Adventures with Jack and Julia

One thing that’s becoming apparent is how crazy the driving is here. It’s like a controlled chaos, where everyone agrees to not really follow the rules, and instead just weave their way around each other even through intersections. This is especially apparent when you’re on a sleeper bus, as the bus drivers often drive way too fast, and pass in the oncoming traffic. On the bus ride to Hoi An, the bus wasn’t very full, but there was a major language barrier between the few North American travellers and the driver and guide. Jack needed to go to the bathroom about 2 hours into the trip, so he went up to the front to ask using Google translate when we’d be stopping for snacks and the washroom. The guide said in 4 hours… It was a bit unbelievable that they expected us to sit on a bus for 6 hours with no bathroom breaks, so he pulled over on the side of the highway so he could go.

It’s also become the norm that the busses stop at these big rest stations where they try to get you to buy food and support the locals. On every bus we’ve taken so far, we’ve stopped at least 2 or 3 times along the way so we didn’t bother bringing food this time. Big mistake as we didn’t stop to eat until 8 hours into the trip. Lessons were learned today and we eventually arrived in Hoi An around midnight, checked in to our hotel, and went straight to sleep.

Day 1:

We woke up, had breakfast and coffee that was provided by the hotel and included omelettes, banh mi, fruits, and toast. We’ve started booking hotels with included breakfast since it saves so much hassle trying to find something Julia can eat first thing in the morning. We also met Gordon this morning! He’s a little dog who lives across the street and would always come visit us when we ate breakfast before continuing on his morning patrol of the streets and ensuring we were all safe.

After breakfast, we walked across the bridge to Old Town. If you’ve never been to Hoi An, the Old Town is totally picturesque. Beautiful old buildings, tons of flowers, friendly shop owners, and lots of cute cafes. The shop owners welcomed us into their stores to see them making silk, handmade silver jewellery, as well as pottery.

Hoi An is also very well known for their custom tailoring. In fact, we were told there were upwards of 600 in the local area, and prices range from $80 to $250 for an entire three piece men’s suit, so it’s a very popular tourist activity. We were planning to get some items made while we were here, but we were so overwhelmed by the amount of shops and the various options that we decided to skip it and save our money to splash out on extra dinner items. We had also heard that a lot of the stores simply take your measurements, and then send them to the same two or three factories, so we were a bit put off by that.

We’ve sort of settled into a two large meal a day plan, with the huge included hotel breakfast, and then an early dinner. Tonight, we decided to try all the local specialties from a shop we’d visited earlier in the day. Hoi An is known for Banh Xeo, a crispy pancake with shrimp, meat, and vegetables and made from rice flour, White Rose Dumplings, which are made only by one family with water from a special well and supplied to all the local restaurants in the area, Cau Lao, a delicious noodle dish, and Mi Quang, another noodle dish. We tried the first three today, and were blown away with how tasty they all were! Julia in particular was excited because everything is gluten free (except the cao lau), so we ordered another round of dumplings before finishing up.

If you’ve ever seen pictures of Hoi An, you’ll know that the city really comes alive at night. The city is covered in lanterns, and they light them all every night for a lantern festival, and they have little boats as well. It’s absolutely worth experiencing at least once in your life.

Day 2:

The city is filled with ancient cultural sites, and you can buy a ticket that allows you to see 5 of the 25 over the course of 3 days. We picked ours up today, and went to the Quan Am pagoda, and the Hoi An Folk museum. The museum was particularly fascinating as it showed the traditional way of life for the locals.

In the afternoon, we rented bikes and headed to the Kim Bong Carpenter Village across the river from Hoi An. For many generations (some of the families up to 13 generations that we saw), people have been working on boats, sculptures, bird houses, incense, etc. in this village to make a living. The skills have been passed down all these years, and it was an honour to meet the locals and see their masterpieces.

Tonight, we went to a local restaurant called Madam Lau, where we of course had to eat more white rose dumplings and cao lau. This time, however, we also tried the Mi Quang dish, and it was also tasty. Jack preferred the cao lau though. We finished the night off by walking through the market, where Julia got fresh fruit rolled ice cream.

Day 3:

Our last full day in Hoi An was spent at the beach. We rented bikes once more but this time we also made time for a quick workout at the gym, and took the scenic route through the rice paddies where we also saw some buffalo. Our destination was called Hidden Beach, and is right next to the popular An Bang beach but is far less crowded and much cleaner. There are many local spots here where they will park your bike, let you use their internet and washroom as well as a beach chair for as long as you like if you buy a meal from them. An average meal there came out to about $5 per person, so we can definitely say it was money well spent! We hung out here for hours before heading back to town and spending the evening walking the streets of old town once again.

Day 4:

On our final morning, we visited the final three of our cultural sites. We started at Fujian Assembly Hall, then went to Tan Ky House (the home of the white rose dumplings), and finished it off by going to Quan Thang Old House. We then checked out of our hotel, said goodbye to Gordon and our lovely hotel conciege Anna, and made our way to Da Nang!