Hoi An – Where to, Gumshoe?

June 15, 2016

Our first and only full day in Hoi An began with FaceTiming with my family for a while. Nate’s almost 2 (in two days) and he has grown quite a bit since we saw him (in person) in Taipei! He’s talking so much now and I love it when his face lights up when I say, “Say hi to Uncle Tim”!

We don’t get breakfast with our room and I didn’t want to pay $5 USD per person for it. I told my family that and they laughed and said we should splurge a little. We realize it isn’t that expensive but we’ve been in Vietnam long enough to know that $5 USD for breakfast is too much – you could buy 5 banh mi for that price!

Tim did a bit of research on where to go for Hoi An’s famous dry noodle dish called, Cao lau. We decided to try a restaurant outside of the Old Town (less touristy) that was suggested by a travel/food blogger we found. The restaurant didn’t have a name but we knew the address so we punched it in Google Maps and were on our way. Cao lau is only served in Hoi An because the water used to make the noodles are supposedly only found from one well in town. Who knows if this is still true today.

We walked for about 15 minutes before getting to the restaurant. The sun was beating straight down on us and it felt like we were walking in a sauna the whole way there. The heat here isn’t a humid heat, it’s dry, which is better I suppose. When we arrived at the restaurant, it looked like they were closed but the lady saw us and we sat down. After we sat down, a few more locals came for lunch and it seemed like everyone ordered Cao lau. We could tell that the place added a lot more to their menu to accommodate all the backpackers in the area as they had a lot of western options.

Cao lau is a dry noodle dish that has slices of pork, fresh herbs, beansprouts, and pork crackling. The star of the dish are the noodles, which are a type of thicker al dente noodle, more similar to spaghetti than to pho. Apparently the rice for the noodles are stone ground and then mixed with ash and water (sounds kind of gross). Any way, the cao lau was really good. It was Better than I expected the dish to be. We both enjoyed the pork crackling on top. It added a tasty texture to the noodles.

After lunch we headed towards the Old Town to walk around. It was early afternoon and it was pretty dead while we walked around, probably because it was incredibly hot. We walked around a bit, drank all our water, and felt exhausted from the sun. We tried to find the least overpriced cafe with fans or air conditioning that we could take refuge in for a bit. The prices in general in Hoi An are more expensive than other cities in Vietnam since the Old Town is so touristy (thanks to being a UNESCO World Heritage site). We ended up at Phuong Cafe, and ordered a fruit smoothie and a beer. They also gave us glasses of iced tea to drink, which was nice and refreshing. We stayed at the Phuong Cafe for an hour and a bit, they had free wifi so we just stayed in to escape the heat. The majority of places in Hoi An’s Old Town do not have air conditioning and the cafes that do are very pricey.

We felt a bit recharged after our break and headed to Peace Tailors for our first fitting. It’s pretty impressive how quickly they can make the clothes – within less than 24 hours. My dress fit well, but I asked them to make some adjustments to the hem. Tim’s suit was nice but he had to make some alterations to his shoulders and made his pants a bit slimmer. We were told to come back around 7pm for another fitting.

Before heading back to the hotel, I wanted to buy Nate a pair of pants. I call them “SE Asian backpacker pants” because that’s what I see a lot of backpackers wearing in SE Asia. I think they’d look really cute on Nate. We went to a couple of stores that quoted us some pretty outrageous prices – 260,000 VND ($15 CAD!). We knew that was a pretty crazy price to quote so when we told her how much we would pay, she acted very insulted. Then we walked away then she said she would go down to 40,000 VND. We still walked away. We found a store that said prices were fixed so we decided to take a look. They had a pretty good assortment of those backpacker type clothes , including the pants for kids. The list price was only 30,000 VND = $1.75 CAD. We were happy we didn’t go back to the lady who even thought about quoting us 260,000 VND.

