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Published: December 6th 2011
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The River in Hoi An
Cycling down to the beach, the main road follows the path of the river. In Hoi An Matthias had decided he was going to brave the night bus and head to Nha Trang for some diving so Mike, Zoe and I checked into a small hotel a few streets back from the main tourist stretch. On some good advice we headed out down to the river and treated ourselves to a rather plush meal (for a tenner) at the Cargo Club. Sat on the second floor over-looking the river, small children were running and cycling through what was left of the flood water. The food was great albeit 3 days food budget (I had a seared tuna steak which was awesome), but the night ended there as we were all shattered after a long drive.
Hoi An is a charming little town with quite a rich architectural infusion of Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and European (mainly French). The historic core of Hoi An consists of three short parallel streets, each laden with old merchants houses, which now serve as tailor shops and galleries. The buildings here are very quaint with wooden frames and deep yellow fronts. Most of Hoi An has been restored to its former glory following heavy bombing in the war
Quack
Lunch. and it really is a gem of a place to walk around. There are a few assembly halls worth visiting and a covered Japanese bridge. All of this however is best seen at night as Chinese lanterns hand everywhere and the faint orange glow reflecting off the building fronts is very beautiful (*
weeps softly*). If I had paid more attention in English or was a poet I might be able to do it justice so you’ll either have to take my word for it, check out the photos or just go there. If you’re too cheap to book a ticket then maybe knowing that the tailors in Hoi An are amongst the best in the World and one of the chief reasons to go there is to get measured up and splash out peanuts on a cashmere suit. I actually regret not at least getting measured as the tailors there will post finished goods anywhere in the World and for a very reasonable price.
Days in Hoi An are mainly spent at one of the two beaches (Cui Dai or Ang Bang), although Ang Bang is by far the best (more chilled out, less touristy and fewer
beach hawkers selling you shit tat). After hiring bikes we headed first out to Cui Dai and took a walk on the beach. The road to Cui Dai is quite nice as it takes you along the course of the river and along the way there are a series of cool little riverside cafés and restaurants where you can kick back in a hammock and relax. On the beach the locals there were still clearing away the last remnants of the floodwaters (all the flotsam and other detritus including a giant bloated rat) that had passed out to sea from the river estuary. We took a walk along the beach and had a bite to eat before hopping back on the bikes to check out Ang Bang beach.
Ang Bang is a much nicer beach and has a more relaxed feel and the ride up there is really pretty past the rice paddies and fishing village. You can wake board and kite/wind surf there too and the locals who own the beach side taverns and restaurants seem to spend more time in the ocean than serving customers (which is no bad thing). There was a cool little
Beach Voyeur
Just playing with the zoom lens. place to the left of the main entrance path called La Banyan owned by a French guy, also a keen surfer. The food was massively over-priced, but the beer was cheap and he had a bunch of hammocks and giant bean bags that you could chill out on. The guidebook recommended Phatties beach bar too for food which is at the other end of the beach but it really wasn’t anything special (although it was cheaper than La Banyan).
The evening times (and lunch when we were in the town centre) were spent at a gem of a place called Café 43. If you do one thing in Hoi An it has to be Café 43. A very friendly family run restaurant, it serves the best food in Hoi An and at very reasonable prices. Plus the beer there is 3,000 Vietnamese Dong, which is about 9p. On one day we took a cooking class there for the paltry sum of $5 and learnt to cook a few very nice dishes (fish in banana leaf, spring rolls with dipping sauce, chicken with chili and lemongrass and spicy green papaya salad). The ingredients in Vietnamese food are so
simple, but yet so effective. It was a great experience and afterwards we got to tuck into our spoils.
The evenings in Hoi An were largely spent at the Before N’ Now bar on Le Loi, with a fleeting visit to the Why Not bar (complete with a dreadful motley crew from Essex drawing all over each other with black permanent marker pen – tossers). A few days/evenings were spent watching the rugby (the World Cup Final) and the football (never to be spoken about again), as well as the beach party organised by the Before N’ Now bar. At about midnight you are herded into an over-crowed minibus with other drunk revelers and whisked 3km away to a restaurant/bar on Cui Dai beach where you can dance the night away. They have a campfire out back with a pool, which invariably gets used once the buckets of cocktails start flowing.
The last day in Hoi An was spent again on the bike where we explored the market and a couple of the nearby islands accessible by a few small bridges. If you choose you can take a boat across the river paddled by a toothless
La Banyan
Mike and Zoe chilling by the beach. hag (why I will never know as you can probably spit to the other side). Just before sunset we sat off by the river to watch the kids leave school (an experience just for the barrage of motorbikes that cram through the streets) and then retired to Café 96 on the riverfront to watch the sunset over a few G&T’s.
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