Hoi An

Old beautiful houses in Hoi An

A short flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Danang and a 45 minutes taxi ride brought us to Hoi An which is an old trading port of Vietnam. The city is since 1999 protected by UNESCO so the buildings in the old part of town are preserved and apparently look very much like they did hundred of years ago. Today, most people on the streets are Western tourists who browse the hundred of tailor shops that line the streets. It is easy to understand that without the tourists the town would perhaps not be as prosperous as it is. However, there could be a fine balance between preserving the atmosphere of the town and the danger of making into a tacky tourist attraction.

Old houses in Hoi An

We both really liked Hoi An as it did still have a really good atmosphere and spirit. The majority of buisnesses are tailor shops and shoe makers who can tailor a dress, suit or any other kind of clothing very inexpensively and affordably. You can also get shoes made in any colour and size pretty much overnight once you have decided on a model.

People are very friendly and you don't feel pushed and forced to buy or look at things in the shops like you sometimes do at markets in Thailand and other countries. Yes, the store staff want to sell you things, but we never really feel hassled.

Everybody hard at work

The hotel we stayed at was located about 10 minutes outside Hoi An next to the river. We got a really nice room overlooking the river with palm trees swaying in the wind. One morning when we came out on the balcony the palm tree was swaying not only from the wind but also because a little man working for the hotel had climbed up the tree and was cutting down the coconuts. It wasn't clear if it was done to prevent the coconuts from falling on the heads of the hotel guests or if it was just 'pruning time', but it was entertaining to watch!

A little guy climbed the palm tree to cut down the coconuts

Coconut picking outside our hotel room

We made our way into the old part of Hoi An in the evenings and found an excellent restaurant that served delicious food to a very good price. Three appertizers, two main courses, a couple of glasses of wine (for Robert), rice, mineral water and dessert was only about $25 in total. The best part was probably the 'money bags' which were deep fried 'bags' of rice paper filled with veggies, spices and prawns. So yummy!

Money bags! Delicious!

Dinner at a really good restaurant

View in the ancient town of Hoi An

Lanterns

The inexpensive meal was balanced out by a very expensive taxi ride back to the hotel. No, we didn't get scammed by the taxi driver (which happened once in Ho Chi Minh city); the fault was only ours.... The vietnamese dong is basically worth nothing, so the notes come in very high denominations like 10,000, 100,000, 5,000, 50,000 etc. One USD is around 18,000 dong so good skills in quick math is useful when figuring out how much things cost. A good eye for the right colour and number of zeros on the notes help to... Our taxi ride back to the hotel cost 52,000 VND and in the dark, Robert accidentally gave the taxi driver a 500,000 note instead of 50,000!!! We didn't notice the mistake until the next day but would explain why the taxi driver looked so confused. He must have thought Robert was either a very rich or very stupid Englishman....

The second day, we slept in a bit but wanted to go for some kind of tour or sightseeing in the countryside around Hoi An. Since we had already missed the organized day trips, we decided to go on our own. We rented bicycles to the price of 20,000 dong per day (a little more than a dollar) and set off. Thankfully traffic is less crazy than in Ho Chi Minh and it is actually possible to cycle without fearing for your life!

Victoria is biking...

We cycled out on the rural roads that led us through rice paddies and vegetable fields. We made a stop for lunch at a restaurant built on the river before continuing our tour. We also made a few stops to see what the farmers were up to and Robert even offered to help with the work! The farmer however, probably thought we were completely crazy. He kept talking to Victoria in Vietnamese probably thinking that she would understand so that she could tell her crazy boyfriend to stay out of his fields, but in the end he was smiling!

View from our lunch stop by the river

Robert enjoying a good meal

Pineapple beef with rice and beer

Soup!

A farmer burning husks from the field

Robert offered to help with the farming

An old woman was walking in the ditch of the rice fields looking for something which she put in a plastic bag. It turned out that the bag contained big, fat, yummy snails!

Old lady who was looking for snails in the ditch

Yummy! Bag full of snails!

We also saw some buffalos grazing between the tombstones in a grave yard and several chickens, a few cows and lots of dogs. The funniest thing was when we met a guy with several cages on the trailer to his moped. Suddenly one cage fell off the trailer and out of the cage came a pig!!!! The guy had to stop and run after the pig which was not very keen on getting back into the cage. After some wrestling the pig lost and was put back in his prison.

Buffalos by the river

a cart full of.... what???

Yes, there were pigs in those cages...!!!

Our last stop on our bicycle tour was at a little house that offered cold drinks. We stopped for a Coke and we were served by a woman and her 78 year old grandma. They spoke very little English but tried to teach Robert some Vietnamese. When we biked away from their house Robert practiced his new skills on every person we met on the road. Some of them seemed to think he was nuts, which could have something to do with his pronounciation which probably butchered the Vietnamese language!

Victoria and Vietnamese grandma

In the evening, we headed back to old Hoi An and went to the same restaurant as the previous night. Since we enjoyed the food so much we didn't see why we shouldn't go back where we knew it was going to be good. It didn't disappoint! The food was again excellent and stuffed on money bags and other delicacies, we headed back to the hotel for one more night's sleep before we are off to Hanoi for two days.

In summary, Hoi An is very well worth a visit and one of our favourite destinations so far. And if you do go, don't miss dinner at the White Marble Restaurant & Wine Bar!!!

written by  Victoria & Robert on March 3, 2010 from Hoi An, Vietnam
from the travel blog: The rest of the world
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