Hoi An

Hoi An
Day 1

We arrived safely in Hoi An about 10.30am. The sleeper buses always take longer than they say! However, the journeys really aren’t that bad and we manage to get around 5/6 hours of sleep. Excited to be there, we quickly grabbed a Grab taxi to the hotel as again, it was a long walk. Usually, we walk it if it’s under 30 minutes but we were tired and wanted a shower ASAP.

We couldn’t check in straight the way (BOO! Always the case) so first we went for lunch at a nearby cafe. Then, we made our way back to check in. Our hotel was Acacia Heritage Hotel and wow what a place! This was our priciest and most luxurious hotel so far. Luckily, our booking.com genius discount along with a random deal online made it cheaper! It was still our most expensive place but loads cheaper than what it should have been so we decided to treat ourselves. It was an actual hotel! There was a pool, our room had a BATH (OMG), bath robes, a balcony, fancy toiletries, room service and two massive beds! We felt like royalty!

Straight away, I ran myself a bath and had a soak. I love a good bath so I was very excited. Definitely could have done with a Lush bath bomb though! As our room was so nice, we chilled for a few hours and caught up with things. Then, dropped our laundry off to get cleaned.

I always love getting somewhere on the first day and going out to explore so I was itching to go. Instantly, we fell in love with Hoi An. It was much quieter and less crazier than Hanoi. There wasn’t a lot of traffic. Instead, a nice, chilled but still things to do kinda vibe. Pretty buildings, coloured walls, a lake to stroll around, bikes, yummy food stalls and a lot of lanterns. Everywhere you looked, there were colourful lanterns painting the place. The locals work hard at all hours to make them and you can watch them. Amazing.

We spent most of the day wandering around and taking pictures (of course!). Then, it was about dinner time. We crossed the river and found a lovely, little place that had a balcony upstairs to sit at. I ordered the local dish Cao Lac, which is noodles and pork with pork scratchings on the top, yum! And Lewis had a burger. I decided to get a beer and it was only around 20p! And my food was £1. A very cheap meal! Later on, I grabbed some ice cream rolls. You can choose any flavour and they make it in front of you. Delicious! Then, we went to a bar and had a couple of drinks. Leicester City were on on the TV. What a surprise!

On the way back, I somehow made my way into a beauty parlour! These are also everywhere in all towns and cities. The ladies sit outside and constantly say ‘massage’ to try and get you in. It gets quite funny. Even though it was around 11pm, I desperately wanted a pedicure! And I couldn’t say no when it was around £3.50 for a colour as well!

Day 2
Our hotel had a buffet breakfast! Now I did feel like I was on holiday! When I experienced all inclusive holidays growing up, I’d always love the buffets as I could pile my plate up! So that’s what I did!

After a good and big breakfast, we thought we’d make the most of the pool and chill for a couple of hours. The sun was already out so I was happy to get my tan on for a bit. And of course, jump in the pool!

The rest of the day was spent exploring the Ancient Town. This area was older with cuter buildings and had more of a rustic vibe to it. Flowers covered many of the bright walls, which made it so colourful! There were many Vietnamese ladies sitting at the the side of the road with their wooden baskets that they carry fruit on. They beckoned us over to carry it so we could have a picture whilst wearing the hats. As soon we took them off, they demanded for us to buy fruit. We should have guessed! They were very pushy but we thought fair enough because we did have many pictures! However, they said a really ridiculous price; something like £3 for a couple of bananas and apples. So as usual, we bargained with then and ended up buying some fruit but for a much cheaper price. After, we visited the Japanese Bridge and had a stroll around the lake. Hoi An is such a beautiful place!

In the evening time, we walked to the lake to light a lantern. Every night, small wooden boats sail down the river and everyone places colourful lanterns with candles along the river. It looks truly magical! In the boat, I ended up dropping mine in the river whilst trying to place it in ha ha whoops! Luckily, she kindly gave me a new one haha.

After, we had some food, cocktails and wandered around the market. Everywhere we go seems to have a market. I forever want to buy things but I just don’t have the room. Our dinner portion was pretty small and we still felt peckish so we went on the look out for a little snack. We both had a pancake in the end!

Day 3
This morning, we had a coconut basket tour booked at 10am. When we arrived, we were served sugary coconut, which was delicious and the some cold vietnamese tea. The coconut basket tour was basically sailing down the river in a circular wooden basket and travelling through local villages. On the way down, we also tried looking for crabs but were not very successful! Then at one point, all of the coconut baskets gather together and music was played. Some of tour guides spin the boats really fast to the music and put on a little show – it was pretty impressive.

When we arrived back, we checked out of our hostel as we were leaving at 4pm. We spent the rest of the day chilling and eating Ban Ho, which is basically a Vietnamese style Subway! They were so delicious -just what we needed!

We hopped on a 1 hour flight down south to Ho Chi Minh City. We are going to only stay there for 1 night so we can catch the bus from there to Cambodia tomorrow. It was much cheaper this way than to fly to Cambodia from Hoi An (Danag airport).

Laura and Lewis x