Vietnam - Part IV: The Hoi An Hotel

After another long, chaotic drive back from Halong City and another day and night in Hanoi we jetted off for Hoi An, a small city in central Vietnam on the coast of the South China Sea.

We arrived late in the evening only to discover that the hotel room we booked online had been taken.  The hotel apologized citing they didn't get the online booking until it was too late, and sent us to another hotel, aptly named, The Hoi An Hotel.  We ended up staying there for the next four nights. 

Finally, a swimming pool!!!  I spent the next two days relaxing,  swimming, reading one of three books I finished over the holiday, and doing virtually nothing.  Our room came with a free buffet breakfast so we didn't even have to head out to do anything until the afternoon, this was a good thing as the weather was hot and humid most days. 

The hotel was within walking distance to the ancient town, a bustling place full of motorcycles, bicycles, street tailors, shoe-makers, shops, food stalls, restaurants and a morning market. 

Hoi An is known for two specialty dishes, the White Rose, a type of shrimp dumpling made from translucent white dough bunched up to look like a rose, and Cao lầu, a noodle dish traditionally topped with special water from the city well, pork, fresh herbs and veggies. 

I can say that the food in Hoi An was the best we had in Vietnam by far.  My favorite find was at a beautiful little garden cafe by the river (pictured left) called Brother Cafe, their banana flower salad (pictured right) was made of banana flowers, chili, herbs, lime, topped with peanuts and served on fluffy prawn-like crackers - it was dee-licous! 

I think I could really get used to this life.