Hoi An

“Graceful, historic Hoi An is Vietnam’s most atmospheric and delightful town”

• Anonymous

After a short flight we arrived at Da Nang to a new airport so much better than the old. Luggage collection and exit to the waiting car was easy. The journey to Hoi An was different to I remember lots of development commercial and tourist resorts using the beach road. Finally Hoi An had a lot more traffics than I remember but at last the historic hotel had not changed walking in it felt a little like coming to a second home. One improvement straight away was the staff at the front did greeted you warmly. We were quickly shown our room overlooking the wonderfull pool.

Waiting for the sun to go down before walking into town we took time to relax by the pool. Walking to the old town it had not really changed but there might be more tourists (not so many Chinese), many vendors asking you to purchase pop-up cards, fans and candles to light in the river. A quick look at the shops I was also looking for a shop where I was friendly with a young girl but couldn’t find it. Ended up having a light dinner and drinks by the river watching the crowds go buy. Then walked back to hotel going into a tailor with similar name and it was the auntie of the young girls I knew we the Aunty telephone her and she remember me so great to recconnect.

We spent many evening by the pool after dinner it was great however you could die of thirst as they never asked if you wanted a drink you had to find a waiter for help

We did a couple of activities while in HoiAn one was lamp making we selected start from the very beginning which was a lot of fun putting the bamboo support in order and then selecting you silk fabric to decorate I was surprised how could the lamp looks at the admittedly we did have a you helper to shadow us through the entire process let’s hope Australian customs let it in.

Another great activity was cooking I’d done this before so we did a different class firstly we walked to the local market looking at all the wonderful produce then returned to make our lunch it was a lot of fun

We went looking for a Banh Ni one shop was written up as the best Banh Mi in Hoi An well the restaurant was crowed but this was not an indication of the banh Mi I think we were spoiled in Hanoi it was so unimpressive no photos were take of the Banh mi. We sat next to a couple from Singapore who were equally disappointed.

One of the best finds was a restaurant named Morning Glory there were two restaurants that had this name we went to the first it was full of people but after we sat down and reviewed the menu it was like pub food in Australia we we left and went to the other Morning Glory Original and this was the place to be. It was so good we went twice once for dinner an another time for lunch food tasty not too spicy nicely presented and yummy.

Did I mention the shopping we has a great day shopping purchasing lots of great stuff, also had coffee and biscuits at the cafe run by deaf mutes I’d been before still great drinks