Hoi An, Vietnam

7th June – 9th June 2018

Getting the local bus to Da Nang was 10,000 dong more expensive than we planned because we had to pay for our luggage too (making it £1 each overall). This was still cheaper than it would have been to get a taxi up to the bus station, to get the other bus anyway. The journey was also quicker than the Queen bus would have been, so we were happy we made the right decision – for once! It was a bumpy ride though, throwing us out of our seats at once point, resulting in a little, old Vietnamese lady talking to us in shock – I couldn’t actually understand her, but her tone sounded shocked.

After about half an hour, we arrived in Hoi An. We had decided to walk to the Queen bus stop to book our next bus to save us making another trip up there, as they were supposedly close. Annoyingly, the address had changed and they hadn’t updated  their booklet (and it hadn’t been updated on maps.me) meaning that we were wandering the streets with our heavy bags, in the humidity looking for the shop. We eventually asked the man who was in the address we had, who wrote down the new address, making this a little easier for us. Strangely though, this man didn’t know the password to his own wifi, and he didn’t have the key to his own fridge, meaning that we couldn’t even buy a drink to refresh.

Once we had finally found the office and booked our next trip, we decided to call a Grab to take us to our hostel, as it was too hot and too far to walk it. It was nice to get into a cool car and be taken to the door of the hostel, even though it was a little difficult to find.

When we arrived at the hostel, we were greeted by the owner who told us we had booked it ‘very cheap’. I didn’t quite understand what he was saying at first, but he said it over and over again, like I had done something wrong. He showed us to our room and showed us how the locks worked on the gate, as when he goes out, he locks up.

In the room, we sat down and cooled off in the air con, while looking up where to go for lunch. Neither of us had eaten yet, and we were both starving, so we didn’t want to waste much time. We found a banh mi place that was highly rated on trip advisor, so decided to head towards that, even though it was a little bit far away.

On the way, we were stopped by a lady called Anne. We got chatting to her and within minutes she had taken a liking to Joe, telling him how he had an Asian look about his face, just like her, he had an Asian name and that he was small, just like her. She soon told us about her tailoring shop which was in the town. She wanted to show it to us, but we were too hungry to go with her, so asked her for the address and said we would pop in later. We knew Hoi An was big on tailoring, as the nice man that we met on the bus on the way to Da Nang (who arranged for us to be taken to our hostel) told us about his shop too and asked us to come and visit him. Walking down the street we came across dozens and dozens of different tailoring shops, I’m not sure how people decide where to go for their clothes!

After leaving Anne, we carried on walking to the banh mi place, passing ‘Surprise’ (John’s shop – the man from the bus). The banh mi place was a lot longer than we both anticipated, but we got there in the end and were more than ready for some lunch. We got a banh mi each and the total bill came to 30,000 dong (£1), so we definitely weren’t complaining.

Once we had eaten, we walked back to Surprise to price up a suit for Joe, as he would need to buy one when we got home, so thought we would compare prices to get one tailor made. I questioned how much it would be to get a dress made, but as I had no idea what I wanted, it was difficult.

After we had prices from John, we thought we would go to find Anne’s place too, to compare prices. We ended up walking up and down the street, looking for the address that she had written down, but after asking a few people, it seemed it didn’t exist. This is when I realised that auto-correct on my phone had changed what it said. We eventually found it, by using the map to try and figure out what she meant. When we walked in, Anne wasn’t there, but there were three very pushy ladies. It was really hard to think around them as they would ask question after question and try and push us to buy something, so in the end, we decided to leave it there, as I really didn’t know what I wanted and they were too pushy.

Once we left that shop, we decided that John’s was the place to get the suit. We could have walked in any shop in Hoi An to get a quote, but knowing the best place to go was difficult, and as John was number 1 on Trip Advisor, and he seemed like a really nice guy, we decided to go with him. Joe got measured up, while I used the wifi to research some dresses I like. I couldn’t find anything but apparently dresses are quicker to make, so I could think overnight and let them know in the morning when Joe had his first fitting.

From Surprise, we walked back to the hostel, where we cooled off and freshened up. I did some more dress research and Joe looked up where we could go for tea. We were both pretty tired and drained from the humidity, so didn’t want to venture too far. I had found a place around the corner, earlier in the day, and Joe found a different one, a little closer, so we decided to head there.

Arriving a Nahn’s we learned it was closed for the evening due to personal reasons, so we carried on walking and ended up at Tuan’s, the one that I had found. It was nice in there, and got really busy, so we knew we had made a good decision. We both ordered really tasty meals, before walking back to the hostel.

