Hoi An - Vietnam

September 6, 2020

After a week in the craziness of Ho Chi Minh City we were looking forward to the romantic, family friendly, and relaxed scene we had heard so much about in Hoi An - and it didn't disappoint.

In Vietnam we had unfortunately found ourselves with five flights in 1 month, something we try to avoid normally, but with it being so close to CNY the ground transport normally available to get from city to city was booked solid; and so in order to get to our 3 destinations and back to Malaysia (including connections) meant a whole load of flights.

Arriving in Hoi An was immediately like a breath of fresh air compared to HCMC.

We arrived in Da Nang in the evening, with a 45 min drive across to central Hoi An.

Da Nang is more of an established city compared to Hoi An, both share beaches but Da Nang is the place to find the all-inclusive beach resorts and malls whereas Hoi An is home to the small boutique style "Villas" (privately owned mini hotels) and the paddy fields veined by waterways.

By the time we arrived at our Villa (called Lucky Leaf) it was pitch black; we were greeted by a similarly dark, empty reception, but after a little nosing around we found the owner who sat us down to tea and fruit.

We also met here very friendly naked, 2 year old granddaughter who joined us with the fruit.

We were handed all the usual tourist leaflets, but with very little English to answer any questions; we were then quickly shown to our room.

When travelling we try to never end up in a single room as a family. We find that bed time for the kids is often disrupted so always try to opt for a family suite where possible - however after the experience with the hostel in HCMC and even the apartment having rock hard beds - we were ecstatic to find that our hotel room had two very comfortable big beds, which after a day of travelling soon spelled the end of day 1 in Hoi An.

Next day we woke up to brilliant sunshine now illuminating our balcony view of the small pool and the sound of running water from the fountain.

Breakfast was included with our stay and consisted in every variation of eggs plus of course Bánh mì.

Although the food was just fine and tasted good, breakfast was again a sticking point for our lack of Vietnamese - even pointing to meal choices on the menu was met with some uncertainty, and the process of requesting cutlery to eat with was caused such confusion each morning, that going to the kitchen and retrieving it ourselves became our daily ritual.

Obviously we travel to many destinations where we do not speak the language, and although we try our best to pick up important words, we can usually get by just fine with basic gestures and simplified English - in Vietnam though we found obvious things like requesting the empty soap dispenser in our room to be filled, completely unconveyable (it remained empty when we left after several attempts)

A highlight though of the breakfast was the abundance of fresh fruit, picked directly from the hotel's own orchard next door - we also could not complain of lack of attention, as we were the only guests in the whole hotel.

After breakfast, and a quick try of the pool (which was ice cold) we headed out to explore our surroundings.

It just so happened that we had found ourselves (through pure luck, rather than judgement) staying in between the two main roads in Hoi An (Cửa Đại and Nguyễn Duy Hiệu) and within walking (or cycling) distance to the main river, old town and all the main sites as well as direct access to the paddy fields which in turn lead to the beach.

We really were in the prime location.

Roads in Hoi An are busy (not HCMC busy but busy all the same) but slow moving. There is very rarely a useable footpath and if there is, then often obstructions forcing you back out on to the road.

Going for a walk is not impossible but certainly slow going.

Best thing to do is hire bicycles or mopeds. I like the exercise and fortunately our hotel had free bicycles so that's the mode of transport we chose.

I did go to the trouble of hiring helmets, which we were glad of a few times.

When cycling in Hoi An by the way, there is a road etiquette that, as a European, seems very alien.

- it is the driver (or cyclist) responsibility, currently on the road, to manoeuvre/reduce speed/swerve/try not to crash - when a driver/cyclist/massive truck is joining the road.

In other words, vehicles joining the road you are on will not stop and wait, in fact they will not even glance to see what's coming.

That goes for over taking or moving to a turn - it is always the vehicle behind you that must be aware of your position, speed etc and visa-versa.

This of course led to a few near misses, of which I am totally sure the other driver had no idea of - and we were glad of the helmets.

Hoi An is one of Asia's top travel destinations and from what we had heard ideal for families. At the time that we arrived so did a number of other travelling families so we were keen to meet up with them as soon as possible.

Fortunately one family had spent some time in Hoi An and so suggested a beach front bar for us all to meet up at.

Kahuna's was a laid back bar and restaurant, directly on the public beach and with a free to use pool.

