Tailor made

The ‘chic capital’ of Vietnam - Hoi An.

This stop wasn’t in our initial itinerary (yes we have a proper schedule) but when many other travellers we’d met over the past month said that they loved this place, we had to see it for ourselves.

Located on the banks of the Thu Bon River, the UNESCO verified old town retains its look from over the centuries; a small network of narrow lanes lined with tight-knit Japanese and Chinese styled buildings and a quaint rustic harbour with ferries (simple motor powered wooden boats with fore and aft for mopeds and bikes and central canopy for passengers) to the nearby islands. We took such a vessel across and had a cycle around one of them and observed farmers hand tilling the land, buffalo and cows grazing along the roadside and locals shouting out an enthusiastic ‘Hello’ as we rode by.

Harbor-side terrace

The buildings that lined the old town tended to be of 2 sorts: tailors and restaurants. Thus this place is an attractive option for those who want fitted clothes for half the price you’d pay in England. Tempting, but when you carry what you take, this was enough to discourage me. On the other hand, Tanya got a dress made for the next day pick up and the craftsmanship was impeccable.

The restaurants didn’t disappoint either. The local dishes of banh bao (aka ‘white rose’ – rice flour dumplings with minced shrimp) and cao lao (a broth of flat noodles, croutons, beansprouts and pork) were delicious and matched our cheapest meal of the trip thus far (Hanoi - £3) as we got our drinks for free. Win.

Though I am not normally fan of coffee (unless it’s in the sauce of an Up-and-Over self-saucing chocolate pudding), Vietnamese coffee is something else… still coffee (freshly ground) but served with condensed milk. Tanya was a huge fan of this and the numerous sips I had, I can highly recommend it too. The iced variety is also good.

It was very weird then when we went to Da Nang (for a night stopover to catch the plane) and we couldn’t to find a cup anywhere. Of all the things to drink we’d never thought it would be a struggle to find coffee on our travels. Though it may have something to do with Da Nang being the equivalent of Benidorm for the Vietnamese, so all restaurants seemed to only stock beer and soft drinks… not what we were after but then Da Nang for us was a means to an end – flying out asap.

Street view - note conical hat typically worn by rural women