Hoi An - Kodak moments!

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Hoi An eh? World Heritage site and town where it's impossible to take a bad photo!

The whole place looks like it's leapt from a postcard. It's a 16th Century trading town, lovingly preserved since the days that traders from China, India and Japan lived and plied their business there. It has an amazing collection of architectural monuments in one little area and walking around it feels like strolling through an open air museum (like Iron Bridge!).

The place is beautiful and we spend a day exploring the various winding streets and taking photos. All the buildings are painted in faded yellow and blue which adds to the charm.

A particularly memorable building is the 'House of Tan Ky', which is a home that has been preserved by the living ancestors of the family who lived there, hundreds of years ago. The house floods every year during the monsoon season and water levels go up to 6 or 7 feet, but it's still standing! We also check out the Japanese covered bridge at the end of the town which is an iconic symbol of Hoi An. Obviously all of this is meaningless without photos, so check them out!

Hoi An has the reputation of 'Shopping Capital of Vietnam' which basically means, there's a lot of tailor shops. If you're in the market for a stylish suit or frock then you're in the right place. We're not though, but some of the stuff for sale is surprisingly cool. If art is more your thing then then every other shop is an art gallery or handicraft shop. If we weren't poor travellers we'd be coming home with all sorts of arty treats. We make do with a very small painting of cat, for about 20,000 dong (60p).

Anyway enough of all this art talk, I'll tell you about the food. Each night we dined at a family run restaurant called Cafe 43. The food was delicious and they make local delicacies like Fried Wonton and 'White Rose' (like a translucent wanton) which are particularly good (and cheap). Talking of cheap, they serve local 'fresh' beer for 3,000 dong a glass - that's about 6p! Amazing.

Just realised I sound like the Tourist Board of Hoi An, so I'll wrap it up. In summary, we really like Hoi An. However the journey continues today and we're now on a train to Hue. We're sat in a carriage stuffed full of locals which is an experience. The views of the coast are incredible, but not as incredible as the snores coming from a sleeping guy behind us. It's so loud that a young Viatnamese boy is recording it with his phone, with a big grin on his face.

So snoring is funny in every language!

Ali and Clio x

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Comments

[anonymous]

Thank you Ali and Clio. Enjoy your Vietnam travel blog. Can't wait for the next one in Hue's.