Hoi An, Da Nang and Hue are three times the charm of Vietnam. While I am only expecting my trip to the two others, Hoi An has already conquered my heart. Some of the towns are very quiet (like Tuy Hoa), and while they have a wonderful beach, it ends there. Other cities are too touristic and while chasing the profit, lost all of their cultural authenticity (like Nha Trang). Hoi An, on the other hand, managed to combine its cultural beauty with the busy life of one of the most popular Vietnamese destinations.
I think I should start with how I got here, because this is something I am going to have a good laugh about years later. I bought a really cheap bus ticket from Tuy Hoa to Hoi An (as I thought at first). However, the bus was actually scheduled for Da Nang (still a mystery to me why the lady did not tell me anything about it, maybe bad Google reviews did have some reasoning behind). I only found out my intended destination at the bus stop. Thankfully together with a helpful local girl who was also going to Da Nang, I was able to talk to the driver and they arranged for a drop off at Hoi An Futa Bus Office.
Ooooooooh, that was fun. They “unboarded” me at around 4:45 am on an empty street, and by “empty” I mean me & a whole flock of taxi drivers. I had to utilize some ninja techniques to get rid of them; their persistence earned my respect somewhere very, very, deep down in my soul (very deep!). Although the bus driver told me the shuttle bus should take me to my hostel for free, the shuttle bus driver apparently had a different opinion on this. He just shrugged and said they were not providing rides that far to Hoi An downtown, just so after about 10 minutes he offered me a ride at the price of Grab motorcycle.
Given the circumstances, it was a good deal, so I agreed. Spoiler – should not have, but it was my fault. I did not have exact cash to pay him, and he presumably (?) did not have change to give me back. I had to wake up a security guard at my hotel, who in turn opened the bar cash register, and pulled out the available cash (which was did not have all of the needed money either). In the end of day, converting to CAD, I only overpaid 2$, but its this sucking feeling of being scammed that still pisses me off (and entertains at the same time).
That day turned out to be extremely long. After hanging out in the hotel lobby for a couple of hours (my check in was only at 2pm), I left my suitcase there and decided to go check out the beach. I thought it was 20 minutes away max, but should have known better to check and find out it was 5.5km away. It was quite tiring, but the rice fields along the way, as well the flowery An Bang beach area, were worth the walk.
On my way back I was offered a friendly ride, and happily accepted it. I was also shown a very nice Ba Hung bakery with a good quality vs cost ratio not too far from Ancient Town, where I was conveniently dropped off.
It was around 7am in the morning, very peaceful and still, without the crowd hustle that would fill the streets later. It was extremely bright and vibrant – the combination of vintage yellow-walled houses was in perfect harmony with flower beds and thousands of lanterns everywhere.
As if the taxi scam was not enough, I decided it would be fun to get myself into another one. I saw the woman with traditional over-shoulder fruit baskets, and when she offered to take the picture I knew where it was going – but the pictures would indeed be so nice that I thought I would go for it. She gave me the basket to hold and after a small photo session offered to buy her fruits, even cut some for me to try. To be fair, the fruits were AMAZING. She filled my whole bag with them, and I would have gladly taken them all, but was not ready to pay that big amount of many she wanted. Next ten minutes we spent negotiating, with me mostly putting my fruits back into her basket, and her trying to return them back into my bag. The answer to the math problem “How many mangoes does Sofia have if the Vietnamese lady gave her 6” is 1. I bought 1 mango for 50,000 dong LMAO (6 mangoes for that price would be more fair, or at least three).
Hoi An is big on getting as much money from tourists as possible. For example, you are better off asking for a Vietnamese menu and translating it using Google Lens, than choosing off the English one 🙂 Another example would be buying a ticket at the hotel to your next destination. A shuttle bus to Da Nag could have cost me 140,000 dong, BUT I caught a local bus at a bus stop 10 minutes away from my hotel for only $9.99 (kidding, in reality it was 25,000 dong, or 1.5CAD).
The image to the right is from the Marble Mountain, 360 vids are available here: 1, 2.
The AMAZIG Monkey Forest (where the staircase picture from my newsletter is coming from) is here. Monkey Forest is actually located in Da Nang, but the two towns are within a 40-minute drive from each other, so within the scope of our tour, we did go there as well 🙂
I later met my Irish friends from Nha Trang – we met for some drink(s) and had a really amazing party night before they left to Hanoi the next morning. Many of the bars offered free welcome shots which were super watery but we still got really wasted with pina coladas and beers later. Pina Coladas were nothing compared to the ones I tried in Cuba. It was funny how I asked to make the two pina coladas sweeter, but they misunderstood and made them STRONGER. Maybe I should blame my hangover on them 🙂
I started travelling because I wanted to see the places, but now I am travelling to meet the people. It still amazes me why I had to fly 33 hours to the other part of the world to meet friends with whom I could match so perfectly in my interests, views and vibe. I took a tour to , and that is how I met Reni – a traveler from Germany, a small town not too far from Switzerland. We tried out yogurt and peanut coffees, met up with her friend Patrick from Frankfurt, bargained for a bing su at a Turkish restaurant, and took a local bus to Da Nang beach the next day(probably best beach I have been to in my entire life). All that while wandering in the Ancient town, enjoying coffees and drinking cold Saigon beer under the warm sun 🙂 Reni stayed in Da Nang while I hopped back on the last bus of the day and made my way back Hoi An.
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