Hoi An

Palm trees line the riverfront

Newlyweds get their wedding pictures taken in the Ancient Town!

A cloudy day in Hoi An

So many colourful lanterns!

Hoi An bridge

Japanese covered bridge

Cute little courtyard art gallery

The town gets busy as the sun sets

A walk along the river

Boats at sunset

An Bang Beach

We have spent the last couple of weeks in Hoi An, which is located in central Vietnam, and is well visited for its beautifully preserved Ancient Town, a World Heritage Site. The town used to be a trading port from the 15th to 19th centuries, and influences of many different nationalities can be found here, from its Japanese bridge, and Chinese assembly halls, to its colonial style buildings.

Nearly every restaurant and shop in the old town has colourful lanterns hanging outside their doors, and at night, when all of the lanterns are lit up, the town really comes to life, and the atmosphere is magical. Boats bob along the riverbanks day and night, and you can't walk along the river without being asked if you'd like to take a boat tour. Take a detour from the river, and you'll be harassed by shop people asking if you want to buy something. Yes, Hoi An is very touristic, but you still can't really help but be sucked in by its charm.

Every person who visits Hoi An must buy a ticket for entrance into the Ancient Town, which is valid for your whole stay there. On your ticket you also get 5 entries into different museums and historic sites within the whole town. We visited a couple of the assembly halls and old houses in the town. I really like the idea of buying the one ticket for entrance into the old town, because it means that the money goes back into preserving the town. We noticed that the streets were quite clean, and there were separate bins for organic and regular waste. The whole old town is closed off to cars, and at certain times motorbikes as well, which means it is the perfect place to leisurely stroll around. 

Hoi An is the perfect place to come to relax, enjoy good food, and take in some beautiful architecture and natural scenery. And that is exactly what we did for three weeks! We found the most perfect room to stay in which was very close to the centre of town, and the family who owned the house were so lovely, and they loved Charlotte! They even babysat her for a couple of hours so that Nathan and I could go out to dinner. We celebrated Charlotte's first birthday while we were in Hoi An, and the family surprised us with a cake with 'Happy birthday Charlotte' beautifully written on top.

As well as strolling around the streets of the old town, we also spent a lot of time at An Bang beach, which is a short car ride from the town. We found a restaurant that served great food there called La Plage. Charlotte is definitely going to be a beach baby, because she loves playing in the sand, and even though the water was cold, she didn't mind it at all.

We loved our stay in Hoi An, and if we weren't running out of time on our visas, we probably would have stayed longer! But we still have more to see in Vietnam, and we are now in Hanoi, and are due to visit Halong Bay in the next couple of days.

Thanks for reading,
Hannah x

An Bang Beach

An Bang beach is a very pretty stretch of beach about 6km from the centre of Hoi An in Vietnam. We have been in Hoi An for about 2 weeks now, and while we love wandering the beautiful streets of the Ancient Town, we wanted a break from the town, and decided to head to the beach these past couple of days.

We arrived both days by taxi from our guesthouse at around 10:30am, when the beach is still quiet, and there are plenty of beach chairs available. Each restaurant or bar along the beach has their own beach chairs and umbrellas, and you can use them for free, as long as you eat lunch at their establishment. This seemed like a great deal to us, as we planned to stay at the beach all day anyway, and we remember paying 20+euros just to rent beach chairs in France!
We set ourselves up underneath the leafy umbrellas with a set of three beach chairs, which made a good play area for Charlotte. This was also ideal for us, as Charlotte could take a nap under the umbrella on the flat beach chair, and we could sit either side of her.

We ate lunch both days at a restaurant called La Plage, which serves a good mix of western and Vietnamese dishes. Everything is reasonably priced, especially when you consider the location, and the fact that you get to eat your lunch underneath swaying palm trees, with the view of the ocean in front of you 😉

We tried two noodle dishes, one with beef and one with seafood. The noodles were delicious and there was a very generous amount of seafood in the dish. Then the next day I also tried a beef burger, which was very tasty, and Nathan had the seafood noodles again. We were pleasantly surprised with how good the food was, considering it is a very touristy beach.

Unlike on the coast of Cambodia, where we spent a lot of time, the water up here is colder, and the waves are quite big. Charlotte did not seem bothered by the cold water, and loved dipping her legs in. She even got splashed by some big waves a couple of times! She also had great fun crawling around on the sand, though she still has to learn that shells should not be eaten! 😆

We have one week left here in Hoi An, and we will definitely take a trip up to the beach again, because we all loved it there 😊

Thanks for reading :)
 Hannah xx