Food was pretty good, and as were the mojitos!

We met up with the rest of the group there by our 2nd or 3rd day and immediately hit it off with them.

We also realised that even though we were staying central to Hoi An the beach was easily a bike ride away, in particular it was a nice bike ride away - with only a couple of roads on route; the rest was through the picturesque rice paddy fields.

Ultimately we fell in love with Hoi An due, in most part, to this feeling of carefree tranquillity you got when cycling peacefully through the paddy fields, watching workers go about their day, whilst on the way to chill out at the beach - with a beer or cocktail or two.

We were also staying within an easy bike ride to the old town. Here there is plenty to see and do, all be it very touristy.

Nether the less, it is a fun place to stroll around if you do not mind the crowds. There are lots of temple like structures and ancient buildings of different sorts - and although beautiful we were a little blue need by the number of people taking in the same view.

There are also plenty of trinket and gift shop type stores as well as an open market.

One thing the old town has in droves that are worth exploring are the restaurants.

Before Hoi An we had been really struggling with food choices in Vietnam, and maybe because it is more set up for tourists, the food choices here are amazing.

You can of course find plenty of really good quality western choices however it was the local food we now found a genuine love for.

The banana flower salads, morning glory (no really) beef soup noodles, and rice paper rolls were incredible.

Due to our new craving for Vietnamese food we decided to sign ourselves up to a local Vietnamese cooking class.

I can truly say this was the best "excursion" we have ever taken part in as a family; we learnt so much, had amazing fun, the kids were included and entertained for the entirety and the food we produced was delicious.

To find more out about the cooking class click here.

Apart from the food, Hoi An is known for being one of the most romantic cities in the world, of course as a traveling family we get little time for romance, however we did at least find the time for a moon and lantern lit boat ride on the river.

We loved the fairy-tale atmosphere, albeit along with a ton of other tourists, and the kids really enjoyed sending their wishes (floating tea light) off into the river.

Water is always something I love to be around, in or on and we had a couple of opportunities to experience the river from different angles.

I found a local water sports company, Hoi An Kayak Tours, who hired out paddle boards, and me and Dex spent one afternoon exploring the river bank, moored Junkers and fisherman going about their day.

The day was windy and the only board they had was rigid (I have only paddle inflatable and slightly more stable) and probably underweight for the both of us, so although being slightly submerged and slower than usual, it was fun to explore.

One day we cycled out to the ceramic village - this is a "village" where the residents all create ceramic sculptures and such like - quite honestly it's a tourist trap and not worth the time.

Also be aware that they sell you a ticket to get in which isn't required.

However the cycle was quite far and we didn't fancy doing it again in the heat of the day.

One thing to be aware of in Hoi An, unlike all other parts of Asia we have visited so far - no Grab or Uber.

Taxis are hailed and they are pretty hard to come by - in fact after our paddle boarding me and Dex walked an hour home because we simply couldn't get a cab.

When you do hail a taxi, you will need to specify where you are going and how much; some will just point to the meter, which is fine - others will set the price and it's worth knowing trying he going rate as there was a couple of times we were given ridiculous prices which were immediately lowered when confronted.

On this occasion, with us and the bikes a taxi wouldn't have helped however there were water taxi's.

After a bit of bartering, and letting the multiple drivers bid on our trip we agreed with the cheapest quote to drop us back to the old town.

To our surprise we were led to a huge double decked boat...on board....and back out the other end to a little Junker moored on the big boats stern.

Not that this bothered us any, it carried us and the bikes just fine, and got us to where we needed to go, for less than a taxi and gave us a new experience too.

We were dropped off in old town where once again we stumbled upon a cute little back Street cafe, with relaxing music and gorgeous food.

Hoi An really surprised us for the modern businesses that are spotted all around it, that go totally against its traditional persona. Yes you will of course find the wet markets, street food and poky grocery corner shops which seem to be just the owners front room covered in convenience items; but what you will also find, if you look for them, are modern, really well done independent businesses - like cafes, burger bars, playparks, and restaurants (come to think of it we spent a lot of time eating)

One such cafe we may have used once or twice (or thrice) was Dingo Deli which was just walking distance for us. This western cafe had the unique appeal of being nearby, having very recognisable, home comfort food, wifi, a play area and lots of delicious cakes.

