Hoi An, what a place! One of our favourites on our adventures so far.
After arriving on the bus we discovered that we were on the completely wrong side of town and the hotel was an hour or so walk away. With our luggage, walking that far in the ridiculous humidity was not an option, so instead we walked straight into the closest highest rated restaurant. We tried the Cau Lau, a local nodle dish, of course complimented with morning glory and brown rice. Yum. Full up, we jumped in a Grab to go drop off our gear.
The hotel “Full House 2” was epic, with big clean rooms and… a pool! Needless to say we were straight in there, spending most of the afternoon amusing ourselves in the water with all the childhood classic games.
For dinner we walked into town, which was about 25 minutes from the hotel. Our first choice restaurant was closed, classic, so instead we popped to Mot around the corner. The front of the restaurant has a large window through which they serve their infamous cold herbal tea. The crowds lined up for the stuff were huge and never-ending. Luckily inside, things were calmer. We parked up at a table and ordered the bbq pork rice noodles, wonton noodle soup and a couple of cups of their popular tea. The tea was delicious! Best stuff I’ve ever had. No idea what’s in it, maybe lemon grass, rose water etc? But at 80 cents a cup it was a bargain. The food was delicious, and cheap, so we ordered a bowl of Quang noodles as well. All up, only 200.000 VND ($13).
Following dinner we wandered around the famous streets of Hoi An, admiring the old colourful buildings decorated with lanterns. Over the river we found a street lined with bars, all with people out the front harrasing passers by to come in for “happy hour” which seemed to cover all hours the bar was open. Somehow we ended up finding a bar with 2 for 1 beers (not just cocktails?!?!). Obviously we were sold and parked up for a couple of rounds and some great people watching.
The night markets were also on the island so we explored these before heading home. Fried frogs on a skewer seemed to be a popular delicacy in the area.
Breakfast was included at the hostel and included a huge spread of food, including pineapple pancakes, banana pancakes, rolled chocolate sugar pancakes, sandwiches, fresh cooked eggs, bacon, ham, fries and fruit. Green tea, coffee and juice were also included, it was epic. Of course the only way to finish off a fantastic breakfast was to jump in the pool! And that filled in most of the rest of the morning…
For lunch we headed back into town to the spot we had tried to go for dinner the night before. We had fresh spring rolls, morning glory and lemon grass chilli pork, washed down with a mango smoothie and a banana smoothie.
After lunch we wandered the markets and picked up a few bits and pieces. Walking along by the river was a mission as we kept getting harassed for boat rides. On our adventures through the cute streets we picked up some more Mot tea and a mango and some mangosteens. It was then back to the hotel to drop our goods and head to the beach! The hotel had bicycles free to use so we jumped on those and took off. Kyle’s bike had a bung pedal but I lucked out and chose a good one. The ride to the beach was only 10 minutes, partly though the rice fields. It was flat and easy, offering some great views! At the beach we had to pay for parking, so we instead decided to park at a restaurant and buy water as a parking fee.
Around the entrance the beach was absolutely packed and the sun chairs were pricey at 100,000 VND each. We kept walking north up the beach, and found we didn’t have to go very far before it completely quietened down. Here we got sunchairs for 20,000VND each, much more reasonable! We parked up there with a beer each, bliss!
The water was warm and it was great swimming. There was a small amount of rubbish around, but nothing like what you see in Thailand, Bali etc. There were plenty of fish jumping in the water and crabs crawling on the beach to also provide entertainment.
We biked back to the hotel before sunset and went back into town for dinner.
Because it had been so good the day before, we decided to head back to Mot. This time we tried the white rose, a shrimp dumpling popular in the area, and their take on Cau Lau, as well as going back to the old favourites of the bbq pork noodles and tea. Again, fantastic.
The next day after breakfast and basketball, we took bikes again to explore the Tra Que vegetable village. The village is known for their farms, growing loads of fresh vegetables and herbs set up in a tidy grid which is stunning to look at. We stopped at a restaurant here for lunch, ordering the rice pancakes and cau lau. The rice pancakes were good, and this was the first time we had been shown to wrap the rice pancake in rice paper. The Cau Lau was ok but not the best we’d had. We also tried their homemade herbal tea which was full of basil seeds. It was nice but not as good as the Mot tea in town.
Today Kyle had managed to pick a bike with a flat tyre, so we left our bikes at the restaurant and walked to the beach. We parked up at the same spot as the day before and spent the arvo there relaxing.
After picking up our bikes, returning to the hotel and spending some time in the pool, we walked to The Claypot for dinner. Wholey jeepers this was the best food we’d had yet. Even the Oreo milkshake was delicious. We had the vegetable curry and coconut and pineapple pork claypot and they were both STUNNING. It was so good we enquired about their cooking classes but unfortunately it didn’t work with our schedule since we were leaving the next day.
On our final day, we spent the morning at the beach before returning to clean up before check out. For lunch we wanted to return to The Claypot but unfortunately it didn’t open until 4pm. Instead we headed back to Mot for the third time for two bbq pork noodles, a chicken rice and a banh mi… We went a bit over the top so that we wouldn’t need dinner on the night bus. Of course this was accompanied with more of the delicious Mot tea.
The rest of the afternoon was spent in the hotel pool until we were picked up for the night bus at 5pm.
Kyley on Tour 