On the way back, I got an ice cream from the shop, as I needed something sweet. We went back up to the room and did some trip research, dress research and blog work, before falling asleep at about 10.

The next morning, I was awake at 7, despite the fact that we could have a lie in. I didn’t do much though: I just lay in bed, waiting for Joe to wake up, which didn’t happen for another hour. We chilled out and waited for breakfast, which wasn’t being brought up to us until about 9. We got ready and waited, but at 9.10, it still hadn’t arrived, and Joe had to be back at Surprise for 10, to try on his suit. Joe went down to check on the breakfast and ended up bringing it up himself.

I wasn’t overly impressed with the food, as the egg wasn’t cooked properly and there were ants crawling all over the bed, so I ended up not eating anything, even though I was really hungry. We took the breakfast tray back down and got ready to set off, just after 9.30.

It took us just under half an hour to get to Surprise, but when we got there, we were pretty hot and sweaty, so needed a few minutes to cool. Joe tried on his suit, which fit perfectly and I finally decided on a style and colour for a dress, so got measured up. I wasn’t feeling 100% confident with it, but it was too late to change my mind once I left the shop!

After leaving Surprise, we walked to the old part of town. We wandered around the streets which were really quiet and peaceful (besides the beeping motorbikes occasionally). We got as far as the Japanese Bridge, before getting stopped, as we tried to cross it. The lady was asking for a ticket, which we had no idea about, so we just retreated and walked around it.

We carried on walking the streets, getting a sugar cane juice along the way. I had wanted to try a sugar cane juice for a while, as I was intrigued to know what it tasted like, as they just put a sugar cane through a machine which squeezes it, and juice is produced! It didn’t taste like what I expected it to do, but it was still nice and very sugary, so probably not too good for us.

After getting to the end of the old town, we turned around and walked back. We found an ice cream place which was pretty cheap, but didn’t know where it was, as there was just a sign and no shop. As we hadn’t eaten lunch yet, it was too early for ice cream anyway, so decided to come back later. We found a place to get some lunch – another banh mi – which was miles cheaper than everything else we had seen in the Old Town.

After lunch, we walked a little further, enjoying the quiet of the beautifully decorated streets. We tried the ice cream shop again, but when asking a woman inside the shop next door, she said it doesn’t open until 2 or 3pm. Instead, we crossed the river towards the south and had a little walk along the front, before stopping for a drink in a restaurant.

As we had seen all that we wanted to see in the Old Town, we decided to walk back to the hostel, after our drink. It was a very humid afternoon and I wanted to cool off and freshen up before going back to try my dress on. We chilled out in the hostel for a while before setting back off at 4.30.

Back at Surprise, I tried my dress on, and wasn’t immediately happy with it. I wasn’t sure that I had chosen the right material and it didn’t quite fit right. The ladies tried to convince me that it looked good, but I knew it wasn’t right. They agreed to alter it for me, although it was changed the design that I wanted, slightly. I was okay with that though, so I had to return in the morning to try it on.

Straight from the shop, we went back to the Old Town, as we wanted to see the night markets. We couldn’t believe it when we walked towards the river and there were hundreds of people there! Where had they been all day!? There were people along the streets, in the bars, on the bridge, everywhere: it was packed!

Wandering along the front, we looked in restaurants at prices and got an idea of what was a good price for dinner. It was still early though, so we didn’t want to eat just at that time, we wanted to explore the markets first. We crossed the bridge again, which was much more difficult this time, due to the amount of people on it. In the river, there were people having boat rides, it all looked very pretty.

Although we were a little early, the night market was just about opening. We walked along the stalls, eyeing up what I could use as a patch, but not having much success. As it got darker, the market got busier and more beautiful. We had a look at the lantern stalls, all lit up and I just wanted to buy them all! Just by the market, was a reasonably priced restaurant with a wide range of options, so we decided to eat in there.

The waitress guided us to a table, which was cleaned for us, for us to be joined by five Vietnamese people, making the table a bit squashed. We have come to learn too, that Vietnamese people don’t have much concept of personal space, so it wasn’t very comfy. The waitress then told us another table was about to become available so we could go there if we wished, so we stood up to move there, only for another family to beat us to it! In the end, we ended up inside, where we ordered our food.

Once our food was ordered, we were asked to move again (by a different waiter) so that they could use our table. As they wanted us to move to perch on the end of someone else’s table, we said no. I guess it was a good sign that it was busy but there was too much changing for us.

After dinner, we walked back along the river front and crossed over the bridge again. It looked even more beautiful in the dark of the night, as there were lanterns and boats and candles floating on the river. We stopped and enjoyed the views for a little while, taking some more photos, before walking to the ice cream place for a third time to see if it was open.

