Day 298/299: Hoi An

We worked with our hotel to order an 8 hour bus to Hoi An and the owner’s husband dropped of us off downtown. Before we left, she quickly grabbed us chips and water for free. Absolutely loved loved loved this hotel and top 5 hotel experience across Gap Year at Son Doong Riverside.

Anyway, we hop on our bus to Hoi An and these buses are 10x better than the South American night buses. They actually enable you to lay horizontally on the bus in your own cubical with a curtain and provide big blankies to sleep.

Vietnam has blown all expectations away in terms of the friendliness of the people. We were nervous at first because articles noted that only 6% of travelers said they would return to Vietnam while 25% said they would return to Thailand. The country can be fairly touristy at times, but if you can get away from those main streets, it’s one of the most welcoming places we’ve ever visited (up there with Armenia.)

For instance, Kieran found a great little hotel off the main tourist area for Hoi An in a more residential neighborhood. The owner was super nice and offered to sew any clothes if we needed it 😭 We walk around the island and hit a local restaurant where the owner was super excited we picked her place and brought us free tea. A lot of these smaller restaurants are ran out of people’s homes! Our taxi driver Duc told us places to visit and offered his phone number for rides so he could give us lower prices and we could pay him directly instead of the apps. We just feel a lot of love here from Phong Nha to Hoi An.

Later that night we met up with Max and Barbara from our cruise in Han La Bay! There’s a real friendship there and we were so happy to eat dinner with them and walk around the night market for a bit. Max and Kieran chatted non-stop about football, video games, and life. Max and Barbara are interested in taking a Gap Year so we shared lots of tips and things we wished we did differently.

The next day, we felt very tired so we rested in the morning and went street market shopping for more hot summer clothing (ITS TOO DAMN HOT). Tried egg coffee, coconut coffee, and a few more local Hoi A dishes at another restaurant house off the main strip. Once again, 10/10 food and an incredible cook/owner. While grabbing our bags at the hotel, a cute doggo followed us and we obliged it with very good pets.

We texted Duc for a ride to the airport and he took us along the beaches in Danang while chatting about his experience in the Vietnamese army and avoiding the draft by paying the doctors lots of money 🤣 he also told us to be very careful in Ho Chi Min (Saigon) and proceeded to show us pickpocketing crime videos on his car TV. Shout out to Duc for showing us his country and for fabulous car conversations! We have his number if anyone is planning to visit Hoi An.

Hotel: Cherry Garden

Food:
Bahn cuon
Cau Lao
Bon Bue Hue

Spots:
Hoi An Old Town
Hoi An Street Market
Thu Bon River
DanangLäs mer