Arrival in Hoi An

From Hue we got the sleeper bus again, except this time during the day, to Hoi An. Arriving in Hoi An, we were hassled by loads of hotel touts, but we were determined not to reward them with commission for hassling people and trudged around looking for hotels from the Rough Guide. We were prepared for it being quite busy because the following night was a full moon festival. After two full hotels we got one on our third attempt for not too bad a rate.

Bia hoi getting poured

As there wasn't much of the day left, we just wandered around and checked the town out. Quite a pretty place, but that's always the way with river towns, and quite touristy, but not in too invasive a way. We quickly found a bia hoi place, although there seemed to be a cartel operating, where the price was fixed at 4000 everywhere, a full 1000 more than it had been anywhere previously; still OK at less than 20p a beer, though! After a couple of beers, we found a place that does bia hoi and platters of all the local specialities, so we had to. And there I finally plucked up the courage to try one of the local brandies, which wasn't at all bad, though a bit strange tasting: mint / bubblegum, and at only 29% it was going to give anyone a hangover.

Set meal of Hoi An specialities

Across the road from our restaurant there was a square full of local outdoor food places, which sold the same specialities as we'd had for tea. The names of some of the places were quite amusing.

Hoi An, Vietnam