Hoi An
Today we flew to Hoi An from Hanoi. The flight to Da Nang airport was uneventful apart form a brief few minutes in Hanoi airport where I had misplaced my passport. Fortunately it turned up under the table we had been sitting at and I put my carelessness down to the very strong but delicious egg coffee that I had just drunk.
Once again we rode a taxi, arranged by our hotel, from Da Nang to Hoi An and our hotel which was located on An Hoi island so very close to the Old Quarter in Hoi An and in a beautiful setting on the river. We had pushed the boat out in terms of cost, relative to Vietnam costs, and the hotel was well appointed with a spa, swimming pool and excellent buffet breakfast.
We left our bags and went for a walk along the river towards the old town. Hoi An was much warmer than Hanoi in the mid 30’s. We purchased our entrance tickets for the Old Town in one of the yellow ticket booths, which are at most of the entrances, which in our case was on one side of one of the bridges from the island. The Old Town is a preserved ancient town with wooden Chinese style buildings, temples, meeting halls, and French colonial buildings all packed into small and busy narrow streets.
The entrance ticket allowed visits to 5 of the designated sites and we visited the Cantonese Assembly Hall, Fujian Assembly Hall, Museum of Folk Culture, Hoi An Museum and the Ceramics Museum. However I have to confess we did not really have a plan and these were ones that we just walked passed and liked the look of them. It was just a pleasure to walk around the individual streets and look at all the sights and sounds and stop in one or two of the many cafes to have a cooling drink and watch the world go by.
We had booked a show at the Lune Centre which was an acrobatic show depicting early Vietnamese life. It was spectacular and well worth visiting. However we were not prepared for the sight when we exited the theatre.
The hotel had told us that there was a special festival that night and the river by this time was covered in boats with lit lanterns being dropped into the water to float. Certainly by luck our night in Hoi An coincided with the once a month lantern festival for the full moon. It was amazing to see so many boats and lanterns on the river and the banks teeming with people. Certainly worth coinciding a visit with the festival dates.
We had booked a vegetarian restaurant to the back of the old quarter and we walked through the crowds behind the old quarter and through the streets that seemed to be selling anything from shoes and clothes to kitchen utensils and bike parts. We followed the map for our restaurant through a small archway and through a dark, narrow lane which then opened out to a courtyard with the restaurant, with an iron balcony at one end. This was Minh Hien Vegetarian Restaurant and was an absolute delight. Sitting on the balcony in the evening heat and eating many great vegetarian dishes in a relaxed atmosphere. My personal highlight was the aubergine in tamarind sauce but everything was superb. A lovely end to a great day and we walked back along the river to our hotel.
The next morning we had been booked on an early morning trip to My Son but this had to be cancelled as we were the only participants. We were offered a later trip that day but that would have been too close to our flight. That was a shame as the My Son temple looked really interesting and probably well worth a visit. So we had an excellent breakfast in the hotel and a further walk around Hoi An before heading to the airport and back to Hanoi.
