Day 2. We departed from hotel earlier than the day before (at 9.00 am), because we will go to Hoi An, just about 40 minutes drive from Da Nang. Our original tour schedule was going to Hoi An at evening only, and since we wanted to go shopping we asked the tour guide to let us stay longer in Hoi An. We didn’t want to miss shopping in Hoi An. They are famous for good tailor and leather stuff.
We had our breakfast too. Today, I tried Cha Ga (Chicken Roll) from traditional food corner. It tasted good. Don’t be surprised, I ate other thing too for breakfast, not only this, but this one is the local and interesting food to be noticed lol.
On the way to Hoi An, we passed through resort area in Da Nang. This city also famous for its beach. There are many good resort along the beach line with beautiful beach. Me and my husband already decided, for the next trip here we need to stay at the resort and enjoy the beach. One of interesting place there is Crown Plaza Resort. It is a casino area, just like Macau. The tour guide told us that many Chinese people are coming here and gambling.
When we arrived at Hoi An, we directly went to old town. Once you enter Hoi An, there are many shops for tailoring and leather products actually, but the good one is located inside the old town (according to our tour guide). We need to buy entrance ticket, the price is 120.000 vnd/person. We only need to buy 1 time per Hoi An visit. For example if we buy in the morning then we go somewhere and come back at evening, we don’t need to buy another ticket. Or another example if we stay for 10 days in Hoi An (or Da Nang) only need to buy 1 ticket and we can go in and out many times. Cars are not allowed inside old town, only pedestrians and bikes. There are many shops inside the old town, and the most important thing is you need to bargain. The shops in old city of Hoi An open at 9.30 am and close at 8.00 pm.
We stopped at one of the good tailor, Aobaba. It’s a family business and very famous. They have good reviews on Tripadvisor as well. The price depends on what model you want and what material is used. I made an Ao Dai (traditional Vietnamese clothes) with lace material and full lining, and it costed me US $110. They can finish it in 1 day. If u go in the morning, it can finish in the evening. Even if they couldn’t finished it (because of wrong measurement or anything else), they provide free delivery for Vietnam cities as well.
After spending some time in Aobaba and chose the clothes we want, we finally moved to another point of interest inside old city. National Heritage House. There is no entrance fee. Once you were inside, someone from the family will come to serve tea and to explain the history of the house. By the end of the house, there is a souvenir shop.
These are the view behind the heritage house :
Next stop was a leather shop named Misu. One of the good quality leather shop according to our tour guide. I ordered a backpack, customized model and size. Also can pick the leather I want to use. After all set, we did a price negotiation. Opening price was US $115, then I did some bargain to reach final price US $89. It can be done in 1 day as well, just like the clothes. I asked her how much is the delivery cost to send a bag to Ho Chi Minh City, and she said 200.000 vnd. I was thinking since I have her email, maybe someday if I want to make a bag, I can just send the picture and details to her. To make a customize bag, make sure you have the detailed measurement.
There is another shop that is good for leather. We walked pass by it, and it looks better than Misu. Maybe next time I will try making at this shop.
We went for lunch at Goda restaurant. A Vietnamese restaurant. The foods were so-so. My favorite was crispy fried onion, so yummy!
After lunch, we continued our journey to My Son (world cultural heritage). The trip took around 1 hour. It is a good historical building, there are many temple tower but we only saw a few. My suggestion is take a tour guide if you want to go there. That way you can get more information and explanation about the site.
Our next plan was supposed to visit a vegetable farm, but it was raining so hard so we cancelled it and go straight to Hoi An. We needed to pick up our order and to see lantern as well. Hoi An is very beautiful especially at night, a lot of lantern in many color. Also, it’s busier in the evening. Many people will offer you to release a lantern in the river. We didn’t do it. We had that experience before when we were in Hue. Another thing is a fruit seller. When we were taking picture on the bridge, there was 1 fruit seller that came to us and asked us to hold on her basket. “For picture. No Money”. We took it. She even lend us her non la (traditional hat in Vietnam). After we finished, we gave all back to her and said thank you. She didn’t ask for money, BUT she asked us to buy her fruit, and a bit forceful. We didn’t buy any. Just said thank you and we walked away. Apparently, there are many fruit seller will do that. Be careful of your belongings. They might touch you when they offer the basket, but don’t worry. Just say no, and keep walking. I did feel uncomfortable with their way of offering things. There was one time when a fruit seller came to me, touched my shoulder and asked me to get her basket for picture. I said NO nicely a couple times, but she kept forcing and I got upset and raised my voice. Not a good one, but anyway.. they need to learn a limit in offering something.
Across the bridge is new town of Hoi An. To the right and on the left-hand side there is night market of Hoi An. There are lantern sellers here. I was tempted to buy one but after a long debate with myself (yes, sometime I did that..) I decided not to buy it. There are other stalls as well, selling many kind of cute stuff. It was raining when we were there, so we were kind of lazy to stroll and checking out each stall.
I heard that restaurant along the riverside is not that good so we tried the one across the market. We tried Quan Ca Phe Hue. Food was okay. Their banh xeo is good, especially the sauce.
On the way back to old city we saw the Japanese bridge again but this time with the lights on, very charming. Don’t forget to take picture with it as well 😉
Before we reached hotel, I asked the tour guide to stop somewhere near the river where I can see Dragon Bridge. I really want to take picture of that bridge. And so she took us somewhere around dragon bridge’s tail. After I got back to hotel, I found out that every Saturday at 9.00 pm the head of the dragon will shoot fire then water as well. It was Sunday already, I missed it 😦
For day 3 (last day), the tour guide suggested us to wear walking shoes because we are gonna do a lot of walking >.< Good luck my legs and feet!
tastymonial 