We walked back to the hotel to rest up and cool down before our next fitting and dinner. Our plan for dinner was to go to a restaurant called, Morning Glory. It was suggested to us by the hotel and I had read about it in Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor. Morning Glory’s owner, Ms. Vy, has a few other restaurants and cafes in Hoi An, a cooking school, and a new restaurant in Melbourne.

When we arrived at Morning Glory, the restaurant was packed and we had to wait about 10 minutes for a table. We were told to sit inside in the waiting area, which was towards the back of the restaurant. It was super hot and stuffy inside. They had fans all over the restaurant and a huge air conditioner, which didn’t do anything because it was set to 33°C! Luckily we got seated on the patio in the front of the restaurant, which was actually a lot cooler and more comfortable outside. We ordered four dishes – white rose dumplings (Hoi An specialty), com gia (chicken rice), bun cha (pork meatballs with vermicelli and fresh herbs), and morning glory (ong choy). For our four dishes and two iced coffees, our bill was $23 CAD. This was our fanciest meal in Vietnam yet. The food was very good and I would highly recommend the restaurant. We know if we had this same meal in Melbourne, the bill would’ve been closer to $100 AUD.

After dinner we walked back to Peace Tailors for our second fitting. My dress was good to go, but Tim needed a few more alterations for his. We’ll be back again tomorrow morning for hopefully the last fitting.

We walked back to the hotel, washed up for the second time today, and continued to watch the second part of the O.J. Simpson documentary. I’m finding it pretty interesting since a lot of what made O.J. Simpson who he was happened before we were even born. We were only old enough to know about his murder trial, and not so much the societal context.

We’re leaving Hoi An tomorrow and heading back to Da Nang for the night since we have an early flight to Hanoi from the Da Nang Airport. Hoi An is a nice town city to visit but after a few days here, I’m ready to explore another city!

Steps today: 22,000

June 14, 2016

Today we woke up feeling a lot better than yesterday. We had an easy morning since we had until noon before checking out and when our hotel in Hoi An was going to pick us up. We went up to the roof for breakfast earlier and it was naturally a lot busier. The roof at Hadana has 360 views of Da Nang (Tim: more like 270), which is quite nice. Since the air conditioning inside isn’t that strong, it didn’t make much of a difference to eat outside under an umbrella.

The breakfast at Hadana Boutique Hotel was okay. There are a lot of Vietnamese breakfast options, which are good, but nothing really seemed that appetizing to us. We both had a bowl of noodles, which tasted like borsch soup with rice noodles. We headed back to our room after breakfast, packed up, and waited for our car to come.

We’re staying at Villa Orchid Garden Riverside Hotel (it’s confusing because there are a lot of hotels that have orchid, garden, and/or villa in its name) and paying $36 CAD/night. We booked a car through them to pick us up from Da Nang to bring us to Hoi An. We read that taking a public bus is uncomfortable and the drivers will try to charge you more and even threaten to kick you off the bus if you don’t pay more. We opted for the more comfortable option and just went with the hotel’s car for $19 USD for a 30 minute ride.

The hotel driver picked us up in a Toyota Forerunner SUV right on time. I think the hotel just contracts out drivers and they don’t work exclusively for them. He didn’t speak any English and didn’t really smile or anything. It was a bit awkward and he was a pretty crazy/impatient driver. On the way to Hoi An, we drove along the beach rode (the one we walked on yesterday) and drove past all the fancy beach resorts.

We arrived at the hotel and were told to wait to be checked in. The lady at reception was with another group that was checking in so we had to wait. We were seated on the patio and given cold ginger tea and a fresh banana pancake while we waited. The hotel is very quaint and is right on the Thu Bon River. When it was our turn to check in, the lady at reception gave us a run through of Hoi An and what there was to see, restaurants to try, and safety tips.

We were shown to our room and it was pretty nice for what we’re paying. The room was nicely air conditioned, clean, and it had an outdoor washroom. There is a nice pool in the courtyard of the hotel, which is where we spent a good chunk of the afternoon. Weather today was another balmy 38°C so we didn’t want to make our way towards Hoi An’s Ancient Town (or Old Town) until later in the afternoon since we planned on seeing the town at night.

