Hội An is a beautiful ancient city that is situated on Vietnams central coast. Canals wind through the the old port town and the architecture nods to its past with old Japanese merchant house and Chinese temple influences in the narrow lantern clad streets. The riverside setting of the old town hosts myriad lantern festivals throughout the year.

The town is now host to boutique hotels, restaurants and bars and is known for its tailor shops which can be found on every street.

Our Trip

We’d biked to Hoi An for a day trip back in February 2016 when we were staying in Da Nang – in fact it was that road trip that Eddie taught me how to ride a scooter, ah memories! We were so excited to be back to this beautiful place – something about the architecture and lanterns in the old town is enchanting.

We arrived in Hội An in the early evening and after a bit of searching, found and checked in to the super friendly Flames Flowers Home Stay. We then headed out to meet up with Eddie’s mate Jamie and his girlfriend Bec (who runs sheroamssolo.com), who are also biking around Vietnam – they are moving south to east through the country and we’re moving north to south, so it was also a great chance for us to swap some stories.

As we walked through the old town to meet them, we noticed that the town was lit up more than usual because the full moon lantern festival was taking place – the river was alight with candles on floating lanterns, beautiful!

Blurry river lanterns

We walked through the crowds and met up with Jamie and Bec at a restaurant adjacent to the river and the night flashed by as we ate local snacks and talk about our biking adventures – after the restaurant there was a bit of bar hopping and flashbacks of the night include myriad cocktails, buckets of gin & tonic, games of pool and a very tasty burger while walking home!

Hoi An Wontons

Cao Lau

Lunch with Flames Flowers Home Stay

The next morning was very, very slow – that was some seriously fun drinking the night before! We drifted in and out of consciousness until about 1p.m. when we summoned the energy to get up. As soon as we got up and made a noise there was a knock at our door… The home Stay family had cooked up a feast for lunch and we were invited to join them. We weren’t really feeling up to it but politely accepted the kind offer; we were then given 10 minutes to get ready and join them all, oh my!

We arrived to table and were astonished at the amount of food, it was all delicious!! We were joined by other guests so we set about chatting to a nice couple Phil and Danny and swapped stories.  Our host then set about pouring us glasses of beer… Oh god. It was a slow start but ‘hair of the dog’ worked and we left the lunch very full and felt much better, we also found that we knew the other guests and the host much better, the lunch was a beautiful personal touch.

Flame Flowers Homestay

That night we wandered around the old town and had a quiet dinner, afterwards we returned to the home stay for an early night.

Marble Mountains, Da Nang

The Marble Mountains are a cluster of five marble and limestone hills located south of Da Nang. The five mountains are named after the five elements: Kim (metal), Thuy (water), Moc (wood), Hoa (fire) and Tho (earth).

The next morning we’d arranged to meet up with Bec and Jamie for a biking day of adventure – Eddie and I took both our bikes, Jamie and Bec rode together on Bec’s scooter.

The first port of call was the marble mountains in Da Nang – it was a short ride north and after around an hour on the highway we’d arrived. It was a scorcher of a day so we bought tickets for an elevator straight to the top of the mountain. At the top we entered caves and caverns, climbing up through one cave ceiling to find ourselves at the summit of Mount Thuy. There were beautiful lookouts over Da Nang (which seems to be rapidly expanding since our visit a few months before!) and some areas of garden to rest at, all in all it was a very fun activity.

After seeing the sights it was a short walk down to the bottom of the mountain where we all stopped for a cold sugar cane juice before jumping back on our bikes and heading to the My Son temples.

My Son Temples

My Son is a collection of Hindu temples dedicated to Shiva. Constructed between the 4th and 14th centuries, it was the spiritual capital of the Champa rulers, often compared to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Most of My Son was destroyed in the Vietnam War but there are enough structures remaining to get a sense off its former glory.

The route we took from Da Nang to My Son were mainly back roads, so we needed full concentration for the pot holes and dirt tracks but it was nice winding our way through the small villages.

After a hour or so, Eddie had a strong feeling that where a road stopped at a river and reappeared at the other side (with no bridge) that there would be a ferry crossing… he was absolutely right, but the ferry was more of a small wooden boat! Never the less, we all rode our bikes on the boat (VN $50,000 each) and it was a very fun crossing as we negotiated the pier (wooden plank) and sandy road, and also the perfect to break up the riding.

After the crossing there were a few more small roads before we reached the temples – we arrived at around 4p.m. so we just had one hour to walk around and take in the sights before it closed. We paid VN $150,000 each to enter and wasted no time in heading straight to the remains of the temple structures and ruins.

As we walked around the temple sites we were taken aback to the size of the structures – the vibrant red bricks were so striking against the lush green grass and the vivid blue sky, it was definitely worth the trip.

We then rode back to Hoi An and stopped for a quick drink at a bar, then it was a quick ride home to shower up, as we met up again at the old quarter river bank for a delicious Cao Lau Dinner, and then retired to the home stay – what a fun day!

An Bang Beach

An Bang beach is an interesting one. On the one hand, it’s a nice enough beach just a few kms from Hoi An, on a nice day and in the right frame of mind it could conceivably be fantastic. Perhaps we were spoilt at Lang Co because for us An Bang was overpopulated with locals trying to make a buck off you at every chance- be it trying to overcharge us for a bike parking spot, or hassling us to buy food/sunglasses/newspapers – lets just say it wasn’t as relaxing an experience as we’d hoped.

We spent a good few hours at the beach and bought food and drink which was nice, although it was spoilt a little as there was a sense of constantly being watched. We didn’t enter the sea as we’d heard stories of jelly fish and sea lice. If you’re after a nice relaxing beach day, this isn’t the best that Vietnam has.

After the beach we headed back to the old town and caught up with Jamie and Bec for drinks and more delicious Cao Lau and barbecued pork on skewers. Yum!

Old Town and Markets

For our last day in Hoi An we decided to have a leisurely walk around the old town and markets. We found a sneaky alley which meant that we could enter the old town without paying, woohoo! The old town area wasn’t anything too different to the non-paying part, it was nice to see but much of the buildings and shops were very similar so I’m glad we didn’t pay!

We then walked to the tailors market and spent some time with a tailor – we bought some fabric for a sarong but nothing more as we’re keeping light on our bikes. After walking around the market we sound some Banh Mi and walked along the riverside eating our snack.

Our last night was spent with Jamie and Bec, maps out and biking routes were being discussed. We had some dinner and a few drinks but no buckets of gin this time!

Japanese bridge at night, old town