Hoi An

A taxi took us to Hoi An on Tuesday. It was an interesting drive, from racing along straight roads at 70mph to crawling up mountains at 1mph as the tiny engine of the car struggled with all our weight. We drove through the rather uninspiring city of Denang, and 45 minutes later arrived in the beautiful town of Hoi An. Since we would be there for 4 nights we treated ourselves to a hotel with a swimming pool. It must have reached over 35 degrees most days so we were really glad we did. 

Hoi An old quarter is so pretty. It's full of old but perfectly preserved colonial buildings, and all businesses are required by law to hang lanterns outside so through all the back streets and along the river the brightly coloured lights make Hoi An a really special place especially in the evening. 

The food is also incredible. Every day we had Banh Mi for lunch at the same place. Josie had recommended these from when she was here a few years ago, and Shaun had them all the time for lunch in London so we knew we had to try them here. There are no words to describe just how good this sandwich is. It's a warm crispy special type of baguette, filled with chicken or pork, topped with chilli sauce, fresh spring onion salad and home made mayonnaise. It's got to be one of the best sandwiches in the world, hence why we had it every day and I am craving one as I write this! (If anyone is going to Hoi An I will tell you the name of the place to get them!). Our days were spent eating good food, chilling by the pool, doing a bit of shopping, and wondering around the town occasionally stopping for fresh beers (at around 26p a pint even I was drinking it) when it got too hot. 

Not only do they do the best sandwich in the world, we possibly had the best manicure/pedicure in the world too - my nails look so good Shaun thought they were fake! 

Hoi An is famous for its tailors, so as soon as we arrived we asked our hotel to recommend a good one and went to check it out. Me, Mum and Gail decided to get blazers made and it was great fun. (Shaun refused to get anything made because he didn't "need" anything but also he'd had things made when he came 10 years ago). We picked our colours and fabrics (of course I went for a bright colour and one of the most expensive inner linings because I wanted purple stripes) and then they took our measurements. Just to make sure we got what we wanted, I gave them my blazer from Zara and asked them to copy the style. We paid about £30 for each jacket, and were told to return the next day to have a fitting. We were all quite nervous on the way there the next day, and I had resigned myself to the fact that they probably just made the same style of garment for everybody but just in their individual measurements….so you can imagine I was delighted when presented with my jacket which was absolutely perfect and everything I wanted! I love it. Mum and Gail were also really happy with theirs. 

On our last day in Hoi An we were enjoying our final Banh Mi whilst there appeared to be a lot going on in the road outside. It turned out to be what we could only image was the Slowest Bike Race in the World. The aim of the race was to be the last one to cross the finish line, and was one of the most ridiculous and funny things I have ever seen! This is just a short video but you can see how silly it is!

8:30-9:30pm that night was Earth Hour, where the whole of Hoi An (and supposedly the rest of the world I guess) turned out their lights to save power for an hour. Unfortunately we had to leave for the train station so we missed it in the old quarter, but on the other hand there were thousands of people making their way there so perhaps we made a lucky escape. Everywhere else they turned out the main lights and used candles so it looked very pretty. I was really sad to leave Hoi An and would love to come back again one day.