I feel as though I need to get all these Vietnam posts written before I forget some of the finer details of the trip. We are almost near the end though with only two more places to go after this post.
After Hue we headed on to Hoi An via a ‘tourist bus’ which turned out to be a sleeper bus. The seats recline to an almost awkward angle but are not too bad for lying back on and managing to get some shut eye – well they would be if the roads were better and the driver didn’t insist on honking the horn every two seconds (not really an exaggeration!).
One of the first things I noticed about Hoi An is that there are lanterns everywhere and it is a lot more relaxed than the other places we had been. We walked from the bus stop to the center of town (seriously only a couple of block I wouldn’t bother paying for a taxi) and when we finally worked out where our hotel was (I sent us down the wrong path for that one!) we had seen a little bit of town already.
The following day we decided to rent bicycles from our hotel ($1.5USD each for the day) and get out into the country a bit and just see what we could see. We ended up riding out to Cua Dai Beach which to be honest was a little underwhelming early in the morning, I imagine it would have been a lot nicer when the sun was out! From here we started following some back roads and paths until we were out in the country. We came across this mother cow and her calf, mumma cow was not impressed when I tried to pat her calf and made grunty noises at me so we didn’t stay too long.
It was really peaceful riding through the country and nice to get away from the tooting of horns as well. We rode around for an hour or so until we got hungry and came across a place to eat which looked as though it had a reasonable menu.
After we had finished eating this little guy came out and made friends with us, until he realised that there was food in his bowl then we were no longer interesting. I’m not huge on little dogs and would much prefer a big dog but he was super cute, friendly and soft.
We spent a decent amount of time just relaxing in Hoi An which was really nice, I think it’s nice to stay in one place for a few days sometimes when you travel so you get a bit of a break and don’t feel like your constantly rushing around.
One of the other days we had in Hoi An we decided to do a half day trip out to the Champa ruins which were pretty cool, although if your planning to go to Angkor Wat I would probably give the Champa ruins as miss as they are a lot smaller and not quiet as impressive.
The ruin site was larger than I expected as my expectation was low as all the reviews we had read had said the site was tiny. I would definitely recommend using a guide to go to these ruins as I don’t think it would have been as interesting had we made our own way there. Never mind the fact that we most likely would not have found the place!
We opted for the half day tour which took us there by bus and returned via boat which to be honest the boat ride was fairly average with not that much to see. However if you are interested in checking out the Carpentry Village while you are in Hoi An you might like to go back via the boat as well.
Whilst the village didn’t really blow me away as I don’t really like these type of ‘attractions’ as I feel as though we are imposing on someone’s life, the items they make by hand were quite impressive. If you are in to that kind of thing you could even buy something like that larger than life sized guy above, lug him all the way home (although you’d most likely need to pay for another seat on the air plane – or more realistically get him posted to you) and then sit him in your front yard to creep people out.
Overall I really liked Hoi An and would recommend anyone going to Vietnam to give it at least a few days in their itinerary. We had some great food (as usual), saw some cool sites and managed to do a decent amount of relaxing and just wandering around.
I would recommend eating at some of the food stalls on the side of the river – not the restaurants, the ones where you sit on little seats which look like they are made for 5 year olds, the food was pretty good and cheap! Another recommendation would be to share a set menu from one of the restaurants down by the river for lunch one day, there is a decent amount of food for two people and if your still hungry grab something from the street food vendors.
Another thing you might notice is the ladies who come up to you down by the markets trying to sell you dried coconut, banana, ginger and peanuts. The dried coconut they sell is amazing and you really should give it a go!
Next up we head on to Nha Trang…
If you want to read more about our Vietnam Adventure please see these posts: