2 nights in Historic Hoi An!

Hoi An Day 1

After an almost 17 hour overnight train ride from Ho Chi Minh City, we arrived in Da Nang train station in the mid-afternoon. The cool weather was a welcomed respite from sweltering Saigon. We had arranged for a transport service to and from our guest house, and it was a seamless 50 min car ride to our accommodation. Along the way, we caught a short glimpse of Da Nang City, the Marble Mountains and the coastline with its many massive constructive projects and rough waves.

In the train on the way to Da Nang.
Please refer to the bottom for Notes, particularly on the train ride. I wanted to make a separate write up on it but I realised I did not take enough pictures and it would be extremely wordy and dry, so I decided against it. Enjoy! 

Arriving at Da Nang train station

Very rough waves of the South China Sea.
A typhoon was hitting the Philippines at this point, and it hit Da Nang and
Ho Chi Minh City shortly after we left for Hanoi.

Marble Mountains

We stayed at the quiet Tan An residential area, which was a quick 15 min bicycle ride to the Hoi An Ancient Town (Old town). In the late afternoon, we took our bicycles for a quick spin around the area and found a steamboat restaurant.. Affordable and extremely local!

Yummy hotpot.. perfect for the cold weather!

A local eating place. It was filled with older men who had lots to drink.
There was a menu (in Vietnamese but they pictures) so ordering was easy.

Afterwards, we left for the Old Town, parked our bicycles (they had a fixed rate for parking) and went on an exploration walk around the very charming town. It was very lively (hordes of Korean tourists.. A quick google search revealed that there were at least 16 flights per day between Da Nang and Seoul, not to mention other Korean cities, so tourism is really booming here), and it was around 20 degrees celsius which made for a comfortable sweat-free walk.

Many many tailor shops and souvenir stores

Hoi An is famous for their pretty paper lanterns

Hoi An wasn't exactly a quiet place

Hoi An is very famous for wedding photo shoots..
It wasn't uncommon to see Vietnamese couples in traditional costumes with
professional photographers dragging
all their equipment around

The Japanese bridge. This landmark appears on the 20000 dong note!

Vendors would sell lighted paper lanterns at the riverside where
tourists can use a bamboo stick to place them on the river and watch them float away

The bustling night market area

I tried this a few times and I did not taste any mango.. Later on, I learned
that it is shaped like a mango seed and that is why they're called 'mango cakes'.

Christmas decorations at the riverside

An entrance ticket will get you access to 5 sightseeing places in the Old Town

Hoi An Day 2

It was a rainy morning and we had our warm breakfasts prepared by the guest house. They had a menu to choose from and the staff went to the market in the early morning to get the ingredients for our chosen dishes. Yummy, fresh home-cooked Vietnamese food!

I had homemade Mi Quang- a Hoi An specialty. Very flavourful!

There were only two things in our agenda, which was to get a tailored coat for my travel partner (I didn’t foresee myself needing one in the near future so I passed on that) and to explore the Old Town. We cycled to a tailor with good reviews and the owner was willing to give ‘extra discount’ because we were the first customers for the day. I do not know the truth behind the ‘extra discount’ but I later learned that the Vietnamese are very persistent to make deals with the first customers of the day as it is considered bad luck if they leave without purchasing anything. Throughout the day, we returned two more times for more fitting and collection.

Rainy Hoi An

It was still raining when we left the tailor shop, so we wanted to go to somewhere sheltered. We ended up at Precious Heritage Art Gallery Museum. It was a free exhibit on the works of renowned photographer Rehahn on the different ethnic groups of Vietnam. They showcased the results of years (and still ongoing) of painstaking effort on the heritage of the different tribes, some of who are dying as the younger generations completely embrace mainstream Vietnamese and Western cultures.

Precious Heritage Museum. Rehahn's works have been published at renowned
publications like CNN.

Leaving our bikes behind, we walked to the Hoi An Central Market where we had lunch. The afternoon involved street food, the ‘best bahn mi’ made famous by Anthony Bourdain, the cloth market, more walks around town, a short rest in the hostel and another fitting at the tailor shop. At night, we were once again mesmerised by the lively atmosphere and the pretty lights of the Old Town.

We had lunch at one of the food places in the market. They had menus in English
and Mandarin.

I had com ga, Hoi An's take on chicken rice

More sightseeing in the drizzling weather

Chocolate 'pancakes'

It was relatively empty when we came but a later visit showed a huge crowd with the queue spilling on the street

It was delicious!

