To this point, our trip to Vietnam was feeling slightly devoid of culture. Big city, overdeveloped beach towns and oh sooo many tourists left us feeling a bit sterile. We were craving a place that would make us believe we were actually in Vietnam. Luckily for us, Hoi An proved to be a charming, gem of a town. A World Heritage Site, Hoi An is an incredibly well preserved trading port from the 15th Century. Once the largest port in all of SE Asia, the town has been influenced by Portugese, Dutch, Japanese, Arab and Chinese traders which has created a unique and beautifully diverse spot.
Today Hoi An is lined with literally hundreds of tailor shops and is a world famous craft and textile center. It didn’t take long before we were visiting the shops and sucked into a full on shopping frenzy. Aaron had a suit, shirts and ties made and I had a dress and trench custom tailored. Add to that some gorgeous leather bags and we soon found ourself with yet another box on a ship bound for Vancouver.
In between tailoring appointments we spent days cycling around town and took a tour with with a very sweet old man we met at a riverside restaurant.
We met Mr. Trung while having a few drinks one evening and he offered to take us on a tour of his “Fishing and Pottery Village”. Following the tour of his village, Mr. Trung invited us to his home where his wife treated us to a traditional cooking class. It seems the Vietnamese are particularly business minded and so we were only a little surprised when at the end of our tour Mr. Trung offered us hand written thank-you notes and asked that we send him a postcard recommending his tour when we get home 🙂
In addition to the beauty of this spot, the food in Hoi An was outrageously delicious and ridiculously cheap. As a result we ate and ate…and ate. To be fair I don’t think we had a single bad meal in Vietnam but there were some real standouts in Hoi An. We returned multiple times for the duck wontons at Hi Restaurant and had delicious Cao Lau and ginger smoothies at Son Hoi An.
Delicious food, 20 cent “Fresh Beer”, gorgeous scenery and amazing shopping made Hoi An our favorite Vietnam spot.
plane life 