This post is part of a series called Thailand-Cambodia-Vietnam July 2012
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Hoi An, Vietnam

Saigon is in the south of Vietnam; and Hoi An (Da Nang airport) is towards the center of the country. Flew from Saigon into Da Nang using Jetstar Pacific Airways. This is a low cost carrier where you pay for every bag and for meal/drink on the plane.

Important Information
In vietnam you mostly pay for every bag and meal in all low cost airlines.

However, very efficient and timely. Cost for this 1hr and 15min flight was $65 pp one way. At Da Nang, got a Taxi to see the My Khe beach in Da Nang, as it was rated by Forbes to be one of the top 10 beaches in the world. See pics. Nice wide beach with white sand, and lots of people in the water. I still think that Turks & Caicos has the best beach.

My Khe beach in Da Nang

My Khe beach in Da Nang

My Khe beach in Da Nang

Arrived in Hoi An in the evening, and discovered this place is a huge tourist trap; It is a nice old quaint town, with plenty of well preserved buildings. Also has hundreds of locals selling tourist trinkets and souvenirs, and hundreds of restaurants. Only reason to visit Hoi An is to get custom tailoring done from the over 500 tailoring shops.

Dont Miss
Hoi An has on of the best tailored clothing. Get yourself something from there.

So tried out 2 places that seemed reasonable, and got them to make 1 shirt each; tried them and they were both very well tailored and fitted very well. Cost was $13/shirt including the fabric and labor. So ordered more, including shirts, pants, jacket.

Quaint village of Hoi An

Breakfast at hotel

Then found the Hoi An Cloth Market, where we were told the lower cost materials (cloth) would be found. To our amazement, we found that there were many tailors here, all willing to do the same work and provide shirts etc for less than the shops we had used (In the market, custom tailored shirts were available for $10, including the fabric). Shoe shops also abounded, and were willing to do custom leather shoes for around $20-$30 a pair. Was shopped out by this time so did not go for this.

I needed a haircut; saw a barber shop with 4 barbers sitting in their barber chairs, doing nothing. So went in. The barber wanted $4 to do my hair, but I thought that because they were all not busy, I should be able to get a better deal. Negotiated the haircut down to $2, told them that since I have less than half the hair of a normal person, $2 was reasonable. The barber agreed . The barber also offered to do ear wax cleaning for me; decided not to do this.

There are many places here that sell “fresh beer” which is the term for a microbrewery beer. These are quite cheap; as low as 15 cents a mid-sized mug of beer. The fresh beer is very light so easy to consume a decent quantity. So had lots of beer. They had some local specialties in food, and tried them; and generally enjoyed the food. Dinner cost us about $8 – $20 for 4 people including beer.

The local market was interesting; with all kinds of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and seafood, many of the fishes still thrashing around. Pics below

Market time, with friendly locals

Seafood at the market

Seafood at the market

Fishing in a rice paddy; crawfish?

Ferry

Must have shade; its hot in the sun

Gully

Beautiful lamps of bamboo and silk

Boy selling floating lamps

A floating oil lamp trinket sold to tourists; got this one floating away in the river; notice the reflection in the river

Ferry unloading

Electric bike, best way to get around

Lotus flowers

Eating places in the market

More eating places in the market

People ferry

Fresh fish

Isn’t she cute?; like the pony tail

What is she feeding him?

Ban-Mi sandwich lunch outside the market

Hoi An was nice, but too much of a tourist trap for my liking.

Going to Hanoi  City next

This entry was posted in Asia, Thailand-Cambodia-Vietnam July 2012

2 thoughts on “Hoi An, Vietnam

  • Pingback: Saigon - Ali Karim Travelog

  • Kelsie August 8, 2017 at 2:41 pm Reply

    I have not checked in here for a while, but the last several posts are good quality so I guess I’ll add you back to my everyday bloglist. You deserve it my friend 🙂

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