Hoi An

We've made it to our home for the next week - Hoi An! We are excited to spend our days slowly exploring the yellow streets of the Old Town, drinking coffee and shopping. We flew from Ho Chi Minh to Da Nang, arriving in Da Nang around 7.30am, where we took a taxi to Hoi An. We spent our first day here on a walking tour to familiarize ourselves with the area, tick off some sightseeing and understand market prices. By the time the walking tour ended at midday, we were exhausted and felt like we'd already been awake for three days straight, so we rested for the remainder of the day.

The next couple of days were spent eating at the Central Market, getting some clothes tailored and visiting art galleries. One gallery we particularly enjoyed was the Precious Heritage Art Gallery Museum, which is a permanent exhibition of Rehahn's project to showcase and preserve all 54 ethnic groups within Vietnam. As the Vietnamese government try to unite the country, and younger generations lose interest in centuries old traditions, many Vietnamese ethnic groups, their culture and traditional costumes are slowly being lost to the modern world. This gallery showcased photographs of the different ethnic groups, as well as their costumes and heirlooms. It was a wonderful experience to read about all the ethnic groups and Rehahn's adventures to find them while they are still around today.

We spent the rest of our days n Hoi An taking it slow wandering the old town for cheap coffee, shopping and catching up on life admin (laundry, washing dirty shoes and clearing photos). We did an evening basket boat tour where we were rowed in the famous basket boats through the coconut forests, fished for crabs and released some lanterns while we watched the sunset. Our time in Hoi An has been very slow and peaceful, with not a lot to report back on, other than we are finally getting good at bargaining with the locals (Mike got a suitcase down from 500,000VND to 300,000VND!).Read more