Hoi An Ancient Town

The Walker and Schnitzerling grand tour of Vietnam continues south to Hoi An. If you’ve been to Vietnam, then you’ll understand when I say Hoi An Ancient Town is just fantastic. It is a small port town that has managed to keep its historical old buildings intact, despite yearly flooding, retaining its unique character of Vietnamese culture yet catering from the demands of a growing tourist industry. It’s a city of lanterns, decorating the old town and river by day and night, with children dressed in dragon costumes, dancing and banging drums in the run up to the annual Children’s Festival of the Full Moon.  It was a lot of fun just to walk around.  We feel very lucky to have experienced it, as it is very different from the larger cities.

Our accommodation also set the tone for Hoi An, as we are staying at the beautiful Orchid Garden Homestay with huge villas set amongst an orchid filled garden only walking distance from the old town. Yummy & Tammy are the lovely hosts here, and with the rest of a fantastic staff made us feel so welcome and relaxed here. Yummy also took us out to dinner one night, to the amazing Bale Well Restaurant where the waitresses hand-roll you rice paper rolls stuffed with omelette, spring rolls, bbq pork and veg all inside. It was delicious but felt like an exercise in force-feeding the customer! Yummy also took Lani to buy a traditional Vietnamese dress, an ao dai, on the back of her scooter – she had a blast but also looked beautiful in it.

With Tammy & Yummy

We had also pre-booked a cooking day with Mrs Linh at the Golden Lotus Cooking School and what an experience, starting at the markets buying our produce from the stallholders with Linh explaining what things were, such as oranges and mandarins with green skins, water spinach, dragonfruit and an incredible array of fish and seafood.  Back at Linh’s home we cooked up an 8-course banquet, under her professional guidance and to celebrate our culinary achievements we ate ourselves silly! This is a fantastic way to spend a day here, Mrs Linh was lovely, telling us about her life, and we got to meet her family too. Cooking schools are plentiful here and we would recommend it to anyone considering a trip to Vietnam, just make sure you come to Hoi An to do it!

At the market with Mrs Linh

Rob’s amazing pork stuffed squid

Cath and I in the kitchen – a rare event for me!

After all that hard work we decided some relaxation was needed, and booked a family package at a beautiful spa, at a fraction of what it would cost in the UK. It was also in an idyllic setting, overlooking the paddy fields, and I loved having a pedicure whilst watching the ducks waddling around in the rice fields. The boys were a bit sceptical, Ollie thought it might be a bit girly, but we booked them in for a kids massage, herbal Jacuzzi and mocktail – this might have swayed it. While the grown-ups were having their massages we could hear the kids laughing and giggling, they were sitting in three wooden Swedish tubs looking out over the rice-fields having a fantastic time! Ollie and Lani wanted to do it again and Cam was annoyed when we said he couldn’t have a facial too! What have we created?

Spa with a view!

After this it was back to the serious business of sightseeing on a bicycle tour with Heaven & Earth tours. We had two guides, Moon and Maia, who took us on a day of cycling around island villages, explaining local customs and handicrafts to us. It was such a great cultural experience, as we watched locals making sleeping mats and carving wood to in-lay pearl, had a go in a bamboo fishing boat and Ben & Rob’s favourite stop, rice wine making in a home still – potent stuff. They even use the pig manure to power the still with natural methane!

So, if you come to Vietnam make sure you put Hoi An on your itinerary, as you will be mesmerised by the architecture, the friendly people and the festive atmosphere it encapsulates.  We all LOVE Hoi An, and only wished we could have stayed longer.

Hoi An is gorgeous

Rob making boats old-style!