Ever wanted to visit an ancient Chinese like city full of colors, traditional clothes, red themed structures, beautiful cafes and narrow lanes? If yes, then Hoi An is the answer to all of these. Just that this is Vietnamese! This UNESCO World Heritage city is just an hour away from the touristy city of Da Nang, in Vietnam. And just like every time, I was there!
Vietnam had always been on my bucket list, especially when I was in India (I moved to KL, Malaysia in March 2024). The Netflix movie 'A Tourist guide to love' reignited this urge to travel to this country, and more importantly Hoi An. Thanks to the cheap travels from Air Asia, we found ourselves in Da Nang!
Hoi An is just 25 kms from the Da Nang city and is more of a day trip. However, after visiting it we realised that it is better to stay a night in this mesmerizing town to appreciate the town's charm.
What not to do
Before I tell you and show you how beautiful the town looks, it is important to tell not to visit it in the afternoon! It is hot as hell! The town is full of narrow streets with beautiful cafes and souvenirs to buy from, but with scorching heat. It is almost impossible to spend your entire day just roaming around and eventually one has to sit in a cafe. But yeah, if you have the appetite to sit for hours in a cafe, then make yourself afternoon comfortable in a friendly colourful cafe.
Moving on! - How to reach Hoi An?
From Da Nang, one can take a public bus, shared shuttles or a Grab taxi directly to Hoi An. Since it was quite a sunny day, we preferred the Grab route. It merely costs you somewhere around 1600 INR. It is almost a straight highway to Hoi An with the stunning white sand beach on one side and continuous stretch of the city on the other.
The Ancient Town
It needs a ticket to enter the town. The ticket covers 5 free places to visit - from a range of Chinese temples, Museums, Art shops and the popular Japanese bridge. It was 11AM in the morning with sun almost directly over the head, we started to roam around. As soon as you start loitering around the streets, it is impossible to take your sight away from the cute looking shops offering souvenirs such as fridge magnets, bamboo made stuffs, cool sloganT shirts and much more. Fridge magnet is something that I always take from any city!
We had reached Hoi An by 11 in the morning and later realised that it is the worst thing to do. Reason - Too much heat! Nevertheless, we started our exploration by visiting the Hoi Quan Quang Dong Temple, which is the Assembly hall of the Cantonese Chinese. It was a typical Chinese temple but the funnel shaped incense sticks was new to us. It was calming to see the slow burning of these sticks and the falling of ashes.
After visiting the temple, the first thing in mind was to head to a cafe as it was becoming difficult to roam in the hot streets of Hoi An. And there was no dearth of cute cafes! We chose one and relaxed ourselves before heading to the next tourist spot. A glass of beer was always at the rescue!
After quenching our thirst and our minds, we started looking for Rehahn's art gallery. My recently developed interests in Gen AI based images (you should check out my page www.instagram.com/visuallyai), I was particularly interested to see an art gallery, and glad that we found one. Rehahn is a French photographer who had travelled across Vietnam to capture its various tribes. The gallery is in a small Vietnamese styled house with some breathtaking portrait shots. We spent some time there and also had a good chat with the caretaker who told us that Rehahn often visits the gallery to meet customers. One can buy souvenirs or portraits as well.
After immersing ourselves in the world of portraits, it was again time to search for a cafe. Without taking our pal Google's help, we found a beautiful cafe, hidden from the bustling streets. Even the Google map reviews mention that it is difficult to find the cafe without directions. A very narrow lane cuts from the main street and leads to a Yellow themed cafe "Hoi An Coffee Hub". It looks like an extremely old but very well maintained small house converted cafe. The owner is a very welcoming gentleman who lives with his family there. It is an instagrammable worthy location and I am sure is not known to many. The cafe is under the shades of a tree with a vintage look.
We had Spring Rolls and Avocado toast along with some local beer to quench ourselves.
It was still 3PM and the heat was at its peak. The anticipated lantern boat ride was still hours away. The rest of the day was spent exploring shops and some old house converted museums. One of them was the ancient Vietnamese practice of traditional medicines. It had various plants that were and are still used in curing many diseases. Being from India, it was very relatable as we often opt for Ayurveda for most of the diseases.
Before going for the boat ride and lantern lighting (which we had booked through Klook), we took an amazing foot massage in a parlour. It costed us VND 150,000 which was so much worthwhile. After a hectic day, we really needed this!
The popular boat ride
The showstopper event for your Hoi An itinerary is the 20 minute boat ride in the river which takes you back centuries. The entire river seems to be filled with lanterns as every boat has one. Tourists (and even locals) purchase a leaf made lantern that they light up and release in the water. It is supposed to bring good luck and is very similar to the lighting up of diyas and releasing it to Indian Holy rivers.
We had booked the boat tour through Klook which was extremely easy. A dedicated Klook personnel had called up and helped us take to the spot where we could take the boat. There was a welcome drink that was provided along with the leaf made lanterns. Visit my instagram to feel the vibe:
Another thing to mention is the foot spa parlours that are lined up across the river. After a hectic day, just go to a spa and feel the strength that Vietnamese Masseurs inject into your feet, just to be refreshed enough to travel back to Da Nang (or unless you intend to stay in Hoi An for the night!).
So, don't wait any further - Book your tickets and make memories for a lifetime in Vietnam!
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