Lantern City Hoi An
Hoʻopuka ʻia: 02.04.2018
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[by Franzi] Arriving in Hoi An, we were both tired and hungry. The scooter ride took more out of us than we initially thought. So we went out to find something to eat. We found a nice Vietnamese restaurant located in the Old Town, where we had a chicken curry and chicken sweet-sour (145,000 Dong = €5.16). We decided to take a different way back to the hotel and found a sign that said "make your own lanterns", something that the nice German couple (greetings!) had recommended to us on our Ha Long Bay tour. It turned out that the sign belonged to the workshop they had recommended to us. So we planned to visit again in the next few days. Back at the hotel, we fell tired into bed.
Our first and only full day in Hoi An started with a delicious breakfast at our hotel. After that, we went to the pool and enjoyed the weather. After a few hours, we had enough and wanted to explore the Old Town of Hoi An. The Old Town is a small car and motorcycle-free zone with many different small shops. There were tailors, leather goods stores, souvenir shops, massage salons, and of course, many different lanterns hanging inside and outside the shops, as well as above the street.
We walked along the riverbank and arrived at Hoi An harbor, where everyone tried to sell us a boat ride, which we politely declined every time. We crossed a small bridge to the other side of the river and sat down at a small café. We ordered fruit shakes and enjoyed the atmosphere of the city. Hoi An's Old Town has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1999, so there are no high-rise buildings or modern structures, and we had a great view of the small, old, yellow houses with brown roofs. Occasionally, a roof stood out more, but mainly the houses were all built to be about the same height.
On this side of the river, there were no cars or motorcycles, only a few cyclists passing by. This created a relaxed and peaceful atmosphere in the city, which we thoroughly enjoyed.
In the cafe's menu, we discovered that they had "Egg Coffee" (60,000 Dong = €2.14), a Vietnamese coffee specialty that you have to try when you're in Vietnam. Since we hadn't tried it yet and were curious, we ordered the "Egg Coffee" and a chocolate shake as a second round. The coffee actually tasted a bit like egg, but only slightly in the aftertaste. It wasn't bad, but I prefer a regular coffee with milk.
After finishing our drinks and paying (a total of 155,000 Dong = €5.52), we decided to stroll through the Old Town and not just walk along the riverbank. But before that, we made a small detour to the covered Japanese Bridge. In my opinion, it wasn't anything special, but it was still nice to see.
Right after that, we turned onto the most famous street in the Old Town. It is particularly popular in the evening, as all the lanterns hanging above the street are illuminated. But more on that later. So we walked between the old, small houses, and I occasionally stopped to look at something, but I didn't buy anything.
Unfortunately, it got quite chilly quickly, so we decided to go back to the hotel, change our clothes, and head out again because it was already dinnertime. We went to Café 43, also recommended by the German couple, and I must say it was worth going there. The food was delicious, and the service was friendly and funny. After finishing our meal, we couldn't miss the main attraction of Hoi An, of course. So we walked back to the Old Town to the street with the lanterns, which were now illuminated and shining brightly in the dark. They made the whole street brighter and friendlier. There were glowing lanterns in various colors, with or without patterns, round or cone-shaped, hanging inside and outside the shops as well as along the street.
The harbor was filled with many longboats crossing the river, and there were floating candles everywhere. In addition to that, all the lanterns made it incredibly beautiful and romantic. But see it for yourself, even though you can't capture the atmosphere in pictures.
Afterwards, we walked through the night market. At first, they sold lanterns, but you could also find jewelry, souvenirs, textiles, and leather goods.
Of course, there were also a few food stalls, and I spotted a stand that sold Ice Cream Rolls (40,000 Dong = €1.42), essentially freshly prepared rolled ice cream. I had seen a few videos of it on the internet and couldn't resist trying it myself. The fruits were freshly mashed on a cold plate, mixed with a little milk, smoothed into ice cream, and then rolled. For us, the ice cream was already the highlight of the night market, and we slowly made our way back to the hotel through the lantern street.
The next day started again with a very good breakfast. Afterwards, we packed everything and checked out. We could leave our luggage at the hotel for the day and went back to the Old Town. This time, we went straight to the lantern workshop. We spent quite a while there, making our own lanterns and having a conversation with the extremely friendly woman. Making the lanterns was sometimes not so easy, but it was a lot of fun, and the results are really impressive and a great memory of this beautiful city (90,000 Dong = €3.21 per lantern).
I would have liked to spend more time in Hoi An because I really enjoyed it here, and I'm still impressed by all the lanterns hanging everywhere. But due to our flight to Phuket, we only have a limited time in Vietnam and have to stick to a tight schedule to get to Ho Chi Minh City on time.
We sat down in a small café by the river and had lunch. Afterwards, it was unfortunately time to go back to the hotel and to the bus for another night journey, this time to Nha Trang. You will find out about the city and our impressions in the next blog.
Stay tuned because it's a slightly different city than we expected.
Franzi and Jonas
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