Hoi An Vietnam

Check in to Little Hoi An. Very great reception. Welcome drink and cake. The staff would also be explaining the facilities in the hotel and orientate us to the area. However the room was small and have a poor view. It gets noisy too as there are street vendors in front of the hotel. Luckily we switched to Little Riverside hotel after discovering it on our 3rd day.

There is a shuttle to the beach.

Very nice deco and cake from the hotel.

View from the room.

Walked towards old town and had our lunch at Poison cafe. Hubby is all praise for the drinks. The egg coffee, orange juice and my salted coffee iced. The crispy pork is average but the baby squid stuffed with ground meat and vermicelli is awesome.

A vendor came to sell the 3D cards. Bought 3 for 300,000 dong

Searched for the famous Faifo coffee where the rooftop has a view of the street. It was too crowded. The salted coffee is equally good, egg coffee average. The croissant is good but the tiramisu paled against Xuan in JB.

The view from the rooftop of Faifo cafe.

Ate at Level 2 instead as roof top was so crowded.

There are bbq stalls outside the cafe.

Took a trishaw ride around the old town and back to the hotel for 700000 dong

Our tour guide, Linh, met us at the hotel and brought us to a food tour. 

Linh bought for us the grilled cuttlefish.

Tried out this grill rice paper with dried beef. Forgot to tell them not to add chilli. 

Hubby bought 3 linen pants at 1300000 dong and I bought one top 400000 dong.

Linh bought us the unique MOT drink unique to Hoi An.

Linh brought us to try the grilled pork. She also let us try the smashed grilled  rice paper with a wet one  dipped in fish sauce. The pork is wrapped in both dry and wet rice paper.

Hubby love the beef and pork wrapped in loot leaves.

Famous Banh Mi with a large crowd.

Releasing the lanterns into the water.

Our cheerful and sweet guide Linh. 

The local bingo with music.

Having a foot massage  at Spa Naxinh as our legs are aching. 1 million dong for two of us for an hour foot massage.

Packed some longans and milk back to the hotel.

Dinner at my restaurant. Hubby had beef soup noodle and I took fried spring roll. Both are equally good. Ordered long island and tequila sunrise cocktails.

Hoi An Day 2

Breakfast in the hotel. Though the spread was not as great, the quality is good. Love the noodle. The croissants were awesome too. So soft and fragrant.

On the coconut forest boat ride.

Taken by Linh our guide. 

Demo of casting a fishing net, karaoke, spinning the bowl like boat. Also saw a lady throwing papers into the water from a fishing boat to ask for blessings before going to sea.

Tried the sea coconut which is our attap seed from the Nipal palm top with dried coconut and peanuts.

Had our lunch at morning glory original restaurant. Love the fried snapper in mango salad and the  morning glory were good. Not so for the caramelised pork which i find a bit hard. The soup with tofu is good.too. The coconut coffee is good too. Hubby also took passion fruit and pineapple juice. I had a whole coconut drink to myself.

It's a very hot day at Hoi An.

At the Japanese bridge which reopened in August.

At the Cantonese Ancestral Hall.

In 1981, Kazimierz Kwiatkowski was assigned to lead the monuments restoration mission in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Recognised for his contribution to making the blue print of Hoi An, locals worshipped him too.

The Hokkien ancestral Hall.

Folklore museum

The old house. As the house is near the river, it is often flooded. The marked points on the wall showed how high the water will get up to. That's why the house has a pulley system to bring the stuff up to level 2. There is also a unique cup which can only fill up to 80% The water will automatically flow out of the hole from the bottom if more than 80%.

The in-house guide explaining how the porcelain glass worked. The Confucius teaching that one should not be greedy and should be contented with life 80% full. The water will flow out automatically if the glass is more than 80% full.

Seeing how hot I was my awesome guide Linh helped to braid my hair.

At 92 station with also a terrace like faifo but limited menu. Their special tea with slice of peach, lemon grass was awesome. The coffee was very thick. Highly recommended.  Too bad there is no pastry and cake.

At Hoi An traditional art per performance House. They gave us two sticks for Bingo. I gotten shoe and hubby chicken.

Had a good 2 hr massage in the hotel's spa. Surprised that it is cheaper than the one went to yesterday. Less than 1.6 million dong for 2 pax. 399 dong per hours.

Superb pineapple rice and tom yum gong. The fried morning glory was even more fragrant than morning glory restaurant. The fish cake and basil chicken average. Nice Vietnamese coffee and juice. Quiet restaurant by the river. Dinner at BKK Thai near the hotel.

Hoi An Day 3

It must have rained in the middle of the night as it is cooler today. View from the room.

Breakfast in the hotel. Beef pho, pork congee and breadwere good. Fresh spring roll, hard fish ball,hard crispy chicken in fish sauce, avocado salad average. The croissant and papaya are so good!

At My Son Sanctuary. Raining

Those with more reddish bricks are newer ones. This area is often flooded so there is this rope with handles across the bridge.

Many tourists were wearing rain coats.

