4 free and easy days in Hoi An

We spent 4 days in Hoi An during September and had a wonderful time. Prior to Hoi An, we spent 2 days at Banyan Tree Lang Co and 2 days at Hue. We travelled from Hue using a private taxi with scenic stops along the way at places such as the Hai Van Pass, Lap An lagoon and Marble Mountains (read about the trip here), and arrived in Hoi An just before sun set.

Our accommodation at Hoi An for four nights is at the Tea Garden Homestay, a cosy family run guesthouse located just at the outskirt of the famed UNESCO World Heritage ancient town.

We had 3 full days to explore this old trading port in Southern Vietnam, with well-preserved buildings that reflects both indigenous and foreign cultures, especially Chinese, Japanese and later European.

There is plenty to do at Hoi An. For those looking to make cheap and good suits, Hoi An has many tailor shops that can provide custom-made suits within 3 days. A beautiful beach is within reach by bikes or taxi from the town center. The rural countryside around the Hoi An town is also nice to explore using bikes.

Since we had already spent some time at a beach resort and had already seen a bit of rural Vietnam, we skipped these activities in Hoi An. Our activities included an early morning private tour to Mỹ Sơn, a half day cooking class at Thuan Tinh Island, sampling the local Hoi An cuisine, shopping and exploring the ancient town.

We normally start the day with a simple home-cooked breakfast provided by the Tea Garden Homestay. The breakfast area is by a small swimming pool and garden that featured a small collection of colourful iguanas.

Hoi An is a relatively small place, best explored on foot or on bikes. We chose not to use the bicycles as our cycling skills were not too good. 

The following is a collection of photos we took while exploring this old town on foot.

Around the Central Market

The Central Market is a bustling place catering to locals and tourists. We visited the very interesting “wet market section” in the morning as part of our cooking tour. There is also section selling dried and packaged stuff, plus a food court with stalls offering many local specialties and dishes such as Pho noodles, Cao Lao noodles and rice (com) dishes.

Hoi An Central Market, with a well next to it.

Locals were seen drawing water from the well. Apparently, the well water is the secret behind the tastes of some local dishes like the Cao Lao.



A street food vendor grilling some meat skewers outside the Central Market.


Hoi An’s wet market.


Streets and narrow alleys

The ancient town of Hoi An is a photographer’s dream town as there are photo opportunities all over.

Tourists are almost always decked out in fancy dresses, complete with sun hats. These contrasted nicely with the rustic walls, faded yellow ochre coloured buildings, colourful lanterns and flowers in the old town.

Hoi An was included in UNESCO World Heritage list in 1999. No motorised vehicles are now allowed within the designated ancient town area.

A row of rickshaws, carrying tourists for sightseeing, is quite a sight.

We encountered a few motorbikes sneaking into the town area through the narrow alley ways which incidentally are good places to capture some nice shots.

Many of the old houses had been converted into stores, cafes, restaurants and some into museums.






Kwiatkowsky Square with monument dedicated to Polish architect Kazimierz Kwiatkowsky who who lived in Viet Nam for 16 years and helped popularise the ancient town of Hoi An.

Hoi An tea houses and cafes

Hoi An’s weather is hot and humid and many a times, pit stops at one of the many Hoi An coffee shops or cafes are needed to rest our feet and cool us down. A must try in Vietnam is the iced coffee, a staple in tropical Vietnam. We had many coffee breaks while exploring Hoi An.

A good place for the iced Vietnamese coffee that comes with a unique bird’s eye view of the old town is at Faifo Coffee. Faifo Coffee is located at 130 Tran Phu. Faifo Coffee serves a wide variety of coffee and also sells its own coffee beans and powder. In addition to the nice coffee served, many people come here for the photo opportunities at the roof top, especially just before sun set.

Unique bird’s eye view of Hoi An old town from the rooftop of the Faifo Coffee.

Faifo is the old name of Hoi An and hence a common name. We actually went to the wrong place on our first attempt to locate Faifo Coffee. We ended up in Faifoo Cafe, a few doors away on the same street. Nevertheless, we stayed to patronise this cafe and enjoyed the views from the second second terrace.

Views from Faifoo Cafe and Restaurant.

Coffee at Faifoo Cafe.

Another nice cafe is located above the Ginkgo store. This is a nice quiet place to chill and get away from the busy streets below. I enjoyed the cold drinks, cushions and brief encounter with the owner’s puppy.

A playful puppy at the cafe tested its teeth on my finger but no damage done.

Street Vendors

Street vendors can be seen all over Hoi An. Some even invite tourists to take photo with them, hoping to get a tip or to close a sale subsequently.

A roadside stall selling the Cao Lao noodles, only found in Hoi An.

Hoi An Riverside

As a small trading post in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Thu Bon River was the lifeline of Hoi An in the old days. Nowadays, the river is still the focus for this town, but in the tourism trade.

In the hot afternoon sun, not much activities are seen around the river but it is a different scenario in the cooler evenings. Tourists flocked to the riverside area just before sunset and the river comes alive.

A popular activity for couples and families is a boat ride on the Thu Bon river during the evening.

The ancient town and Thu Bon river side area is more beautiful at night when the lanterns are lit. We stayed 4 nights in Hoi An and we spent each evening and night around the river-side area.

Lanterns and Japanese torii gate at Hoi An ancient town. The night market is just behind the red torii gate. 

