Hoi An: 27 Oct - 2 Nov 2013

Enjoying a cocktail in a Hoi An bar

Rach says:

Beautiful, beautiful Hoi An! We relaxed for nearly a week in this lovely old riverside town, with its Mediterranean-style yellow-painted buildings with balconies and shutters, colourful lanterns, art galleries and beautiful clothes shops. It felt like a proper holiday place, with a beach just a short cycle ride down the road.

Every other shop was a tailor's and every short walk was accompanied by the repeated shouts
of "many colours, many sizes", "very good qualiteeee" and "if you like you can try on...", but we discovered that the cheaper tailors outsource all of their work to sweatshops outside of town. We went into one more expensive place where they showed us the silkworms they were breeding upstairs and explained the process of extracting and weaving the silk from the cocoons, alongside the beautiful finished garments. The transformation is quite incredible. I bought a beautiful red dress (from a less upmarket shop!) for 5 pounds.

Dining well in Hoi An

Our room at the Nhi Trung Hotel

The restaurants were quite plush, but we could still find 3,000-4,000 VND (11-12p) fresh beer! We ate and drank very well, but since we had reached a point of not being able to face any more Eastern food, it was all enchiladas, pasta and chips! Yum!

Our hotel, Nhi Trung, was amazing and for just 15 pounds a night including breakfast. We relaxed there for 6 nights and were sad to leave.

On the train from Hanoi to Danang

Chinese Meeting Hall in Hoi An

At the 16th Century Japanese Bridge

Wine and Hilarity :)
There is a plaque showing the 2009 flood level in the background. Hoi An suffers
severe flooding most years due to the typhoons that hit the central Vietnam coast.

Amazing food at the Ganesh Indian restaurant