Hoi An

Hoi An is a charming little city 30km south of Da Nang. Hoi An use to be a major port, but when the local river silted up, Da Nang took over the regions main port. Hoi An was mostly untouched during the Vietnam War and thus the town continues to have a number of 17th century buildings. Due to the French occupation of Hoi An, this town looks like a small French village in the middle of Vietnam!

Picture of the historical houses in Hoi An.

Day one was a visit to the famous My Son Cham remains. Unfortunately, these remains were mostly destroyed during the Vietnam war. This is a poor man’s version of Angor Wat. Katherine disagrees with this comment and liked the visit saying that its just a different beauty.

The crater in this picture is one of the many holes surrounding the My Son ruins, showing the impact of the US military bombs.

Hoi An is known for its many tailor shops. There are over 300 tailor shops in this town of 70,000. However, we were on a mission to find the best shop and order our first tailored custom suits.

Chris getting his second suit fitting. Hanh, our assistant, told Chris ‘you so skinny, your normal closes no fit’. Clearly she wasn’t impressed with the extra large white undershirt (Chris having packed 15 white undershirts for this trip, you might notice a trend in the majority of his pictures!).

Our second day in Hoi An, we signed up for a local bike ride through the countryside. This was a huge highlight of the trip. We enjoyed bike riding through the fields of rice, herbs and lotus flowers.

This farmer gave Katherine a hand picked pick lotus flower, she couldn’t have been happier.

Chris in the ‘7 star’ shrimp farmer accommodation. The shrimp farmer sleeps in this palm tree shack to protect his shrimp farm from vandals for the two months which is the time it takes to raise the shrimp. Average earnings from the two months is about $2,000.


This woman is 70! She looked amazing. She is picking fresh herbs for her lunch – coriander, thai basil, mint, garlic and lemongrass. We had these herbs often in the local meals, the mixture of flavors makes every meal a culinary delight.

The Vietnamese people are superstitious and many of them use fortune tellers. Our tour guide was getting married in two weeks and unfortunately he had to have his wedding on a Tuesday because that was the best karma according to the fortune teller. Also while we were there the lunar moon was on. For the first two hours after dark the town turns out all of the lights and the town is illuminated by lanterns. The french influence made the town come alive and you felt as if you were living in the 17th century. Little girls would also sell luminaries that you could float down the river. As pictures could not do this event justice we have chosen not to include them here. (Chris also forgot the camera at the hotel in full disclosure.)

The marble mountains are half way between Da Nang and Hoi An and a site not to be missed. Although our taxi driver was less than impressed and there wasn’t much of a write up in the guide book we found it fascinating. Climbing through the mountains required going up marble steps which were protruding through the earth. From the lookout at the top you had panoramic views of the city, ocean, and surrounding areas. Also there were caves in the mountains where Buddas had literally been carved out of stone. The fact that there was hardly anyone there made it quite enjoyable as well.

This picture is of the stretch of land between Da Nang and Hoi An called China Beach. China Beach was the landing point for many American military soldiers. I thought of my Uncle John while taking this picture, as I know he was once on this beach; I send my best to his family and all of the veterans of war.