Weather report: 29˚C (feels like 33˚C), overcast. Night 22˚C.
The alarm clock went off at 7:30 but we were both already awake. I actually got up a bit past 6:30 already. We packed some stuff and went downstairs to the hotel’s restaurant to eat some breakfast. Before going I was told to expect eggs for breakfast every day, but this was actually the first time so far. Two sunny side up eggs in a very hot cast iron pan and a baguette. We also had our obligatory coffee with that.
We checked out and hit the road towards Hoi An. It was a quick 3h bike ride, just a bit more than 100km. The first two thirds of the ride were beautiful roads with some nice views again. Since the time lapse recordings we did so far weren’t very good, we decided to record some video this time instead. Here’s a short clip of the first train track we’ve spotted in Vietnam. If we find the time to do some more editing (and the notebook can handle it), you can expect to see lots more in the near future.
In the town before Hoi An google maps told us to leave the main highway and take a tiny road which went between houses and rice fields. It was a fun ride with quite a bit of traffic even some other tourists. After entering Hoi An we continued through some narrow roads to our hotel.
Hoi An is a small town south of Da Nang with a population of about 120 thousand and a UNESCO world heritage site. It got this title as a “well-preserved example of a south-east Asian trading port of the 15th to 19th century”, according to Wikipedia. And it did so deservedly. The ancient town is absolutely beautiful with lots of colonial style buildings near the river front. It was in fact the only town that didn’t get bombed much during the American War (known as Vietnam War in the western world).
After checking in and taking a shower Flo quickly went to a local shop to repair his fender. He lost a screw (or three out of four) on the way here and removed it so we don’t lose it. This was actually another example of how nice most Vietnamese people are. The shop found matching screws in their assortment and gave them for free. I don’t think we would find that at home…
A bit past 13:00 we went into the town to eat some lunch. We had an absolutely delicious noodle soup with shrimps and pork called Mi Quang and finished it off with a coffee and a beer with ice. Beer with ice, even though it’s as revolting as it sounds, is the way most locals drink it. Since you sometimes get an non-refrigerated beer here, you just accept it at some point. It’s definitely better than warm beer and it doesn’t matter too much since we haven’t found a decent beer yet anyway. Maybe one day…
After a bit more than a week in Vietnam, I have yet to make a bad experience. The locals are all super nice. They normally make good prices even for tourists most of the time. A time had to come when all of this would change though, and it was today.
As we walked towards the ancient town we have probably seen more tourists than locals. Every five meters a local approached us and tried to sell something and they are very persistent at it. In the more rural areas we learned to talk to every person who approached us, which is the exact opposite of what one should be doing here. They try to overcharge you whenever possible, trick you into buying something from them and try to bleed the tourists dry here. If this were my first experience of Vietnam, I would probably not have liked it at all. This is exactly the opposite of what I want to see from a country.
Near the river we were approached by locals with fruit baskets. They handed me the basket to take a picture and we bought two mangoes from them as well as some rambutan. Normally, all of this would cost around 25'000 VND but that didn’t stop them from trying to try to charge us 200'000 (about 8 USD). In the end we payed 50'000 which was still way overpriced - at least one was absolutely delicious the other one was rotten. After these experiences we’re both looking forward to going back to the more rural areas though.
In the evening we went back out to eat some street food and take some pictures of the night view at the riverbank. The place was even more populated than during the day and the street vendors switched from fruits and boat rides to boat rides at night and small candle boats. We opted to tell everyone politely that we’re not interested, even if the same person bothered us three times.
After taking a few pictures we left the river side and went back towards our hotel. On the way back we ordered some bánh xèo (a fried crêpe) with shrimps from a street food vendor. Our mistake was that we didn’t ask for the price in advance, since it was again way overpriced. Mea culpa.
I finished the dinner with a delicious peace of pork with some rice and sesame, Flo had some noodles with pork. This was actually the first time I considered the meat to be the leading part on the plate, not just something you add for flavor and texture, but maybe it was just because there was barely anything else on the plate.
All in all, Hoi An is a beautiful city but definitely the worst experience we’ve had yet on our travels through Vietnam. I’m not sure I’d recommend skipping it altogether, but if you plan to come here just beware that the countryside is a completely different kind of Vietnam which we enjoyed much more. We’re both looking forward to leaving the city again soon.
