English: Hoi An’s lanterns (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: A riverside photo of Hoi An (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: One of the many colonial style buildings in Hoi An’s old quarter. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We knew that we were visiting one of Vietnam’s top coastal areas in the monsoon season. Alf had checked it out on Trip Advisor to see just how wet it was going to be, and the general advice was “don’t let a drop of rain spoil your trip!” Anyway, we took the train from Hue to Danang and then got a taxi to Hoi An. True to form, we arrived in Hoi An, and it was raining pretty hard.
Our hotel was a modern property overlooking the ocean, which was really nice.
Hoi An has an amazing and interesting old town, full of wonderful shops, buzzing restaurants and bars. It’s a very pretty town, especially in the evening, when it comes alive and the streets are well lit with hanging lanterns.
We found two exceptional restaurants and sampled Vietnamese cuisine at its best and at incredibly cheap prices, by Western standards.
Hoi An is the hub of Vietnam’s fashion and textile industry and we were tempted into getting some clothes made – Alf got some shorts and Marilyn two dresses and some trousers. They are very good at copying and so Marilyn had one of her own dresses copied twice, using different fabrics. There were many young people in Hoi An, having clothes made to measure, including quite a few brides to be, getting wedding dresses made. There was one American young lady having a fitting for her wedding dress that was made of white silk and lace and she looked so beautiful.
We also took the opportunity to ship home to Europe a parcel with our Winter clothes that we no longer needed, it certainly made our baggage lighter as we shipped 13 kilos.
During the day, when it was not raining and whilst the sun was out, we relaxed by the pool, chatting to people that we had met, and walked on the golden, fine, sandy beach but the sea was far too rough for swimming.
It typically rained at night or in the evening. We soon learned that the monsoon was not a problem – we were armed with two large brollies from the hotel, although our sandals got totally soaked. Somehow though, rain in the Tropics is different and we had a thoroughly lovely few days in Hoi An, in the rain but, of course, it was still surprisingly warm.
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