Thursday, April 15, 2010

Sidetripping: Hoi An

Marble Mountains - check. Seafood feast at a beachside seafood emporium - check. Mi Quang - check. Karaoked - check. 

Having done everything on our DaNang list, we headed out for a few days in Hoi An, only a 30 minute taxi ride away. 

Hoi An is much more tourist oriented than DaNang with a large number of affordable boutique hotels.

Lively pedestrian mostly old quarter, scooters have no boundaries it seems.


Cute cafes and restaurants with views of the river.


Decadent treats.


Great Shopping.


A cute little open air market.


And good food.


On top of all that, there's also a great beach and rice fields just minutes outside of town.

We thought we knew Hoi An having spent an extensive amount of time there a little over a year ago, but we soon realized Hoi An is slightly different from other places we've been in Vietnam.
For one, the dogs and cats in Hoi An all looked like well taken care of pets. They weren't super friendly, but they weren't skittishly aggressive barking alarms, like in other parts of Vietnam where dogs and cats have their household jobs, rarely even getting a proper name. We even saw some with collars!
Hoi An also has a number of well taken care of scooters.


Not sure if its a sign of global economic recovery with the large amounts of tourist in Hoi An compared to our visit a year ago, but the locals seem to enjoy the festive atmosphere and pulled out all the glitz and glam just for show it seemed.

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