Friday, January 29, 2010

Serenading Hoi An, Vietnam

I shall start with my favorite place I have been - Hoi An, Vietnam.


Hoi An is located in central Vietnam, about less than an hour's drive from the nearest city Danang. This small town is a UNESCO World Heritage site that used to be one of the largest harbour in Southeast Asia known as Champa city. Name sounds familiar to you? Yes! We studied about it in our history books in Form 3 if I'm not mistaken.


Why do I like this small town? It is a fairly small place, best traveled with a bicycle or motorbike. Most guesthouses do have rentals for motorbikes. Some staff would even rent you their motorbike just to earn extra few dollars for the day. There are not as many tourists as the big cities in Saigon (almost a day's train ride away) or Hanoi (maybe 15-16 hours train ride?). You would have guessed by now why there are few tourists that goes there - most that visit are usually backpackers, sometimes you would see groups of Japanese or Koreans ;-)


Hoi An is a small town with a little streets and petite little buildings. Just imagine the ancient Chinese towns we watch in those emperor/dynasty Hong Kong dramas. Just like that but the difference is we're walking in it! Living it, eating it. Lovely.


They are also famous for their unique local dish, cao lầu, which you can find almost in any stalls by the roadside. Rumors has it that their soup is made from a sacred well somewhere in the town. If you ask me how does it taste, I'd say fairly similar to pho but just better :)


They have many little museums, some requires tickets and some don't. Some don't even check! So you can take your chances but there is nothing much to shout about. Just old artifacts, not much knowledge sharing about the history of the town but I can be wrong. Perhaps I did not go to the better ones nearby. 


Just immerse yourself in the local culture will do just as great, or at least that's what I did ;-)

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