Only watched the first part of performance as there is no seat. Dancers carrying water jars in the first part of performance.

As Hoi An is prone to flood, there is thus rope with handles on it across the bridge cos during the flood the bridge will be submerged in the water.

At the brick tower. My Son, which means beautiful mountain. Water from the linga will flow into the yoni.

Very crowded with many tour groups. My guide even met her favourite blogger and she stopped to talk to him.

Restoration going on at the temples. UNESCO site like Hoi An old town.

Saw them collecting the water from the river into a bucket.

Looked the artefact in the museum and waited for the guide to buy her book.

On our for lunch at Chillax, a beautiful restaurant surrounded by rice fields.

Went to old town for more shopping followed by a massage at the hotel again.

Going to have dinner on a floating restaurant which is a boat anchored near the Riverside Hoi An hotel. Hubby said he would have stayed here if he had known this place earlier.

The pork ribs and steak were tender.

Made the wildest decision of changing hotel.  

So glad we could still get a river view. The room is twice bigger! Love the ground floor access to breakfast area. The bathroom is also twice the size with a bath tub and separate shower area.

 Shall visit the pool tomorrow.  Infinity facing the river on level 5. Awesome view and big pool.

Took supper at the hotel restaurant.  The fried calamari and fried beef noodle were so good! Thanks to Jameson. Had Maitai cocktail and thanks to Gin for it!

Hoi An Day 4

 I love this hotel. So serene. There is a pomelo tree just outside the room. The phone reminded me of the one I had when I was young as you will need to pull the number zero all the way to the top. The shower heads and the toilet paper holder designs are so antique too.

The breakfast area is so much better here too. Bigger spread and more comfortable as you can dine by the river. Like the Cappuccino and Latte serve. The fried seafood noodle is as good as yesterday's. The pork congee is awesome. Comfort food so both of us. The ambience is so good. Highly recommended if anyone wants to come to Hoi An! 

Took a grab car to Việt Phục Hội An - Viet Phuc, Ao dai Rental, Sale & Photoʻ 

112C Đ. Phan Chu Trinh, Phường Minh An, Hội An, Quảng Nam, Vietnam

The lady boss took a video of us before we set off for our photography session. 

Many tourists also took pictures of us, especially hubby.

We booked the combo of 2,500,000 VND for the Full Package for 2 people that included costumes, makeup and photographer. The shoot ranged from 1 to 2hour along the street and the photographer will send more than 100 files editted by email after 3-5 days.

The weather is so hot and yet the water is icy cold. The pool is 1.2m to 1.6m deep. Had their special shrimp salt margarita and hubby had Saigon beer.

Wanted to go to the famous Mr Hai noodle but attracted by the smell of food at this small restaurant next to it. The spring roll is superb with such a soft crunch and well marinated meat. The fried morning glory was better at BKK. The phad Thai is flavourful with peanuts and tom yum soup is nice.

Visited the precious heritage art museum.

There were so many groups of tourists.

We walked along the river promenade back to our hotel.

The entrance to our hotel from the river promenade.

This is a real working phone booth!

Walked along the river from the hotel to the bridge connected to Memories Land.

Showed the staff at the ticketing counter the code from my tour agent and she issued me the 2 VIP tickets. 

We entered around 4pm and the mini shows started at 5pm. The main show was at 8pm.

Love the mini show at the main gate the Citadel most. There are 10 and we watched 8.

J

Most amazing show. So many performers amounting to more than a hundred. Can't miss this show. Some of the effects like flying from the ship to the lake, boat crossing the bridge in the lakes. A whole Japanese bridge replica and a trojan like elephant. The lighting and music were awesome. One of the grandest and impressive show.

Old River Restaurant - Bar SÔNG XƯA RIVERSIDE for late dinner.. Nice ambience but food average. Prawn in coconut is unique. Ordered fried fish and did not expect it to be served like fish and chips. Mango smoothies is nice.

Hoi An Day 5

What a beautiful hotel. Took a picture with Aimee. The staff here are so friendly and hospitable. Having our last breakfast here before we leave for Danang.

We tried the famous Cau Lou from the hotel breakfast on our last day. I still prefer the banh loc in Hue. The rice dumpling with green been (tau sau) is nice.

More photos in the hotel as we are waiting for our driver to bring us to Danang. Thanks to Little Riverside hotel for such a good stay in Hoi An!

Wow the students here end school early. They start school at7.15am and finished at 11.15am. 3 to 4 hours in the morning and 3 hour in the afternoon - maybe 3 days a week. They can also stay in the school but there will be extra fee for lunch at shcool. They can take nap in the class for 1.5 hour then back to study. My tour agent did that when she was young as her parents were busy and now her children too.

Some of the photos captured by the photographer Vỹ from Việt Phục Hội An - Viet Phuc, Ao dai Rental, Sale & Photoshoot

I am grateful to Lily from Uptravel in arranging this awesome tour for me in Vietnam.  For those who are interested, you can contact her at +84 868 505 608.