That blog title goes out to Debbie.

Our plan of 1 week in Hoi An was delightedly extended to 4 extra days as soon as we discovered that:

1. Vietnamese food is so much more than pho (but no disrespect to the pho), and Hoi An does food SO WELL!

2. The place we were staying in was so lovely and charming, with such welcoming staff, that it felt almost impossible to leave.

3. The beach was only a 10 minute bicycle ride from our homestay.

We feel very fortunate that Hoi An was our first stop in southeast Asia, as we got to ease into this new part of the world in a small town, before tackling the big bustling cities. And Hoi An for us was one of those places that really begged you to just hang out, eat, stroll around, and eat some more.

One of the best parts of our stay was that we had access to free bicycles at our property that we could take wherever we wanted. The first day we jumped eagerly on the bikes to cycle to the old town and quickly realized that cycling in Vietnam means fully immersing yourself with the traffic with NO FEAR. It was a long first ride into town. Feeling a little bit frazzled after the first trip in, we started to second guess our new mode of transportation. Luckily, we started to quickly feel comfortable with the process, and loved riding through the countryside alongside the water buffalo in the rice paddies! Such a peaceful experience.

We went into An Bang beach 3 times, which had pretty decent soft sand, strong waves, and warm sea. Beach chairs were free if you ate lunch at the corresponding restaurants, so each day we would have a seaside lunch with a cold Saigon or a fresh coconut. The beach life=our favourite life. We are in central Vietnam in the rainy season, so we were prepared for a lot of rain, but we were lucky to only have a couple of days that were a wash out (literally.) As we also felt the effects of a typhoon at the end of our time in Japan, we are starting to get used to the lingo of "tropical storms/depressions/typhoons", etc.

We had a fantastic day with an organized tour where we took a Vietnamese cooking class, and learned how to make 4 dishes! The food tasted delicious and we were given the recipes, so....who's coming over for Vietnamese?? We met some lively fellow tourists on this day, and realized that we had been missing some of the "backpacker" conversations that were absent in Japan - as we are now back in a land of the thrifty traveller!

Hoi An is known for its tailor shops, so we jumped on board the cliche, and got fitted for some clothing. Since Clare loves shopping so much, this turned out to be SO MUCH FUN (insert rage-y face.) Because we are weak and new at this game, buying one thing each turned into 3 dresses for Clare, and 1 shirt and 2 pairs of shorts for Troy. It was actually a neat experience to create a piece of clothing from scratch, and have them alter and fit just to your liking. And then you have 6 unnecessary articles of clothing that now have to find a place in your luggage...hmmm...

Troy thinks we should talk about food more. Specifically about our favourite place to eat, "Mr. Hi". We can across the recommendation on a travel blog, and ended up going there 3 times, 4 if you could the time we hungrily arrived as they were packing up and had to leave disappointed. Tofu in a claypot, cao lau noodle dish, fresh mango smoothie, pho, and mi quang noodle dish were some of our favourites (but no, we don't know how to make those ones. Oh, except Clare can make you a smoothie.)

But it is the old town of Hoi An that is really magical, especially at night when the lanterns come to life and the river is dotted with bright colours as people mill around just soaking up the atmosphere. Being in the old town never got stale, as each time we walked down a street, we would notice a new feature on a building, or a pretty tea shop we had missed. Even after spending 11 nights in the area, we would probably still return, just for the ambience. So special.