Posted by Jason Upon arriving in Hoi An, we immediately noticed how pretty the city is. Its streets are lined with lanterns and shiny, wooden store signs. Out of all the cities we've visited in Vietnam so far, this is easily the best packaged for visitors. We enjoyed walking through the very well preserved old city centre, an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Because cars are prohibited in the city centre, all we had to watch out for were bicyclists, cyclos, and motorcyclists. Traditional Vietnamese architecture dominates the streets, but because of Hoi An's role as a major trading post from the 16th to the 18th century, many Japanese and Chinese citizens settled here and created communities of their own, and their influences are visible all over town. Hoi An is famous for its countless tailor shops. Literally, from any corner of any street in old town, you would be able to spot at least one or two tailor shops. We were told that if we were to get clothes custom-made anywhere, we should do it in Hoi An because of its relatively cheap prices and wide selection. We had been given a few tailor recommendations (EVERYONE in Vietnam has a friend/sister/cousin who owns or works at a tailor shop in Hoi An, and they ALL have the "best" prices and quality). We found shopping around for the best deal rather exhausting, so after visiting 3 stores we settled on An's Cloth Shop, who carried the fabric and colours that we liked. Karbo had a dress made and I got a suit. After some necessary bargaining we agreed to a price that seemed reasonable. We don't recommend this particular tailor because after having to go in for 4 fittings, we weren't that impressed with their service. However, we are very happy with our purchases! Hoi An has a few beaches outside its old town centre, so we picked a sunny day and rented bicycles to check out two of them. The roads here were a lot flatter compared to Hue, so it was a relatively effortless ride. We stopped briefly at the main beach, Cua Dai Beach, before going to the more secluded An Bang Beach. We spent a couple of hours relaxing at An Bang with some beer and spring rolls. It was our first sun-bathing experience on this trip and we enjoyed it! While the restaurants in Hoi An's old town are obviously geared towards tourists (slightly overpriced food, English menu, and rarely a Vietnamese customer in sight), they did provide some nice patios for relaxing and people watching. We only had one meal at one of these restaurants but we spent a couple of afternoons on the patios sipping on iced beverages while cooling down from the heat. Aside from its restaurants, Hoi An also boasts an amazing street food scene. Hoi An's specialty noodles (mi quang and cao lau) are relatively dry as thicker noodles are used and the soup only fills half the bowl, but they're still very delicious. We were very pleased with the cheap eats we found in Hoi An and wish we could have had more! If I have to choose one word to describe Hoi An it would be cliche. From the rice-hat wearing ladies with their fruit baskets posing for photos to the cooking and lantern making classes, some times we wondered about the authenticity of it all. However, regardless of its intentions, Hoi An is a really, really, beautiful city. It's definitely one of the cleanest Vietnamese cities we've visited. A fellow Canadian traveler had told us that Hoi An is like a Vietnamese Disneyland and we could see what she meant! While in Hoi An we took a day trip to Da Nang, central Vietnam's biggest city. We spent the day walking around the river, but due to how spread out everything is in the city we did not get to see too much. We've heard great things about Da Nang's beach resorts but that will have to wait until our next visit.
3 Comments
Julia Liu
3/24/2014 01:46:52 pm
so cute! I love the purple dress and suit. Did you know in christian culture purple resembles a wife of noble character? <3
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Karbo
4/9/2014 01:42:26 am
Thanks Julia! I think I knew that in some countries purple was associated with royalty....but I hadn't seen that specific proverb until now.
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A wife of noble character who can find?
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