Also nearby was a great Vietnamese cafe called Eco Coffee, serving every assortment of coffee; from banana to mushroom, and of course bean - with an awesome outdoor play area made entirely from Bamboo, and pond which the children were encouraged to go wading in amongst the fish.

Trip advisor and Google reviews never really steered us wrong the whole time we were in Hoi An, one little gem which we found however just across the river to us was Nhan's Kitchen.

The local Vietnamese specialities here were amazing, combined with a clay pizza oven kept the kids very happy too.

Hospitality in Hoi An is never an issue, however when we came to pay and realised that we may not have enough cash (we only found at the end that no cards were excepted) the waiter made no fuss at suggesting we just pop back the next day to pay - in the end we just had enough.

Food is not the only attraction in Hoi An of course - a must do activity I had seen available a short taxi ride away was the water puppet theatre.

This, unique to Vietnam, attraction has puppeteers stood (hidden behind a curtain) in a waste deep pond whilst they retell a number of fables of the gods, through Vietnamese history.

The wooden puppets, which are beautifully carved and stained to represent kind of caricatures of people, work in the opposite way to a traditional puppet on a string; stood on an elongated handle (with basic movement controls) under the water, held by their controller behind a curtain a good few feed behind them.

The scenes they manage to act out convincingly and with great dexterity on the puppeteers part, is amazing.

Overall most scenes have a comic nature to them, almost Punch and Judy like.

The evening we planned to go we were lucky enough to organise all the other traveling families to join us, which by now made up around 20 people, and we arranged dinner at a burger bar just walking distance from the theatre.

The kids all loved the puppets, completely getting the comedy but with some of the innuendo passing right over their heads (particularly the dominatrix clad wan, who ends up spanking the bare bum of a fellow puppet)

It's definitely a place to visit and at just £2.60 for adults (80,000VND) and half price for children (pay at the door) it's a steal.

After leaving the theatre we headed to Jim's Burger Bar - which had apparently misheard the number of people I told them over the phone and only prepared a table for 6.

Nether-the-less after throwing a few patrons off their tables - we all got seats, and better still the adults were positioned away from the kids!

The burgers were great, as was the beer and company.

Nearing the end of our stay in Hoi An Chinese New Year was fast approaching, and the locals were beginning to get everything ready.

There are many traditional surrounding the build up to CNY and we were fortunate enough to witness many of them in play and even join in with one or two.

The decorations were of course going up all over the place and orange trees for sale now lined the streets, and were being carried away once purchased by, of course, wholly inappropriate vehicles.

For the locals this is a time to get rid of any bad fortune, before the actual Lunar New Year, so cleaning homes, buying new clothes, resolving disputes, and paying debts are all done at this time.

Gold leaf paper is burnt as a way of paying tribute to the ancestors. Each day for the duration of the week before New Year, our hosts placed offerings on an altar and incense was burned, this is in memory of the departed – with the centre piece in our case being a large pigs head.

We were lucky enough to be invited a kind of pre-celebration meal by our host family; beer flowed plentifully and we were offered wine from the longest, most ornate wine bottle I had ever seen (later we found the same bottles for sale at duty free)

We had a good evening with our hosts although again communication frequently led to confusion on both parts, but one way or another we bungled through it.

CNY celebrations were also very apparent when we journeyed a little further back to Da Nang for a day.

We struggled a little to find one activity to do with the kids here and so just ended up exploring - in the end we ended up in a mall with a great little cinema to watch Dr Doolittle (not one of RBJ greatest roles) but in the evening decided to head over to the famous dragon bridge.

This is a literal fire breathing bridge in the shape of a Chinese style dragon.

I found us a roof top restaurant called the Brilliant Top Bar with the perfect view of the bridge.

The restaurant ended up being an amazing steak place (albeit one of our pricier meals) with amazing hospitality, live music and cocktails.

Even before the dragon "show" kicked off the scenery of Da Nang at night was breath-taking, and just as the time approached for the grand spectacle; lantern lit boats of all sizes silently made their way under, to give their passengers a unique view from the water.

The fire show was over pretty fast, but even so the build-up was fantastic, especially with the surroundings we found ourselves.

We spent a few more play dates with the other families on the beach and at different restaurant's and when it came time for us to leave Hoi An we were kind of wishing that we had longer, but it was time for us to journey further north on yet another flight - to Hanoi....oh how I wish we had stayed in Hoi An!