Hoi An - One of the favourites

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HOI AN - 21/03/07 to 23/03/07

Quaint, pretty, relaxing!! All the words used to describe fabulous Hoi An. We had heard from other travellers that Hoi An was beautiful and deserves a longer visit, however due to our tight schedule, we could only afford just under 2 days there.

Hoi An is a smaller town known for its amazing tailors and cute restaurants with a very strong French influence. Catching the train from Hanoi, stopping at Hue, then bussing it to Hoi An at around 5:30pm, we quickly made tracks to one of the many tailors to get measured. The tailors had catalogues and magazines to choose from, but luckily, a little forethought from both of us made it a very easy without any hassles.

Again the food was amazing. There were too many gorgeous restaurants to choose from. The first night we dined at the restaurant/bar called Tam Tam, which is run with by a French and a Vietnamese man, serving traditional Vietnamese and Western food. After dinner, upstairs turns into a popular bar for international tourists and pumps out a wide variety of music. $3 dollar cocktails were definitely on the menu and we both made the most of it.

A must do in Vietnam is to hire a motorbike and brave the roads. So being a smaller town, we thought it best to do it there. Travelling out to China Beach and Marble Mountain (about 19km out of Hoi An) was definitely an experience. Since neither of us are seasoned bike riders, we were essentially sh*tting ourselves. Sarah didn’t make it very easy being the passenger on the bike by squealing at every potential mishap…..which occurred every 2 seconds. But you will be glad to read that we did make it safe and sound….thanks to Julie’s fabulous superior driving skills. Unfortunately the weather was not the best with heavy clouds and a few spots of rain. Nonetheless, we could both see that on a good day it would be absolutely beautiful.

After returning from the beach, it was time to revisit the tailor to try on our stunning new clothes and make any adjustments. WOW!!! Were we impressed. It a little under 18 hours, the tailor had successfully made all of our clothes notwithstanding Julie’s giant order.

We had one more night, than it was back on the train again to Nha Trang.

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Photos

Jules outside the tailor
Check out Jules' massive order

Marble Mountain
After climbing numerous stairs, we finally made it to the top.

Jules on our hired motorbike
Stopping to take in the scenery of a lake near Hoi An

Sar and Jules in motion on motorbike
We rarely broke 40kms/hr however still overtook many locals!!

One of the many delicious fruits of Vietnam
The fruit (especially the pineapple) is the sweetest and juiciest tasting ever!! The locals will prepare the fruit for you on the spot....all for the grand price of 80 cents!