I must admit, my expectations of Hoi An were way too high. It was way too hot, way too crowded and the centre was too touristy. Paying to enter the centre of town is a bridge too far for me.
Yet, if you look up and ignore all the souvenir shops, you see loads of lovely houses. And I must say: I bought the most fabulous lanterns.
We also had a great cooking class at Ms Vy’s, which you can read about in this blogpost.
Food tour
Our guide Loc took us on a fabulous food tour. We started with a fabulous chicken salad in a restaurant with only locals called Com Ga Ba Nga.
Afterwards we went to a place where we had skewers, nems and other lovely food. We finished the night with some corn sweet soup (Che Bap) which I loved.
Tra Que
In the morning Loc took us to the village Tra Que where people grow herbs and vegetables for the restaurants in town. The farmers mix the soil with sand and weed from the nearby river.
The village is famous fot its cinnamon basil, which I love.
What struck us, was how modern these farmers are. In the North, people almost don’t use machines because they are too poor to buy machinery.
Boat trip
We took a cyclo trip to Cam Nam. I loved watching all the lovely Vietnamese houses. In Cam Nam we took a boat to Hoi An. It was very relaxing, being with a boat on the Thu Bon river, cruising while the sun is going down.
We saw fisherman at work and enjoyed the surroundings of Hoi An.
Essence Hotel
We stayed at the Essence Hotel, on the edge of the town. As it was so hot, we spent a lot of time there. The food was great as well as the swimming pool and the spa.
Do you want to discover more about Vietnam? Read what we did.
Great pics! Havent been to this part of Vietnam before.