Hội An

I don’t think I’ve used the word charming so many times in 3 days. Hoi An is a historic town on the South Central Coast of Vietnam with a population of 120,000, much smaller than that we’ve been experiencing so far. With its ancient architecture, easy going demeanour, ancient town along the river and abundance of tailoring shops and food vendors, I could get comfortable here. If you get tired of the town experience, you can easily rent bicycles or motorbikes, take the 10-20 minute journey to the beach and lounge under an umbrella for the entire day.  

In addition to the copious amount of walking we’ve been doing through the town (yet another UNCESO World Heritage Site), we’ve had fun buying multiple mystery street desserts (they were all delicious), chatted up the friendly locals which usually starts out with them trying to drag us into their shops, stopped into a few heritage sites (which make zero sense without a guide or English signs) and done a few day trips.

One thing I had on my to-do list while in Hoi An was a cooking class. There are a million options for classes here but based on a friends recommendation, we singed up for one that involved taking a boat to the school and learned to cook multiple Vietnamese dishes. Everything we made was fantastic which included rice pancakes, spring rolls, eggplant in a clay pot, vegetable decorations and homemade rice paper (I was overly excited about that one). I have said it before and will say it again, Vietnamese food is delicious and I want it all! 

So. much. charm. 

Fruit for sale. 

Of of the heritage sites (an assembly hall of some type). 

Can never get enough of the food markets.

Our boat ride out to the cooking school. My mother also discovered through a hilarious conversation in broken english that our anchor was made from a shovel. 

Concentrating hard on my rice paper. I think I need some practice.

You can buy lanterns to float down the river. Not sure what happens to them (hoping they don't just pollute the area) but they sure look pretty. 

The streets are lit up with hanging lanterns, new food and souvenir vendors come out in the cool of the evening and the restaurants are buzzing with tourists. This area is also a walking/biking zone only which makes it extra lovely to stroll down. 

We didn't really know what this was when we bought it but it looked like a powdered doughnut. Turns out it is made from rice (a soft rice glob of sorts) with sweet red beans in the middle. I plan to eat more. 

We stopped at one of the "restaurants" along the river. Once we started eating the woman came over saying "no, no, no" and had to show us how to eat everything properly. Ha! I'm sure they are used to it though.