Hoi An - An ancient Town

We started from Marble mountain at 5.30pm to reach Hoi An by 6pm. Sunset in Da nang was approximately at 5.30pm odd, so it was already dark. The most part of road from Marble mountain to Hoi An is parallel to coast line and beaches. 

Photo credits - Google maps

Hoi An -  ancient town (formerly known as Fai-Fo) dating back to 15th centrury, the Chinese, French, Japanese traders and merchants settling here and building unique town.This is a Unesco heritage ancient town. The famous wooden bridge by Japanese architect (even though very small) and Ancestral houses are the beauty of town.

Upon reaching, we had a traditional Vietnamese dinner, (Here people have there dinner very early, near to sunset, and breakfast at 6.30-7am in the morning. They are early risers and that's the reason everyone was happy fit and slim.) 

Yellow and brown colour houses/ shops maintaining uniformity along the road, the river, boating, shopping bamboo soveniers, conical hats (You need to bargain a lot, there are natural bamboo hats as well as artificially made, both available), leather purses, jackets, boots/shoes, lanterns and cafes all accross the roads with special salty cold coffee, Egg coffee, coconut coffee to add zest while roaming around.

 

The first thing you notice when you reach here is the magic of beautifully lit lanterns and the illuminated town just accross the parallel lanes of town. We did buy some lanterns to bring back home as sovenier. 

Like in India, in Holy Ganga river, we have a tradition of a small diya with a candle and flowers that's floated down the river. This offering is made to Maa Ganga, goddess of the holiest river in India. Similar way, here in Hoi An, they float a candle lantern in the river Hoai. 

A walk through the streets of Hoi An- sipping coffee, coconut cake, mango cake (which does not have mango in it but it looks like Mango Seed hence named Mango cake 😅 funny isn't it?). 

We visited the wooden Japanese bridge, a praying area nearby and then the boating in the river. 

We had a little time in Hoi An and couldn't visit, paddy fields, countryside. But is worth a visit by roaming around on hired bicycles. 

Around 8.45pm we started back from Hoi An to Da nang. It rained in between. We were late to join the Fire and light show near Dragon bridge in Da nang. Don't miss it whenever you are visiting !

Once back to our hotel, we spent sometime on beach, which was calm and quiet. It has a lot of food trucks serving variety of fruits and desserts. We had tender coconut ice cream to end the day on a sweet note.