Whether you are going north to south, south to north or just making a short visit to Vietnam, the picturesque, historic trading town of Hoi An is a must-see. This is also no longer a secret and Hoi An now draws hoards of visitors to its charming colourful streets and waterfront. Hoi An for many years was a major trading hub for the region. Beautiful ornate houses and trading shops make up the town that was once a real melting pot of cultures, with traders establishing themselves here from Japan, China and the West. Their legacy lives on with many of the ancestral homes now being open for visitors and still inhabited by the descendants of these great Chinese trading families. The Japanese traders left Hoi An hundreds of years ago when Japan cut itself off entirely from the outside world. Impressive and ornate “congregations / temples” are still very much in use and important places of worship / gathering for the various Chinese communities that still live in Hoi An. We were in Hoi An from 2-6 March, and still riding the positive impacts (from our perspective) of coronavirus, with Hoi An now being quieter than usual and accommodation cheaper.
We were picked up at Da Nang airport in the evening of 2-March and made the 30-minute journey to Hoi An and the Pham Gia Homestay which became our home for the next four days. This place is a real gem and one of our favourites from our trip. We were incredibly warmly greeted with a “welcome home” by management. Our room was perfectly spacious, beautifully furnished with a balcony overlooking the courtyard where there is a small pool. Pham Gia proved to be a fantastic base and a real spot of tranquillity after the hectic cities of Saigon and Phnom Penh.
Hoi An is something of a cultural theme park, with just so many ways to have fun, whether it is just wondering the colourful streets, sipping superb coffee, eating incredible street food, visiting the historical sites or getting measured up at one of the towns seemingly hundreds of tailor shops. We did all of these things over the next few days – and it was fantastic! We started 3- March with a fantastic breakfast at our homestay, before heading for a wonder in the old town (about 15 minutes’ walk from us). We got stuck immediately upon arriving in the old town, stumbling upon a shoe shop that took Katharine’s fancy. She ended up having some beautiful tailor-made leather sandals for about $30. We were clearly prey for the myriads of shops and ended up being led to a tailors down the road, called Bari, who had a few good looking sports jackets on display that took George’s fancy.
Not wanting to rush into anything, we made our way down to the waterfront and found ourselves a delicious, creamy, strong Vietnamese iced coffee (with condensed milk, of course). Coffee in Vietnam is something of an institution: we ended up loving all variants of Vietnamese coffee we tried, whether it was their regular filter coffee, machine coffee with condensed milk or thick and sweet “egg coffee”. The waterfront in Hoi An is just stunning, with predominantly yellow-painted (and faded) old plastered 2 or 3 storey houses with ornate balconies covered with colourful Chinese lanterns. Myriads of small wooden boats lie moored on the waterfront, many with their own lanterns hanging from the sides.
We moved on from our coffee in search of lunch. Having eaten Asian food pretty well flat out for so long, we were up for a break. Katharine had spotted “Mix”, a Greek restaurant in the centre of the old town. It was exactly what we needed! The setup was quite funny, with a bald Greek chap in his 50s working on the door as a tout to get people in, and all the other staff being Vietnamese who all, adorably, spoke a few key words of Greek. George got chatting with the Greek chap and this was, predictably, enough to get us free drinks and a visit from the boss, who was a huge man with a huge beard, dressed in black. He was the perfect Cretan (google search “Cretan man” and you will see what we mean), and lo and behold, he turned out to be from Chania in Crete. It was all quite surreal, but in among the friendly chat and free beers, we enjoyed some excellent kalamari, Greek salad snf various dips.
