We planned for 2 nights, and in the end spent over a week in Hoi An. The atmosphere of this small town in the middle of Vietnam is so enchanting, we decided to slow down (even further) and enjoy its flair.
Hoi An: a bright pearl during the day…
We spent most days strolling or biking around the narrow streets of the old town, sitting in cafes around the channel, which divides the city into 2 parts. We observed the flow of locals and tourists, ate great local food and explored the vivid vegetable-, fish-, clothes- and souvenir markets. We met local people, who were extremely friendly, always had a smile for us and made good recommendations where to go and what to do.
…and a romantic gem in the night
The town is beautiful in daylight, and has an even more fantastic ambience in the evening. After sunset it is lit up by thousands of colorful lanterns, soft music plays from the loudspeakers on the streets and vendors offer their enchanting goods. It is a tradition to buy small paper lanterns, and put them on the waters of the channel; belief is that lighting 3 of them and letting them drift away with the flow will make your wish come true. We don’t know if this is true, but for sure it is a lovely idea and a breathtaking sight.
Street-food – yummy!!!
In the evenings small kitchens open on every corner, offering 1 or 2 types of food each, which you can eat sitting on miniature stools on the pavement. We have been told by a street-cook lady, who saw us hesitating: “if no try, you never know”… and as she was right, we started trying out things, like White Rose dumplings, Siamese Pork BBQ, Lotus Salad, Mango Cake and many things where we have not even the slightest idea what we were eating… But all of them were rather tasty, we can promise.
The locals here proudly announce, that their city is among the top 10 romantic destinations worldwide according to CNN, it is 10th on the top 25 list of Asian destinations as reported by Tripadvisor and won the favorite city on Earth title on the survey of Wanderlust… We don’t know about this, as there are still lots of regions and cities we did not explore, but Hoi An for sure is one of our favorites up till now – another place to return to, just like Bagan.
More Photos from Hoi An
Thank you Julia and Werner for all these wonderful pictures and great impressions!
It is always a short jump out of the European reality – I love it! Thank´s for it!
One question, how you are travaling short distances, that means without airoplane, by bus, train,…? Is this not a big challenge with time schedules, connections…?
Please keep us informed about the nice and not so nice things on your great trip.
All the best from Vienna-Muckendorf, this weekend we will open the garten season ;-)
In Umarmung / Roman
Hi Roman,
traveling short distance is pretty easy, because taxis and private drivers are quite cheap here. The same applies to short distance flights. We were reluctant to use public busses or trains so far although there are interesting local transport solutions like sleeping busses or night trains.
Except the high temperature there is nothing negative to tell so far. Clearly our situation to live without fixed schedules and time pressure makes things very easy.
We’re glad that the garden season 2016 has started -> we’re looking forward to a BBQ in the garden with you with good wine and no rice :-))
I am extremely impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout on your
weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself?
Either way keep up the nice quality writing, it’s rare to see a nice blog like this one nowadays.
Thanks a lot for the feedback. This is a free theme, and we have customized it to our taste. :)
Again, it seems you have had a fantastic experience! Have you made a wish?
Weren’t you afraid of eating on the street? When we were in India, one of the most important things was not to buy food from street vendors.
Keep posting please!
Dani
Again, it seems you have had a fantastic experience. Have you made a wish?
Weren’t you afraid to eat on the street? When we were in India, one of the most important things was not to buy food from street vendors. But hopefully, it is not the same everywhere. What is next?
Keep posting please!
Dani
Hi Dani,
yes – for sure we made a wish (but we can’t tell :-))
In the beginning we had the same concerns, but over time we became more brave and it worked out without any trouble.
We did not hear of other tourists neither who got problems after eating food from the street vendors. There is for sure a difference between India and the Indochina countries – we would be more careful in India.
Our route went from Hoi An to Saigon and to the Mekong Delta and tomorrow we’ll leave for Cambodia.
Keep you posted / regards
Julia & Werner
Dear fellows, what a beautiful and romantic town, I love those mystic pics form asia and the ones with those beautiful lanterns scenes are my favorites . Julia took a million pictures so far and sorting out will be impossible, keep all your impressions in your mind and heart. We at home are happy with what we get! Spring is fully back in austria and we had a few summerdays with temperature up to 25C. But this weekend was windy and rainy too, so we spent it at a nice vinery with friends enjoying food like kümmelbraten, grammelschmalz and tasty dry whitewines…..✴
So enjoy your perfect trip and stay in touch with us! Tomorrow is another working monday, we can’t wait for it!
Love Babsi Mike & Florian
Dear Babsi, you are right sorting out the pictures is a real challenge… But we are strict and keep only the best. :)
We are a bit envious about the good white wine and Werner also about the kümmelbraten 😉, but the advantages of our current situation still prevail 😊
Hugs to all of you from the amazing Mekong Delta!
Brooke&Leo