Hoi An, Vietnam

After another long (20 hour train and 1 hour taxi) journey we arrived in Hoi An, known for its beautiful old town untouched by the ravages of the Vietnamese/American war, a rare feature for such a significant city in Vietnam.

We checked in to our beautiful hotel room (The Sunshine hotel) which had a balcony overlooking the pool and we felt like kings! At a cost of just £16 per night for a double en-suite room too, result! The hotel even offered bikes for hire which we regularly made use of. As the hotel was in a more suburban area than we had previously been in, it was a welcome relief from the hustle and bustle of Ho Chi Minh. The local area was even more quiet because of Tet (the Vietnamese New Years celebrations/extended bank holiday) so we were required to go a little further afield to meet the action, the famous old town. Cycling through the narrow streets we had never seen so many people, we ducked in and out of coffee shops to escape the crowds and sample the local beer, not a bad excuse. After a few days of sightseeing in the old town the beach began to call our name, just a short cycle through the paddy fields, the sand was gloriously soft and burnt our feet as we walked across it. The waves were large and crashed against the shoreline, just like in Cornwall(Jake told me not to put that in but YOLO), as people boogey boarded their way through them. We were ushered to some comfy sun-beds which were free in return for eating a meal at the owners restaurant. A decent trade off for a bowl of scrummy chicken or crab fried rice.

A little sunburnt, we needed a break from the sun in the days that followed. Now that the Tet holiday was over it was a million times quieter and we enjoyed the true beauty of the town. It’s mustard washed walls, wooden shutter lined windows and central running river reminded me a lot of Venice. The long tail boats also had a hint of gondolas, they were only missing the striped shirt, cornetto singing Italian. We spent most of the day exploring and sampling the local cuisine including some local delicacy’s like Cau Lau, made with a type of noodle that is mixed with ash and washed in a local well, a rice broth and rice cracker (mouth watering?).

After a lot of relaxation we decided to opt to take a cookery class so that we could take home some of the delicious dishes we had been eating. An article by the Guardian lead us to the Thuan Tinh cookery school. They picked us up from our hotel and firstly took us to the local market to pick up the ingredients for our upcoming feast. The excellent English speaking tour guide showed us the different herbs that we would be using and the variety of produce on offer at the market ranging from fresh alive shrimp to boiled silk worms (which yes we ate and tasted like a chickpea in the chickpea water, if you were wondering). It made us appreciate exactly where our food was coming from seeing the variety of meaty ingredients dismembered on the butchery table and not from a magical supermarket fridge.

We then journeyed to the river to catch a boat to our cookery kitchen. Arriving at the venue in a rural village was an impressively set up cookery school with long benches each with a camping stove, utensils and essential ingredients on. The staff attentively poured us homemade passion fruit juice and we were guided through how to make some favourite Vietnamese dishes; pork and shrimp fresh spring roll, rice milk pancake, flambeau beef salad and beef Pho. All the dishes were amazingly delicious, and we smugly ate all of them after we had made each course. 

The sights in Hoi An, traditionally speaking, were quite limited we thought, some old houses, a Japanese bridge and Chinese architecture were recommended in the trusty lonely planet book however visiting a few of them we found them to be not much to marvel at considering our past adventures (perhaps we have just been spoilt). The main beauty lay in the old town itself, the beautifully lantern lit streets. The locals and businesses obviously took great pride it their appearances, decorating there frontages with flowers and elaborately decorated silk lanterns and the streets were much cleaner here. The river was not as polluted and the city had taken care to provide plenty of public space and greenery. They even had periods of the day where motorcycles were banned from the old town (however the odd one managed to break the barrier) making the streets all the more pleasurable to walk through. 

I’ve already talked of the wonderful food we ate on our visit but I couldn’t not mention tintin, the restaurant across the road from our hotel which served wonderful freshly made food. A place I’d highly recommend. Also 3A, a coffee shop just outside of the main town, which served the most amazing coconut iced coffee (dairy free). Jake sampled a variety of the flavoured iced coffees including vanilla and cookie which were great too! 

Next stop: Hanoi, which will be written by a surprise guest blogger... hint he’s the ying to my yang.  

If there’s something you’d like to be included in the next blog then feel free to let us know by commenting below. 

#Vietnam #travelblogger #travel #travelvietnam #food #culture #asia