Over the course of the morning / afternoon we had decided that George would get himself a sports jacket and Katharine a dress from one of the tailors. George already had a suit from his previous visit to Hoi An. Not only can you easily find a great price for good quality, tailored clothing, it also provides a great souvenir and a lovely way to remember Hoi An. After a brief visit to “Bebe” tailors that had been recommended by our homestay, we decided to head back to Bari where we had dropped in in the morning. We spent some time sweeping through online photos for inspiration and eventually settled on a blue, wool and cashmere sports jacket with brown collar, pockets and elbow patches for George, and a wide neck blue cocktail dress for Katharine. Over the next few days, we would return at least twice each day for more fittings. George’s jacket was done pretty easily, but Katharine’s dress needed quite a few alterations to both the style and the fitting before she was happy. The fact she could have it so customised though meant that the end product was fantastic!
We spent some time exploring the more historical and cultural side of Hoi An, walking up to the old, stunning Japanese, covered bridge where we bought a multi-ticket allowing you to visit 5 different historical sites of the dozen or so scattered around the old town. Our first use of the ticket was at Qang Trang house – one of the many ornate houses built by important trading families. We were given a short tour of the house with a courtyard and beautiful dark wooden panelled interior with gold Chinese characters and other images set into the wood. We later visited an exhibition by French photographer, Rehahn, who has made Hoi An his base for various exciting projects, his most significant one being to meet and photograph each of Vietnam’s different ethnic tribes (officially there are 54, but he is certain he has discovered 2 more sub-groups). His pictures are stunning and largely display the human side of rural life in Vietnam.
In the evening, we got ourselves a foot massage from a sweet lady we kept bumping into by the waterfront and promising to return. With her shop being on the island across the bridge from the main part of town, we ended up exploring this area where the night market also is. Katharine was still keen to have a plainer food day while by this point, George was up for moving back to street food; so, we decided we would do just that. We headed to a pasta restaurant that proved tricky to find, hidden in among Hoi An’s quiet but still pretty back alleys. One glimpse of the menu was enough for George to realise that this was not an Italian pasta restaurant. Macaroni cooked with “spetsofai”, an incredibly niche Greek spiced sausage dish, was a key give away. A few minutes later, lo and behold, the big bearded boss from Mix turned up – it appeared we were doing a tour of his restaurants! As we got chatting again, another 2 staff from inside turned out to be Greek and joined in, one of whom had her foot in a cast, having fractured it from a particularly aggressive foot massage (terrifying news for us having just had one)! It turns out this chap owns seven restaurants in Vietnam and two in one in Greece – one in Chania (Crete) and one in Halkida (Euboia), where he is originally from. After our second, unexpected Greek experience of the day, we returned to the waterfront where George had a Khao Lao, pork noodle soup, a local speciality. We finished the night with a drink on the Hoi An island. We cannot remember the name of the place, but it was just passed a Mr. Been-themed bar which looked hilarious but ultimately unappealing.
Exploring Hoi An and getting measured up at Bari tailors.
On 4-March, our second full day in Hoi An, we hired bicycles to zip around town a little easier, but also with the plan to go to the beach. We set off first for the Fujian Assembly Hall in the old town, a temple-like complex with ornate carvings of ancestors, deities and dragons. This is where the descendants of Fujian trading families that make up the still vibrant community, have important annual festivals and gatherings. There are photographs of the more recent events, providing an incredible view of how historical Hoi An is still very much alive. Having been inspired by our visit to Rahahn’s photography studio the previous day, we cycled east towards the artist’s ethnographic exhibition / museum. This is the result of Rehahn’s years of travelling around remote corners of Vietnam, meeting with, connecting with and photographing each of the country’s ethnic minorities. Each group has their own language, culture, and most importantly, traditional dress. Traditional weaving techniques for creating their traditional dress are slowly but surely dying out with the influx of cheap synthetic materials, making those remaining something of a cultural treasure for each of these communities. Rehahn has managed to get hold of a traditional dress from most of the ethnic groups to house them in this museum as a way of preserving their unique cultural heritage. The stories and photographs that accompany each dress in the exhibition are fascinating. In the end, we caved and bought ourselves one of Rehahn’s photos – an image of a Vietnamese trader-lady in Hoi An, with her produce slung over her shoulder. We had it wrapped up into a tube and sent home to Wales. We caught a glimpse of Rehahn himself but unfortunately did not manage to chat to him about his amazing work.