Evening stroll

Hoi An Day 3

We started off with a relaxing morning stroll around Old town, where we tried to use up our admission tickets. 

Our breakfast. I had cao lau (which is probably the most famous Hoi An specialty)
and some passion fruit to conclude the meal.

We checked out after that and the guesthouse very nicely kept our bags and allowed us to use their bicycles until the late afternoon. The owner suggested us to go to Tanh Ha Pottery Village so we went there.. Indirectly.. We cycled around, somehow ending up at a highway, u-turning to a village where we passed by paddy fields and farms, before finally making our way to the pottery village. It was a very long ride.. Sweating despite the cool weather but worth it for all the sights of a ‘more rural’ Hoi An.

The Pottery Village was very walkable and it was almost devoid of tourists when we came. We took a walk around, observing the artisans as they moulded clay and fanned the furnace. The entrance ticket included a free pottery of your zodiac sign, so we got ours. Shortly after, bus loads of Korean tourists started coming in and we left.. passing by even more tourist buses heading for the Village.

Pottery being laid out to dry

A 'more rural' feel

We headed back to the Old Town for lunch and more sightseeing. We also bought an entire pineapple cake for our long train ride to Hanoi that night. Our guesthouse gave us a farewell tea and bananas, and after more well wishes, we left for Da Nang train station. Goodbye Hoi An!

We just chilled at Old Town, eating and people-watching.

So we bought an entire pineapple cake! I do not regret partaking in this calorie-ridden goodness.
So so good! 

Some farewell tea and bananas

More glimpse of Da Nang City on the way back to the station.

Notes:
- Hoi An is definitely a tourist-centric town so expect lots of tourists at the Old Town. It reminds me of a slightly more crowded Luang Prabang. A good thing is that shops employ english speakers so we could get things easily.

- Be careful in cycling around Hoi An. I got knocked down by a motorcycle and there was no damage to the motorcycle and I was able to jump away in time. Not even a scratch on me.

- The old town gets crowded at night! Best to park your bicycles on the outskirts and walk. You can’t pass through conveniently amongst all that crowd.

- After being tanned in Koh Rong, we passed off as locals and were not offered 'souvenirs'or 'see menu please'at all! We even did experiments where we walked between groups of foreigners and we were the only ones not approached!

- BRING A JACKET DURING THE WINTER. A GOOD ONE.

- We booked ourselves on the cheapest sleeper bed on our train ride to Da Nang: the top bunk on a 6 bed cabin. There were three beds on each side of the cabin and it was extremely squeezy height-wise.. You couldn’t even sit down straight! There were also no stairs, just steps which the people below could retract at any time. However, I mastered the art of getting on and off the top bunk and I pretty much lied down almost the entire journey so it was bearable for me.. Not so for my travel buddy who wanted to read his books, watch the scenery outside and explore the train!

- Each bed is provided with a pillow and a blanket which is a must if the aircon is blowing directly on you. Cleanliness is also questionable as I killed a small cockroach on my bed, but it wasn’t exactly horrendous.

- Keep your tickets with you while venturing around the train. I was stuck in an awkward situation with my train conductor when I went to the toilet  and he started questioning me in Vietnamese, and I couldn’t understand anything. I dragged him to my empty bed afterwards and all seemed well.

- Try to empty your bladder before going on the overnight train. I was up past 1, desperately trying to unlock our cabin door while holding my pee. Luckily, a Vietnamese lady woke up and helped me.. She also had trouble opening it.

- Toilets! I encountered both a squatting and a Western toilet. The Western one was usable (toilet bowl glistening with drops of liquids).. For the squatting one I encountered, RUN FAR FAR AWAY FROM IT. They had toilet rolls but I encountered one which ran out of these precious pearly sheets.

- There were food and drinks sold. I did not buy any and I assume that there might be a bit of a language barrier with the attendant. They would be calling out as they make their rounds so they are not missable.
 

A small food cart

- We were extremely lucky on booking our train ride to Hanoi. We did not book our tickets beforehand and we booked right before boarding the train! The train counters in Da Nang operate on a queue system and there were many people in front of us (judging by the numbers) and I was crossing my fingers, hoping that we could purchase a ticket in time! We did! The ticket counter lady who served us might not be the nicest and was slightly grumpy, but she was very quick and got us our tickets!