One of the most romantic cities in the world and let me tell you it totally lives up to the expectations. The city is known for its well-preserved ancient town, beautiful beaches, and traditional architecture. The Old Town of Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it is famous for its well-preserved buildings, including traditional wooden houses, pagodas, and assembly halls.
Day 5 of our trip and we woke up in this beautiful, ancient city. We reached there late in the night the previous day. We had not booked our flight tickets from Hanoi to Da Nang which was a huge mistake. I strongly recommend you book the tickets in advance. We were trying to book the tickets from the morning but something or the other was happening. We finally booked the tickets, which cost us around 20k(including baggage charges) for the round trip. Our flight from Hanoi was with VietJet Air and our experience could have been better. Our tickets did not include check-in baggage so we paid for our 15kg bag. But they were measuring the weights of cabin baggage as well. So please make sure to keep them to an exact of 7kgs. It took us 3-4 hours to manage the weights of the bags and convince the executive to let us take an extra 1-2 kgs.
We reached Da Nang Airport by 7:30 in the evening. From there we booked a cab for Hoi An. It took around 1200 Rs. On the way, we stopped at Ganesh Indian Restaurant to pick up some Indian food as I was craving some desi-style Dal Roti. The food was good, not too spicy. We had booked the Four Seasons hotel for our stay. The hotel is located in a secluded narrow lane but the rooms are spacious, clean, and comfortable, and have a view of the pool and vast fields. The owner is a sweet and kind man. He made us feel at home there. We quite enjoyed our stay there. They also had provided us with bicycles to explore the town and riding in the Hoi An is the best way to explore it. So do check with your hotels(if you are booking somewhere else) for the bicycles.
The next morning we started our day by pedaling around the Old Town of Hoi An. We roamed in ancient streets. The streets had such a pretty vibe. Every location is picturesque there. We visited historical buildings such as the Japanese Covered Bridge, the Phung Hung Old House, and the Quan Cong Temple. There are other pagodas and buildings on the streets we were roaming around and randomly going to the cute buildings. It was raining that day so we had to take shelter several times to save ourselves. I would strongly advise you to check the weather and keep an umbrella or raincoat accordingly.
As the evening progressed and lanterns started getting lightened, the view of the place changed completely. We knew that it was going to be beautiful but it was way more than what we expected. The whole old Town was beautifully lit up with colorful lanterns. We were just sitting around the night market soaking in the view of the river flowing on one side and people bustling on the other amid the amazingly lit-up town. It was a magical and enchanting experience. It was the calm among the chaos. There are a lot of cafes on the street overlooking the river and the market. Some of them were even having live performances. You could sit and relax in any of them. Alternatively, you could also go for a romantic boat ride on the Thu Bon River. I am sure you won’t regret it. We roamed around the night market enjoying the local dishes.
It again started raining so we proceeded towards the city to find a place to eat near our hotel. We wanted to sit somewhere, relax, have some drinks and call it a night. But it didn’t happen that peacefully. So the place where we went was a local pub and the servers there didn’t speak or understand English. With the help of Google Translator, we made them understand that we didn’t want the beef dish. We ordered just one dish as we were not that hungry. The dish was served and as soon as we took the first bite one of the servers came to us and told us that they have mistakenly served us the beef dish. It would have been okay with me if they would have rectified their mistake, taken the dish back, and given us our original order. But they were insisting that because we had taken a bite from it they can’t take it back and would charge us for it. That is where I felt it was getting unfair. We didn’t know what our order should look like as we were trying the cuisine for the first time so charging us for their mistake didn’t go down well with me. I retaliated for that and after a lot of to and fro arguments all over Google Translator they agreed on their mistake. In the whole process, our original dish also got cold and we didn’t enjoy it as much. Not a nice experience at all.
The next day was a fresh morning and it was our last day in Hoi An and in Vietnam as well because the next day was going to be consumed by traveling only. So we wanted to have a super chill lazy day to end our trip. We started very late and then went on to this cute cafe called Morning Glory to enjoy our brunch leisurely. The cafe had great food. We then rode on our bicycles towards An Bang/ Cua Doi Beach. The beach is situated 5-6 km from the Old Town. It was an awesome experience. We got to see the lovely countryside. The views of the fields, the local way of living everything was spectacular. We stopped at random beautiful places on our way and clicked pictures.
We were so not over the evening scenes of the Old Town that after chilling on the beach and watching the sun go down we started to head back to the night market. We ate some more local dishes and shopped for souvenirs. Hoi An is a very artsy town. You could buy many different paintings and wooden decorative pieces from there. You could also get fridge magnets, silk scarves, lanterns, chopsticks, and a lot more from there. You could even get yourself a custom-tailored silk satin gown or suit at a very reasonable price from there. The only thing to remember while shopping is to keep your bargaining pants on. After a lot of shopping and bargaining, we headed for dinner and our experience was not great today either. We chose a place along the riverside but the food quality there was not good. We got nothing but disappointment for our last meal in Hoi An 🙁. Although they realized that we didn’t like the food so they kindly gave us a discount.
But going to Hoi An was worth every penny. We loved the city so much that we ended up spending both days there. If you want you can spend one day at Hoi An and the other one at Da Nang. It also has many attractions to visit. You can go to Golden Hand Bridge, take a cable car to the top of Ba Na hills, or go to Non-Nuoc Beach. You can also take a food tour as the city has a vibrant food scene.
We had a flight back to Hanoi early morning so we went to our hotel and retired. Our hotel owner arranged a taxi for us to Da Nang airport. Remember that Da Nang International and Local Airports are different. So if you are traveling locally don’t go to International Airport by mistake like us 😛 We had booked Vietnam airlines for our return journey and the experience could not be better. Hassle-free luggage check-in and a very comfortable flight. We reached Hanoi Airport and had a lot of time to kill before catching our International Flight back to India. We hung around in different restaurants at the airport itself before catching the flight. And that is how an awesome trip came to an end.
I hope you loved the Vietnam series. I will post one more blog about the food dishes that you should not miss trying while in Vietnam. Till then keep reading!!
See you soon!!
TheTorchedSpace 