Feeling culturally enriched, we cycled back to Bari, the tailors, for another fitting, before enjoying a delicious Ban Mi (Vietnamese baguette) sandwich for lunch. We then headed north towards the beach. We fairly quickly hit the edge of town, and cycled along a trail straight through rice paddies, with buffalo working in the fields. It was a totally different side to Hoi An and much more of a reflection of the real Vietnam. We eventually came out to the main road on the other side of the paddies and cycled a further 10 minutes until we reached An Bang beach. It wasn’t the best beach weather, but we were able to enjoy relaxing and reading on sunbeds for a good couple of hours nonetheless. George also managed a splash around in the big waves. We ended up getting into a long chat with a very sweet lady selling souvenirs to tourists and eventually gave in and bought some nicknacks. She was genuinely lovely and also a very smart salesperson – first establishing a good connection with your customer!
We made the cycle back to Hoi An, stopping at a delightful craft beer-garden not far from our hotel, where we had a flight of different beers to share between us. After a brief pit stop at our homestay, we headed back to Bari for another fitting and headed out for our evening’s entertainment. We started with a few nibbles at the Hoi An indoor market. It felt a bit like a Vietnamese version of some of the foodie “mercados” we had been to in Madrid. We sampled some delicious gelatinous prawn dumplings which are apparently another local delicacy. The main event for the evening, was the “Hoi An Memories” show – something of a theatrical, historical extravaganza with an enormous cast. We made our way to the theme park by taxi where the show is hosted. We say “theme park” because this is exactly what it is. An entire fake mini version of Hoi An has been created, with fake street food stalls, mini shows and entertainers and fake monuments. It is just so bizarre. Either the Vietnamese are looking for new ways to tap into the ever-expanding flow of tourists, or they have just gone mad (or both). We walked through this strange Vegas-like place to what feels like a stadium stand on the far end where we took our seats. The stand was barely a quarter full – another sign of the early impacts of Covid-19 on tourism. The show itself was incredibly spectacular with impressive choreography, costumes, lights etc. The set itself was yet another recreation of medieval Hoi An and the hoards of actors (there must have been about 200) played a host of characters from the town’s history (traders, farmers, seafarers etc.). It was a little odd but spectacular, nonetheless. We were somewhat bemused by the speed at which the crowd of mostly Vietnamese tourists dispersed at the end of the show and how little respect / enthusiasm they seemed to show for the actors. We and a handful of other westerners remained a little longer clapping. We weren’t sure if they were terrified of coronavirus and leaving as quickly as possible, or if this was just another cultural quirk. We headed back to the old town for some more craft beers at “Pasteur Street” brewery and some pretty bad chicken wings, before grabbing a drink at the “Dive Bar” which is seemingly the coolest hang out spot as well as the dive shop organising diving at the Cham islands just off the coast. We were fairly knackered after a long but excellent day so headed back shortly thereafter.
We upgraded from bicycles to a scooter on 5-March, feeling like we wanted to explore a bit more of the surrounding area. We started our day with yet another visit to the tailors, and used the opportunity to park our scooter there and do some more sightseeing around old Hoi An. We visited the Cantonese Assembly Halls which provided another view into the ancestor-worship, festivals and culture of the Chinese trading communities in Hoi An. We visited 2 more old houses, both beautifully ornate with Japanese / Chinese style dark wooden panels. At the second house, we were welcomed by a tiny old man who spoke some English and proudly proclaimed he was the descendant of the original family who built the house (6th generation) – it was yet another beautiful reminder of how the history of Hoi An lives on despite mass tourism having descended to the town. Exiting the house, we indulged in a couple of mango and sweet potato cakes from a street vendor and returned to Bari for one final fitting. The dress was now perfect, so we collected our new goodies and dropped them off at our hotel. We finished our morning with a return to the indoor market for some more delicious Hoi An food: wanton noodle soup and more sticky seafood dumplings this time.