Luckily, it wasn’t too far away, and it was open! It was also very cute looking, all set up in a little hut, so we stopped and I enjoyed two scoops: rum and raisin, and chocolate. We sat there, while I enjoyed my treat, before walking back to the hostel.

Back at the hostel, we had a quick facetime with home, as everyone was together, before settling down for the night and watching and episode (which I fell asleep during).

I was awake early again, the next day. I didn’t do much again though, I just lay there, thinking about what we could do with our last day in Hoi an, as the bus wasn’t until 6pm that evening. Joe woke up around 8 again, and we began to get ourselves ready. We had put our laundry in with the hostel, and were waiting for it back, but when Joe went down to get it, there was no one there. We waited a little longer, before he went down to check.

Apparently it was almost ready and he would bring it up when it was, but there was also no sign of breakfast, so Joe went back down to double check. The man told Joe again how cheap we had the room, as if he wasn’t going to provide the advertised breakfast, but he did anyway.

It was soon 9.30, and the laundry still hadn’t arrived, so I had to leave Joe to wait for it, as I had to go for my dress fitting. I wanted Joe there to help with telling me how it looked, so I walked really slowly, hoping that he would catch up with me.

When I got to Surprise, there was still no sign of Joe, so I took a few minutes to cool off, before trying the dress. Luckily, when I came out of the fitting room, he was there, so he could help me. I was much happier with the dress now that the alterations had been made, and they had even managed to keep it more like I wanted it, which was good.

With our new outfits in hand, we made our way back to the hostel, where we had to pack them up somewhere. We had all of our laundry to put away too, so it made it easier that our bags were already half empty.

Once we were packed, we went down to check out, but it wasn’t surprising that there was no one there. We had already been told that we could borrow the bikes for the afternoon, so we put our bags in the room and took the bikes down to the beach. We also took the key with us too, as we didn’t want to arrive back and it be locked up, like it was most times we went out or came back.

It was lucky that we had the bikes, as the beach was an hour walk away and we didn’t have too much time to spend there. On the bikes, it took us about twenty minutes, until we found a little area of the beach with a few sunbeds. It only cost us 50,000 dong (about £1.60) for both sunbeds and an umbrella, so we were happy.

We set ourselves up and put more suncream on, before chilling out. After not very long, I got too hot just lay there, so I went for a dip. I wasn’t sure at first if I wanted to go in the sea, as we wouldn’t have chance to shower before the bus, but as soon as I stepped in it, I was happy! The water was so clear and didn’t feel too salty on the skin. I stayed in the water for a while, enjoying the cool, calm waves, before Joe came and joined me.

After enjoying some time in the sea, we went back to the sun beds. I was getting pretty hungry, but we hadn’t brought any snacks with us. The man who was in charge, had a menu, so we looked at that and decided to share some spring rolls and chips.

Once we had eaten, we both lay down and before we knew it, we were asleep! We must have snoozed for about an hour, before I woke up in a panic that we had slept through the alarm. Luckily, we hadn’t, and it was about to go off, so we got up and ready so that we could cycle back to the hostel.

Back at the hostel, the man was very keen to get rid of us. He stood over us, as we put the bikes back and picked up our bags. He questioned how much water we had drunk, from the free bottles he gave us, which we didn’t understand, because if he didn’t want us to drink it, he shouldn’t have given it us! He then practically ushered us to the door, closing the gate on our tails, it was all very strange. Luckily the wifi still worked out there, so we could order a Grab to take us to the bus stop.

We arrived at the bus stop really early, but we didn’t anticipate that we would be thrown out of the hostel so quickly. It didn’t matter though, as at least we could sit there and sort ourselves out. We cooled off, and I got changed out of my bikini. As the banh mi place from our first day was just around the corner, Joe went off to buy us one each, as we knew they were cheap and tasty and would do for our tea.

When Joe got back, it was fortunately almost time to get on the bus. We waited for the rest of the passengers to arrive, before we could put our bags on and load up the bus, finding some good beds, as we were on it for a long time! We set off towards our next destination just after 6pm and we prepared for a lengthy night.

Hoi An is, without a doubt, our favourite Vietnamese place. The cleanliness was a key aspect for us, as we have found South East Asia, in general to be quite dirty, with the locals not caring and just openly throwing rubbish in the floor. Aside from the cleanliness though, it is a beautiful little town, with old character and life to it. The lantern decorations were my favourite thing though as they really brightened the place up. The south of the country has a lot to live up to!

To travel is to live, Katie x