Hoi An = beautiful. My favourite place in Vietnam so far!!! Once we arrived to our hotel, (huy huong garden hotel- really nice) we had a swim in the pool, had a chat to an Argentinian couple we met at halong bay, then walked into the old town. Hoi An is a beautiful ancient city that still has most of the old buildings and roads, they weren't bombed like many other cities. At night the old town comes alive with hundreds of lanterns lit up everywhere in the street and in the shops, it is so pretty. You can also buy a candle paper lantern to float on the river (and make a wish!) so the river in the middle of town is lit up from these too, just a beautiful place and hard to describe! We walked around soaking up the sights and ended up having dinner at a beautiful street stall at along the river (just next to the Japanese bridge if anyone ever goes) where they had the typical street food vendors and small plastic tables and chairs, however it was candle lit, and had an English menu. It was a collective menu for about 5 street stalls so when u ordered they went and got your food from the particular store that made it, an awesome concept, and of course really cheap! Was a fantastic location by the river, it was really enjoyable, apart from the moment when I saw a giant rat come our from the river bank behind Chris to eat some food scraps- ruined the moment a bit!!!
The next day we walked into the old town, we bought tickets to see 5 different attractions in the old town, probably shouldn't have bothered, nothing was too exciting that you couldn't already get the gist from the outside of the building. Hoi An is also famous for Tailors, so we wandered around to a few, I ordered 3 dresses for a fraction of the price at home! We made a few enquiries and booked a cycling and photography course for the next day. That night we had some cocktails at a place called the mango rooms (delicious and was happy hour so $2.20 per cocktail) and watched the sunset (not very impressive due to the constant haze but cool watching all the lanterns light up). We then had dinner on the other side of the river, was pretty yummy.
The next day we did the bike tour (was a free tour with local students wanting to practice their English). We took a local ferry (a small boat!) across to an island where we learnt about the different trades of the village- making wooden boats, grass mats, rice noodles and wood craft. I got to have a go at making a grass mat, not my specialty!!! Was a good tour and a nice way to see an area away from all the tourists. We then had a quick swim and headed to our next tour, a photography tour. The instructor was a Dutch guy called Peter, he was really friendly and taught us a lot! We went on a boat to a different island with a really small village. He taught us a lot about camera settings and composition, but probably one of the most interesting was how to interact with local people and ask them for a photo without upsetting them. We got told to put those skills to the test in the village and had a lot if fun interacting with the locals and practicing our new skills. I think we got some good ones! As we came back into the town it was dusk so nice views on the boat ride back. We then had some time to practice our night photography (deffo getting good at this now!!). The tour finished and we ate at a place called blue dragon, nice food, and supports local community with disabilities.
The next morning we lazed around for a while and booked in accommodation for our next few destinations. We hired bikes and rode to the beach (bout 4km away). We stopped at a cool restaurant on stilts along the way and had lunch (another recommendation from Sasha- thanks!) the food was really good and such a lovely view of the river and island across the other side. The beach was quite nice, but of course still nothing compared to ours. We had a swim- then it started raining!!! So we rode back to the hotel, had a swim in the pool in the rain. We the. Got to watch a thunderstorm, it rained really heavily for an hour or so. We ended up getting a taxi into the old town instead of using our bikes because of the rain. Had a dress fitting, bought some paper lanterns for the river and made a wish, then went to dinner at a place called morning glory- delicious!!! iPhones really have changes our travel experience since the last 5 years, now you can use apps like trip advisor and city guides to get ideas and top ranked places where to eat. Makes it easy to find good places but I guess it does take the fun out of picking random places and hoping for the best! It's also so easy to get maps and know prices etc for attractions, makes travel a piece of cake really!!
The next day we hired bikes again and rode to a local village on an island close to town (Called Xa Cam thanh commune). It was a really nice ride, saw the locals making bamboo roofs and also a wedding! Was an area of water coconut palm trees, you could have done a boat ride through them but we weren't really fussed. We then rode on to the beach and had a swim in sunny weather this time! Next we went back to town, picked up my dresses (all very nicely made!) and did a bit of shopping. We decided to post some stuff back to Australia as there were a few things we really loved and couldn't say no to! I bought a beautiful painting too, so really hoping everything makes it back safely. We lazed around the pool for a couple of hours, then got a night bus to Nha Trang, further south on the coast. The bus was 13 hours long, there are beds (well chairs that almost recline all te way back) that are 2 high and in 3 rows. Was not very comfortable especially with a few snorers on board, so we were pretty tired when we reached nah trang!!!