The first time I ever went to Vietnam, we flew to Ho Chi Minh and it was pretty terrible.. Ho Chi Minh is too busy and crazy for my liking, however some people do love it; it just isn’t for me. This second trip to Vietnam I avoided the city and flew straight to Nha Trang where I feel much more comfortable and after spending a week there it was time to start heading up North. We booked the sleeper bus to Hoi An, not quite knowing what to expect.
I had booked us in to a guesthouse/dorm room for three nights which ended up being too far out of town however it was only a 5 minute walk to hidden beach! We decided we could just spend our days lazing at this beach and I could work on my tan!
The next day we grabbed our beach gear jumped on a push bike and headed for the beach. The water was refreshing and cooled us down after a short but hot bike ride in the sun. The sand was burning hot and we watched people making a run for it from the shade to the water to minimise the burn of their feet, we chuckled knowing that’s what we looked like haha!
We had our spot set on two lounge chairs which we didn’t have to pay for as we were eating at the restaurant that owned them. I pulled my chair into the sun and tanned in my bikinis while reading my book ‘What you were doing while I was breeding’ while Eb stayed in the shade listening to music. After we had lunch at the restaurant that seems to take forever to cook your meals (seriously how long does fried rice take?!) I got a massage. It cost 300,000 Dong ($17AUD) for an hour and was pretty good except it was a little sandy.
We decided to only stay the two nights as we wanted to discover what was to offer in town and so I booked three nights at Tribee Kinh. We were so relieved to find that we were in a good area and at a good hostel and this is where we essentially fell in love with Hoi An.
If you’re a traveler and looking to meet other people I highly recommend staying at one of the four Tribee hostels in Hoi An! Not not do they have a social area with a bar but they run so many activities and most of them are free! They have something different on everyday which makes this hostel fun an interesting! One night they had free rum & coke (you don’t want to see the video of me after making the most of this free rum..) and free beer nights if you like to drink. Then they have spring roll making classes and we went on the street food tour on our last night which is free and then you just pay for the street food you buy which is sooo cheap and delicious! After our street food tour with a cool bunch of people we all went back to have free beer and ended up having a great night and I didn’t ge back till 3:30am!
We had decent massages and good pedicures, ate some delicious food (I fell in love with the fajita place next door, so yum!), went on a street food tour at our hostel, met a bunch of cool travelers and wandered through the lanterns of the old town.
In Hoi An you will find the perfect blend. It’s a short drive to spend the day at a beautiful non-crowded beach, you can relax and get massages at a nice spa, eat your way around town and wander through old town marvelling at the cobble stones or bright lanterns.
Anyone I spoke to about Hoi An said they absolutely loved it and I could’t agree more! It was a perfect blend of Vietnam.