After our wholesome morning, we got back on our bike and headed east towards the sea once more – although this time, we went in search of the “coconut boats” and palm forests. We had read about excursions you could organise and decided we would explore this ourselves. Over the course of our travels, we had experienced all manner of touting techniques of people justifiably trying to get a piece of the tourism pie. We had never had it from another person on a motorbike while driving though! A man just drove right up beside us saying “coconut boat”? We felt like we wanted to see what the situation was on the sea front rather than follow a random man on a bike, so declined and sped off. As we approached the sea, another lady pulled up beside us and asked the same question again! For whatever reason, we said yes to the second lady and followed her to her house down a few narrow roads, barely 5 minutes away.
What followed, was one of the most bizarre and surreal but fun things we have done on the Megamoon! The lady’s husband, called Mr. Khun, ushered us eagerly into his small round tin boat. They are in the shape of a coconut but seem to be made from wood and hardened tar (for vital waterproofing!). It quickly became apparent that Mr. Khun was a bit of a hilarious maniac – he seemed to be a Vietnamese toddler in a man’s body, finding everything funny and joking around with toddler level naughtiness constantly – with virtually no English of course. He paddled us through narrow waterways lined with palm trees making jokes along the way. It felt very much like “Apocalypse Now”, made perfect with the Vietnamese straw hats we were given to complete the experience. After about 10 minutes of paddling during which we both had a go (it is very strange paddling a round bucket from the front, but we eventually got the hang of it), we started to hear loud music. Mr. Khun led us around some wider canals and we came to a large open area of water where there was a show about to start! About 8 other coconut boats with tourists in them (seemingly mostly Vietnamese) were stopped around a single boat with a man standing in readiness. A huge sound system stood nestled in among the palms just behind him. He suddenly began paddling in a circular motion and leaning from side to side to create a spinning effect. It became so vigorous that he started generating serious waves splashing into the boat and the rocking looked enough to make you sick. Somehow, with the blaring K-pop style music, it was like a mesmerising water-dance. Each boat man presented the man with a small amount of money (clearly included in our price for the tour), by sticking the note onto their paddles and presenting them to him simultaneously. It was a very strange but well-rehearsed and impressive act! One of the Vietnamese girls was brave enough to have a go sitting in the man’s coconut boat while he did his manic spinning, but we dared not. We continued our mad tour, passed a group of Vietnamese tourists doing karaoke from their boats with massive speakers stood on a floating pontoon in the middle of the water. In amongst the madness, we came across a fisherman tossing a wide net into the water – the traditional fishing technique here. Mr. Khun saved the most surreal for last. He somehow created a mini-lasso from reeds, and used it to catch Katharine’s little finger. He then caught a small crab and preceded to play around with it like a toddler: pretending to eat it and then letting it grab his hand with its claw and making pretend crying noises. It was hilarious and just so bizarre. We ended our hilarious tour feeling a little exhausted and not sure what hit us – but it was certainly an experience!
We headed to a quiet canal-side and palm-lined café, run by a local family who only spoke Vietnamese and French (a nice opportunity for us to practice French!). We then scooted back towards Hoi An and parked near the indoor market before heading into the old town for our final round of Hoi An evening delights. Walking through the market, we stumbled across a man selling crab-cakes: small crabs battered and deep-fried to stick together. George had remembered these from his previous visit to Hoi An so we bought one, while Katherine got a sugar-coated donut. We made our way across the bridge to the Irish bar, which had consistently played excellent live music from what we had heard over the past few days. It did not disappoint once again. We sat sipping cocktails and beers at happy hour prices for a good couple of hours, taking in the slowly darkening Hoi An scene around us.