Hoi An in the evenings.

I wrote a separate post on what to do in the evenings and nights at Hoi An. Click here to find out more.

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Visit to Hoi An’s morning market and cooking class at Thuan Tinh Island

28 September 2017 

Vietnam has many delicious and sometimes exotic cuisines. The best way to appreciate the local cuisine better is to experience cooking some of the dishes. I don’t normally cook at home and the last time I took a cooking class while on a vacation was in Chiang Mai. I enjoyed that experience tremendously. Hence, joining a cooking class  was in my 4 days Hoi An itinerary.

There are many cooking schools providing half day classes in Hoi An. I signed up with Thuan Tinh Island Cooking School, partly because of good reviews and partly because of recommendation from my relatives who visited Hoi An before.

We were picked up by taxi from our accommodation in Hoi An, the Tea Garden Homestay at 8.30 AM and met up with the rest of the group near the Hoi An’s morning market. Including us, there were 6 persons.

Like most cooking classes in Hoi An, the first activity was a visit to the morning wet market to purchase all fresh ingredients needed for the cooking later. I enjoy visiting local markets! Here I could see, smell, hear and experience the life of a local. For a while, at least.  With a local guide bringing us around, it was less intimidating for me to snap photos of the happenings and people in the market.

The seafood in this wet market is so fresh that some of the sea critters are still alive. Jumping shrimps, live snails or escargots, prawns and fresh fish with glassy eyes. Most of the seafood are probably caught or harvested on the same day and brought to the market in the early morning before sunrise.

Colourful tropical fruits of South East Asia at the Hoi An wet market including rambutans, papayas, pineapples, bananas, jackfruit, guavas and limes.

I was amazed by the varieties and colours of the local fruits even though I live in South East Asia and had seen these fruits before.

Large assortment of fresh herbs, gingers, chilli, roots and vegetables at the Hoi An wet market.

This is where we board a boat to take us to Thuan Tinh Island.

The Hoi An wet market is located by the river. After shopping at the wet market, we boarded a wooden boat for a relaxing 30 minutes ride to Thuan Tinh Island where the cooking school is located.

Scenes on way to Thuan Tinh Island.

We walked through the local village, chancing upon a water buffalo staring fiercely at us for disturbing its morning grazing. I was glad to find that it is tied up.

Young water coconut trees growing at the banks of a river in Thuan Tinh Island.

We also saw a local villager scaling up a tall betel nut palm tree. I wondered if this was part of a staged show but then probably not, since our chef continued walking and did not stop. I reckoned he was anxious to get the class going.

Motorbike laden with harvested betel nut palm fruits.

We were served ice cold passion fruit drinks once we arrived at the cooking place. Our chef explained and demonstrated how rice flour is made the traditional way using a stone mill.

We each get a chance to have a go at using the stone mill. Using the stone mill to grind the grains of rice, mixed with water, into milky liquid was a good exercise! This milky liquid is the ingredient used to make the edible rice paper for the Vietnamese spring rolls.

Our chef prepared 4 traditional Vietnamese dishes for us to learn. He demonstrated how to prepare them, and then it was our turn to prepare our own tasty Vietnamese lunch!

We each have our own cooking stations, complete with gas stove, cooking pan, and utensils. We need to do some chopping, slicing and dicing but most of the ingredients and sauces were already laid out for us by the assistants.

This was what we cooked.

Banh Xeo - Crispy Vietnamese Crepes filled with pork and shrimp, bean sprouts and green onion. Served with lettuce leaves, fresh herbs and dipping sauce.

Cooking the Banh Xeo was most fun. The procedure included a step where we had to toss the crepe into the air to flip and catch it with the frying pan. None of us dropped the crepe.

We also learnt the secret to making the fried crepes crispy. Hint: Have to keep draining the oil from the crepe every 20 seconds by tilting the pan and allow air to enter into the batter during frying.

Draining the oil from the crepe every 20 seconds by tilting the pan and allow air to enter into the batter.

Finished Banh Xeo, ready to eat with dipping sauce. 

Bun Bo Nam Bo - Herbed salad with rice vermicelli and saute beef, topped with roasted peanuts and hot soy sauce vinaigrette.

We were asked to be creative and decorate and garnish our dish the way we like.

My Bun Bo Nam Bo dish with a “gold-fish” design.

Pho Bo Hanoi - Beef rice noodle soup infused with beef bones, cinnamon, ginger and star anise.

Pho Bo Hanoi - Beef rice noodle soup infused with beef bones, cinnamon, ginger and star anise.

Traditional Vietnamese Spring Roll or Goi Cuon - Fresh Rice Paper Salad Rolls with Pork and Shrimp with a Tangy Peanut Hoisin Dipping Sauce.

Goi Cuon

After every dish, we sat to enjoy what we cooked before attempting the next dish. This is one tour that should be done with an empty stomach as there is quite a lot of delicious food to eat and free flow of cold passion fruit drink.

At the end of the class, we were each given a simple kitchen tool as a souvenir and the recipes of the dishes we learnt. We were then transferred back to our hotel by van.  We could have come to the cooking place by van instead of boat but I think the boat ride was a nice way to see Hoi An.

The weather in Hoi An was unbearably warm in the afternoon during September. The best thing to do after a hearty meal was to take a short nap in our air-conditioned hotel room before heading out to explore Hoi An ancient town and riverside in the evening when it is cooler.

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