At around 4pm we got ready and headed towards Hoi An’s main area. We walked along the river for about 20 minutes before getting into the heart of the city. Hoi An has a very small town feel to it, especially as we were walking along the river, it was fairly quiet and calm. But once we got into the Ancient Town, it was pretty packed with tourists and backpackers.

Our first stop was Banh Mi Phuong, a place famous in Hoi An for being the best banh mi in the city. It became internationally known when Anthony Bourdain came here on an old No Reservations episode to Vietnam and he had a banh mi with a fried egg on it. They have a picture of Bourdain there but they don’t clearly show what sandwich he had (Tim: The picture looks like a paused screenshot from a youtube clip). I think the banh mi he had isn’t even an option on the menu, it’s basically a banh mi with everything on it (including a fried egg). I tried the BBQ pork banh mi and Tim ordered the ham and pate (both were 20,000 VND = $1.15 CAD). We sat inside and ate our very late lunch. I really enjoyed the banh mi. The bread was very good (shaped differently than the other ones we’ve had before) and there was a bit of spice to the sauce they put in which was quite tasty. The BBQ pork had crackling on it, so it was like the Chinese roasted pork with all the good banh mi toppings, which was delicious. I like how they also drizzle sauce directly on the bread after they spread the pate on the bottom. While we were eating, we saw a lot of locals buy bags on the banh mi to go.

The next order of business in Hoi An was to browse around at the tailors in town to see if we could get something made. We had a few places in mind that were recommended by Chloe, the hotel, and TripAdvisor. The first one we saw was called Be Be Tailors. It is rated second on Trip Advisor and also recommended by the girl at the hotel. I read online that they are one of the more pricey tailors and they don’t bargain. We sat down for a quick consultation and their prices were quite high, even for North American standards. The lady at the hotel was right, they don’t bargain. Since the price wasn’t in our budget and the ladies weren’t that friendly or very helpful, we left.

We headed down the road to Peace Tailors (who Chloe used last year). When we arrived they were quite busy with other clients – this is probably a good sign! We were helped by one of the sisters (most of the ladies are sisters apparently and are all super nice) and I showed her a picture of a dress I liked. She brought us upstairs to show us the fabric they had to choose from. I picked the fabric and got measured (which was probably pretty gross since I was sweating so much). Tim then decided to look into buying a suit for himself. He decided to get a navy blue suit, since he doesn’t have one and it’ll be good for summer weddings (the only time Tim wears suits). They took Tim’s measurements and they said to come back tomorrow around 4pm for a fitting. We’ll see how it goes!

After spending a good chunk of time at Peace Tailors, it was dark out and we made our way into the Ancient Town. I enjoyed the Ancient Town because scooters and cars were not allowed to drive! It was also really pretty at night because there were so many lanterns and lights around the town. You could pay to make a wish and put a lantern with a candle into the river. We walked through the nightmarket that surrounded the river and browsed through all the souvenirs and knick knacks. We’ll come back during the day so we can see all the buildings in the light.

Since we had the banh mi quite late, we weren’t really hungry, just really thirsty. We had already drank all the water we brought out with us so we bought a few drinks while we were out. For dinner, we decided to just get banh mi again from Phuong’s and bring it back to the hotel to eat. I ordered the same thing and Tim ordered a sausage banh mi.

As usual, when we got back to the hotel, we were so hot and sweaty so the first thing we did was take a cold shower. We watched a few episodes of the shows Tim downloaded and the O.J. Simpson (Tim: 30 for 30) documentary before we slept.

Steps today: 13,000

Tag: Hoi An

Hoi An (Day 107): Delicious Cao lầu and Unbearable Heat

Hoi An (Day 106): Pool, Tailors, and Ancient Town