfortunately Danang didn’t have much to offer. Instead of staying the two nights we originally planned we decided to stay one and leave for Hue the next day.
We caught the train to Hue. Very slow but beautiful scenery along the way. Definitely recommend the train purely for the scenery.
Cham island secluded beach
Searching for secret beaches
Leave a Reply