Hoi An really comes to life at night, with the myriad of colourful Chinese lanterns lining all the streets and the water. After our drinks, we found a lady to give us a short boat ride in among the bright lights. Tourists light paper lanterns and float them on the water giving the place an additional level of beauty. Our final dinner in Hoi An was at the impressive “Morning Glory” restaurant. This is in one of the gorgeous old buildings and serves modern takes on Hoi An classic dishes.
6-March was our final day in Hoi An and we had a very different day planned. We had decided to put our recent PADI Open Water qualification to use on a day trip diving around the Cham Islands, just off the coast. While not meant to be earthshattering in terms of diving quality, we were excited to use the extra time we had bought ourselves in Vietnam to have another go at diving! That evening, we had a tight turnaround planned with catching the overnight train from Da Nang to the capital, Hanoi. Unfortunately, we did not set off to a good start as Katharine woke up feeling poorly. We got in the minibus taking us to the ferry nonetheless in the hope it was just some morning grogginess – it sadly was not. On arrival at the port, Katharine was in a big dilemma, on the one hand, she had genuinely been up for going, on the other, diving while sick can be unsafe and not a good idea. In the end we made the right decision and Katharine got herself a cab back to Hoi An. We consulted the diving instructor who agreed this was the best course of action: diving while not feeling 100% would only invite the possibility of having a bad experience and risk putting you off for a longer period as well…
And so, we ended up having mostly separate days sadly on our final day in Hoi An. Katharine managed to get back safe and sound and spent most of the day resting up at our hotel. George went on the boat with the group towards the Cham islands. Luckily, the diving school were super understanding about the situation and gave us a full refund for Katharine. George had a great time diving. He ended up getting on with a Polish girl from Australia who, funnily enough, was also travelling without her husband. They were joined by an English chap in his 50s as a trio group led by Calvern, our South African diving instructor. The boat ride over was fairly calm, but big swells in the water still made it quite a turbulent ride even if they weren’t actual waves… We arrived at our first dive site with seemingly great conditions – calm waters promising good visibility. George had to admit this was merely his fifth dive and first as a qualified diver. Diving with two others who were so experienced did make him a little nervous but he backed himself remembering our learnings from just the previous week! In the end those learnings were immediately needed, as George’s mask came off unexpectedly upon descending a few metres, having to replace it underwater using the technique we had learned of blowing into your mask with your nose. In all, it was a great dive that went smoothly. The predominant feature was vast soft choral gardens of varying colours and a few critters and worms. Marine life is less abundant in Vietnam due to overfishing. We did spot a giant frogfish though, which was a huge white globular fish clinging onto a rock. It stood perfectly still and George would not have noticed it as a fish had the instructor not pointed it out. The second dive was even better, with the defining feature being a rock edge gradually sloping into the water providing interesting features underwater. There were tonnes of soft coral once again and this time we saw a puffer fish and a spiky lion fish! It felt great to be back in the water and was a good confidence booster for George who received praise from the rest of the group for doing so well in just his fifth and sixth dives. The afternoon was spent on a gorgeous beach on the main Cham island, with an excellent group lunch of fresh seafood and some time relaxing on the beach before heading back to mainland around 15:00.
Meanwhile, Katharine made an excursion to get some Pho soup for lunch (not the best she had had) and otherwise felt better having had a day of rest. It had definitely been the right decision to not go diving. George made it back at around 17:00, just in time for our pick-up to the railway station in Da Nang, where we would catch the train north to Hanoi. Hoi An had been a really lovely half-way stop up the coast of Vietnam. Despite it being George’s second time there, it felt remarkably different and the sheer abundance of foodie, cultural and historical fun we had here, with a day diving as the cherry on top, made for a fantastic stay. Hoi An was also the last stop on our travels where we had yet to properly feel the impact of Covid-19, which had yet to be declared as a pandemic…
tranetrottingthemegamoon.travel.blog 
Great post 😁
LikeLike