Hoi An is about an hour south of Da Nang, and we actually visited it twice; once, for a lunch and walk around after our visit to the Marble Mountains. We liked it so much we decided to return for a few days to break up our month in Da Nang.
Hoi An is a popular tourist destination in Central Vietnam, and is famous for its ancient town and rice fields. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999, and almost all of the buildings are painted yellow and they have pedestrian streets (free of cars, not motorbikes, of course). Our first experience was lunch, at an excellent, and appropriately named, Banh Mi restaurant, the Bahn Mi Queen. Bahn Mi are sandwiches made on soft and crispy french baguettes, with different cold cut meats, pate, fresh veggies like cilantro, shaved carrots and sliced cucumber. Every place makes it slightly differently. Our driver, Tony, said it was the best Bahn Mi in Hoi An, and he was not wrong.
After lunch we walked around the old town streets, appreciating the mustard yellow buildings and pops of color, usually dangling from above.
As you may notice in some of the pictures above, there are dresses out front of some shops and that is because Hoi An is famous for the over abundance of tailor shops that make clothes for very reasonable prices. There are so many that every third business is a tailor shop, basically. Tony suggested a few for us, but Jessica did her own research and found one she wanted to visit, so we stopped in. She will go into more detail on her blog, as it was a fun and unique experience.
We walked by the Hoi An night market, marked by a sign; it was daytime, hence Jessica’s reaction below.
Opposite the Night Market was the Thu Bon River, and, as it was midday on a very hot weekday, not much was happening. There are a lot of boats ready to take tourists, and most of the boat riders were napping under their boat awnings. One awoke as we walked by and convinced us to take a ride. It wasn’t too expensive, and it was so hot that we hoped the breeze on the water would cool us off (which is kinda did).
The boat was adorned with colorful fake flowers, and the captain took us around as we had the river to ourselves, and, thankfully, we had an awning to keep the sun off of us.
We had some tasty iced coffees near the Ba Mu Temple Gate, but the temple itself was closed. The gate was super impressive with the reflecting pool adding to the effect.
We made one last stop during our first visit, to a small museum that celebrated the different ethnic groups of Vietnam, the Precious Heritage Art Gallery and Museum. Unfortunately there was no A/C in the museum part, but free entry to explore. It is owned and founded by a French artist and photographer named Rehahn, who explored the villages of 54 ethnic tribes in Vietnam and photographed many of the oldest residents, and also attained some original tribal wear to put on display. It was very well displayed and we learned a lot.
Tony picked us up from the museum and we drove back to Da Nang. We had such a time that we planned to return and return we did, which I’ll detail in the next post!
Phil's WayPastCool 