A City Of Lanterns

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As we were only 3 hours from Hoi An we opted for a coach this time to get us there as it was only cheap and it ended up being a sleeper bus aswel, so even though we were only on it for a little while we felt we were going in style! Sleeper busses aren’t actually that nice; it was something different so it just felt like it was nice at the time. On the way down through the center of Vietnam we seemed to be coming across less and less westerners now, as only a few days before a small typhoon had hit along the coast, very little damage was done with only trees and cable lines coming down. Even though it was in the middle of the typhoon season we thought we would still press on and visit other places as if we decided to just stay in one place in case a typhoon hit we would be there forever and never get the chance to see anywhere else! So on we went and soon enough we pulled into the local bus station in Hoi An (If you could call it that). This time we had actually done a bit of research and had got ourselves a map from online to see how far the main town center was from the station, which is only a 10 minute walk, but as soon as we got off the coach and collected our bags we straight away got the usual taxi and Tuk Tuk drivers waiting for us, all telling us the town center was too far away to walk and we would never make it without them……so far in SE Asia we have found that no matter where we are going, according to the taxi drivers it’s always too far to walk and so we should let them take us to where we are going which always ends up an extortionate price even after we barter them down (We never actually let them take us though much to the annoyance of the drivers).

So after finally breaking through the crowd of shouting Vietnamese men we started to walk the short distance to town, slowly followed by a bike taxi constantly trying to get us to jump on so they could take us…..you have to give it to them they never give up!

We had decided to stay a short distance from the river and the old quarter of the town and managed to get a really cheap price of just £3 for a room for the night which once again turned out to be a nice place. Our first night we managed to get into the old town for a wander around which Jade loved as it’s full of handicraft shops and market stalls selling different trinkets and souvenirs so plenty of time was spent looking around here over the few days that we were there. Hoi An is where the lanterns originally come from so where ever you go through the town the whole place is lit up with many different colors and it actually does look really nice down by the river front restaurants all lit up with different sized lanterns, they also sell small lanterns which float down the river so you can place these in and make a wish and watch them as they join the many others floating down the river, me and Jade both did this on one of the evenings, and both of ours went away from everyone else’s and got stuck in reeds, we thought they might set fire to some small wooden rowing boats at one point so I don’t think our wish will be coming true anytime soon!

Hoi An itself is a lovely little town, great for just taking it easy and looking around the many clan houses, temples, museums and other sites. It’s also full of lots of really nice small coffee shops too which we took full advantage off every now and then to escape the heat of the day.
There seems to be plenty of things here to do aimed at tourists aswel, there’s a few little traditional music shows, one of these we went to see and it turned out to be a really good show…..they played their old traditional music while dressed in traditional Vietnamese clothes and acted out some bits of history of Hoi An itself. While here we did find a place which was recommended for getting something to eat (Madam Khanh – The Banh Mi Queen) it’s basically a little roadside stall and you just pretty much sit in the family’s living room and eat traditional Vietnamese Baguetts…….so we both agreed we should give them a go while we were here. The family were some of the friendliest people we had met while being in Vietnam and the old lady was determined to get her picture taken with Jade, which she did eventually, and we thought this was going to be a really good experience……until she gave us the baguettes that is, it was pretty much huge chunks of fat with a few other bits thrown in. It was definitely different and I don’t think either of us will look at fat in the same way again! We both decided however to give it a go but soon had to give up as it wasn’t the nicest of things to eat…..i think we just wasn’t meant to have a good meal in Vietnam!

Our few days here were quickly coming to an end but we did manage on the last morning to rent out some bicycles and cycle out a little way to a small silk village where we were shown how clothes were made and we also given a silk worm to eat…..which was actually quite nice, not surprising after the chunks of fat! But it was a different experience and we were glad we did manage to make our way out there to have a look around. The rest of that day was spent cycling through the countryside surrounding Hoi An which was really nice as we got to get out of the main town for a while.

We had decided, with the help of the woman who run our small hotel that we would move on to Nha Trang from here, a bit more of a touristy place with more holiday makers but we thought we would give it a go as it is on the way to Saigon and we would get to see somewhere else for a few days, so soon enough our sleeper bus was booked and once again we were on our way further south.

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