Hoi An

Hoi An was a refreshing break on my tour of Vietnam. A small tourist town, that operates at a slower pace than many other Vietnamese tourist stops. A great place to spend a few days, have some clothes and shoes made to measure, chill out at a great open air cafe and enjoy some “fresh beer”.

I arrived in Hoi An on a warm, rainy night after a long bus ride from Ha Noi. I thought that it would stop raining but it seemed that I arrived in the middle of the rainy season. This did not deter me a bit. Living in Southern California, I assumed that the rainy season means nothing more than exasperation from TV news station regarding flash flood in the LA river and horrible accidents on the freeway. So I expected it to be similar in Hoi An (even though it is in an entirely different continent, thousands of miles away). I expected bad driving (as if they don’t drive badly enough already), a little flooding from the river.

But I went to sleep, listening to the falling of the rain, only to wake up early in the morning, walking down into the motel’s lobby and saw that the water level rose into the motel’s lobby. Soon everyone gathered at the stairs watching the water rising slowly.

Lovely

i love this place! Its a refreshing break away from the craziness of Saigon.

I wanted to like this town, and I am sure I would have 10 years ago. It’s beautiful. It is now entirely geared towards tourism, which would have been not that bad if locals weren’t so aggressive. I was really disappointed with the town, and also felt really mislead by The Lonely Planet recommedations of places to go and eat, which really surprised me because this hasn’t been my experience in the past. By all means avoid Top Bannna and Cafe Des Amis.