Hoi An - A Relaxing Change of Pace Before Leaving Vietnam

Many of our friends that have lived in or visited Vietnam had told us that Hoi An was a special place that we would love.... they were right! After a week of action in Halong Bay, Sa Pa, and Hue, Hoi An was exactly what we needed. Hoi An is a quaint beach town in the middle of Vietnam that is markedly different from the hustle bustle of Hanoi and the ancient city of Hue. For 5 days we ate delicious food, relaxed at the beach, explored the town, got some sweet tailored clothes made, and met up with some friends from Darden (crazy, right?!).

First and foremost: FOOD! Hoi An brought us some amazing new dishes. The Banh Mi at Banh Mi Phuong will forever be in my dreams for the rest of this trip and for the rest of my life. Banh Mi Phuong was featured a few years ago on Anthony Bourdain's 'No Reservations' as the best banh mi in all of Vietnam, and we also read about it in a number of travel blogs. I don't know that I can truly describe it's taste, but I will try my best. A perfect combination of sweet and sour, vegetable and meat, spice and natural flavor, the #9 features a delicious pork loin seared to perfection, sautéed beef and a mysterious pate alongside juicy cucumbers, tomatoes and delicately seasoned greens all topped with a spicy chile sauce. If there is a yin and yang match, this is it! In 5 days, we ate 5 of these sandwiches each. 

We also visited Morning Glory, a great restaurant in the beautiful old quarter of Hoi An that features many of the street food dishes from the area served in a safer environment (see, we're looking out for ourselves parents, well kind of). We enjoyed delicious white rose dumplings that are a secret recipe of a single family in Hoi An, Cau Lau noodles that can only be eaten in Hoi An because again there is only one family that knows the secret to making the noodles which is rumored to involve some combination of soaking in local river waters, and a phenomenal banana flower salad that Sammar later learned to prepare in our cooking class (a special post will cover the AMAZING class that we took with Van at Green Bamboo Cooking Class!).

Beyond eating, we spent a lot of time at the beach and riding bikes into downtown Hoi An to explore the UNESCO world heritage town. The beach was serene, at least between he hours of 7am and 2pm when all of the local tourists hide from the sun. Despite the strong sun which heated the sand to temperatures that would burn the skin off of your feet, we were able to find a cool(er) spot and create our own beach chairs down by the water. The view is amazing, with white sand stretching for miles, the never-ending blues and greens of the pacific running into the beautiful mountains stretching into the sea from the north. Now after 2pm, that's a whole new story. As the strength of the sun wanes, the Vietnamese tourists swarm the beaches and screaming voices and games take over the once serene beaches.  The reasoning for this, as we've been told many times throughout the country, is because in Vietnam beauty is defined by the whiteness of your skin. Locals wear winter coats, face masks and hats as they drive their motor bikes in town to avoid the sun, so clearly laying out at the beach during the day is not a big attraction. This worked perfectly for us, however, since we enjoyed great beach time in the morning and rode our bikes to the town as the temperatures dropped (by maybe 1 degree).

One of our first stops in town was a small tailor shop called TiNa. In contrast to the large tailor shops in the main part of town, TiNa has a small group of dedicated women that helped us to find some excellent clothes and quickly made them for us out of her own home. The cost and quality of the clothes that we had made were incredible, and after trying on her first dress Sammar declared "Once you go tailored, you never go back!". TiNa helped us to ship the new clothes home, which kind of worked out because we needed to send a few kilograms from our bag home in order to fit the absurd Asian and European carry-on regulations (7kg, are you nuts!). So far our biggest learning for you future Round the World trippers: if you're going to Southeast Asia first, don't even bother packing a bag before you leave! Seriously, you can buy everything that you need when you arrive for a tenth of the price that you'll pay in the US, and it's not crappy clothes, it's North Face rain coats for $9, custom-made trekking pants for $10, you get the point. Check out our packing list page in the future to see all of the changes that we made.

Hoi An town itself was awesome. Small tailors, custom leather shops, and wonderful restaurants lined the quiet streets. At night, the only lighting is small lanterns that hang above the streets and candle lanterns that float in the river carrying along with them the wishes of all of the people that have placed them there. We visited a unique business called Reaching Out, an arts and crafts center for differently-abled (how the business refers to people with disabilities) people to find work, a home, and a place to explore there artistic abilities. We looked at many of the beautiful pieces of artwork that they created (and even purchased some for our new apartment!) and visited with some of the people who created the artwork. Two of our favorites were Bay and Thuong, a man and a women with down syndrome, that made table runners on a traditional weaving loom. Bay and Thuong have been with Reaching Out since it opened in 2000 and have been working together for the past 14 years. It takes them almost one month to make one table runner - talking about patience and determination! The most amazing part of it all is that every table runner is completely unique. Part of Reaching Out is all about letting the people use their work as a way to express their emotions. Bay and Thuong express their emotions through colors...dark colors for when they aren't having the best day and bright colors when they are extremely happy. I think we might start doing that with our clothes choice - so if we are wearing dark colors, watch out. In all seriousness, it was an amazing part of the trip and truly touching that the business is solely run by the local community. The community came together to help a group of individuals that are usually all alone in their society....one of the quotes from the employees said it best "Working at Reaching Out is way better than taking care of Water Buffalo. And once I felt alone, but now I have a family".

Sadly today we leave Vietnam, a country that will always be in our hearts as our first stop on our world tour and a place that we had an amazing time in 12 wonderful days exploring the country.

Next stop: Cambodia!