Shelby's Travels

First solo day! I had a driver coming to pick me up at 9am to take me to Hoi An (40 min drive from Da Nang). Left the hotel early to grab some cash and a light breakfast. I get to the atm and realize my debit card is not in my wallet… okay a little stress… I walked back to the hotel to look for it. Looked all around the room. Emptied my bag. Nothing… okay a lot of stress! Went to a bank and talked to a couple people to see if I could get cash either with a credit card or my debit card on Apple Pay. Neither of those were going to work. STRESS. (A lot of places here don’t accept card so it’s crucial to have cash!)

All I’m thinking is, problem solving is literally my job, I can figure this out. Talked to my uncle (who is in Hong Kong and travels internationally all the time). He suggested we try transferring money through Western Union to pickup as cash. Okay great. But I had to go to Hoi An at 9am.

So I go to Hoi An because I already scheduled a 3 hour spa package for that morning. Highly recommend! The package included body scrub, body wrap, facial treatment, and a 75 minute massage for $54 usd!

It took me a while to calm down and be able to really enjoy my treatment. But by the time we got to the massage I was relaxed. I actually fell asleep for part of it, it felt that good! (I was also so mentally exhausted from the morning I just had🫠).

I walked around a little bit, but I I felt like I couldn’t 100% enjoy my time without knowing for sure I could get the cash. There wasn’t a Western Union in Hoi An so I would have to wait until I went back to Da Nang for the day.

Went back to Da Nang earlier than I wanted, only because WU was closing at 6pm. But I went to WU and thankfully, there were no issues and I got the money my uncle so kindly sent me 🙏! felt like I could finally breathe.

Walked around for a bit, and now that I actually had money, I went back to Han Market to pick up some goodies since I head to Saigon tomorrow.

The Vietnamese have their own version of sitting out on the side walk and people watching, similar to the French. It’s not common to take a coffee (or fruity drink in my case) to go. They enjoy to sit and enjoy their drink and chat with their friends and people watch. I’ve really enjoyed adding that part to the routine everyday!

Well… that way my day. Not super exciting! Kinda sad I didn’t get to see the lanterns at night in Hoi An. But I really needed that security in having cash. Thank you Uncle Doug for having my back! MVP

It can only go up from here!