Vietnam | Hội An, meaning “peaceful meeting place” in English, is a beautiful city with a population of approximately 120,000 in Vietnam and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. As a major trading port in Southeast Asia in the 15th to the 19th century, ships from all over the world would come to call at its ports with its passengers leaving their mark on the place, especially the Chinese and Japanese. Nowadays, Hoi An is still a wealthy town and a hotspot for tourism. Tailor shops and travel agencies line the streets of Hoi An; however, just outside of the center, you’ll find quiet rice patties fields and countryside.
Hoi An is a small town and everything is all in walkable distance. The main street is along by the Thu Bon River, with most bars across the bridge on Hoi An Peninsula. Although many tourists visit this lovely historic city, it doesn’t take away from the experience. To eat, you can visit places like Hoi An Roastery, and Cocobox. For more traditional Vietnamese food, visit Banh Mi Phoung: the best banh mi in Vietnam according to Anthony Bourdain. Make sure to also see the river at night when lantern-lined boats sail through and paper lanterns float on the river. Lanterns also line the streets around Hoi An so it’s lovely to walk around at night.
You can also pay a small fee (120,000VD) and visit the Old Town, a well-preserved example of Southeast Asian trading ports from that era. Here, you can see the blend of indigenous and foreign influences reflected in its buildings and streets.
In Hoi An, the most popular thing to do is get a tailor made outfit. Clothes can be made within 2-3 days, but check reviews in advance before commissioning a store. In my opinion, don’t have high expectations, but it could be a fun item to get while in the city of tailors. I commissioned a shirt and dungaree that are alright.
Another popular activity in Hoi An is to take a cooking class. You can join a Market Tour, which starts bright and early at 8am and starts off at the local markets. After looking around and buying any necessary ingredients, you’ll be taken on a bamboo basket boat ride through the river, ending at the restaurant where the cooking class takes place. The boat guides are very energetic and friendly. Along the ride, there’s loads to see: a fisherman who will let you try a hand at tossing a fishing net, lots of people singing, and a man dancing to Gangnam Style.
Once you reach the restaurant and tip your boat guide ($1 is the usual rate), you’ll get ready to cook. Foods made vary depending on which agency you go through, but I made Hội An spring rolls, banh xeo, papaya salad, and an eggplant curry. The kitchen and food were very clean and they had adjusted the recipes to suit my vegetarian diet. The tour ends around 1pm with a shuttle back to your hostel.
To see the lives of local, you can join a bike tour around different parts in and around Hoi An. Again, tours differ, but tour I joined took me to Cam Kim Island. The tour starts in town, where you have to bike through motorcycle filled streets towards the river. At the river, your bikes are put onto a boat towards Cam Kim Island. There the air is fresher, the roads quieter and the area much greener.
The first stop is at the distillery of a man named Dr. Dau, a man who fought in the war in Cambodia where he lost his leg and a very close friend. Due to his disability, he needed to find a way to make money that allowed him to work from home and that’s how he started his distillery. His farm runs on a closed system where his pigs created the fertilizer for the rice, the rice is the feed for the pigs, and the methane from the fertilizer fires the boilers. However, Dr. Dau doesn’t only make rice wine, in his spare time he teaches local children math and plays the guitar. He’s also a good house husband and makes sure the house is tidy for when his wife comes home. His title of doctor comes from the fact that he gives veterans free booze as a way to deal with physical pain because access to medicine is quite limited. A very kind and pleasant man to meet.
The second stop is with the Bốn Family who weave mats from reeds. They cut and dry the reeds, dying them different colors with natural dyes, then weave them using a giant loom. The mats are great for keeping cool in the summer heat of Vietnam; however, as air conditioning is more widely available, it has been deemed unnecessary and the family can no longer sustain a living on just selling the mats. Here, you can try your hand at weaving, where you’ll realize how uncomfortable bending over the loom is. Imagine doing it for one hour, the amount it takes to complete a mat.
The last stop ends at Ms. Anh’s, a lovely women who supplies the local pho noodles. With a 60-40% rice flour and water mixture, Ms. Anh spreads the mix over a cotton cloth on top of a boiler and steams the mixture, hand chopping or running the cooked mixture to make noodles. Rice makes up a majority of the Vietnamese diet, especially pho. Ms. Anh works almost every day from morning until night, making noodles for the community.
Hoi An is such a lovely place, I had liked it so much that I extended my stay from 3 days to 4 days, which still wasn’t enough. Surrounding Hoi An, there’s more countryside to explore as well as beaches. I definitely hope to go back one day.