Danang Day 2 - Hoi An here we come!

 it's Hoi An and not Ha Noi!

Hội An is a city on Vietnam’s central coast known for its well-preserved Ancient Town which is cut through with canals. (it reminded me of our Singapore River and Clarke Quay) The former port city’s melting-pot history is reflected in its architecture, a mix of eras and styles from wooden Chinese shophouses and temples to colorful French colonial buildings, ornate Vietnamese tube houses and the iconic Japanese Covered Bridge with its pagoda.

You will need to pay an entrance fee when you reach the Ancient town where I think partly goes to the preservation of this town.

The ride from our hotel to Hoi An was approximately 1.5 hours drive. The cab driver charged us $500k for 5 hours including ride there and back plus waiting time. It's pretty long so it's best to buy drinks and snacks to keep children occupied on the trip. This charming village is full of quaint shops (i love the handmade shops), local cuisine restaurants and some places even offer cooking classes, or signing up for local farm tours and basket boat eco tours.

 above: sunny hot afternoon in Hoi An and we are in search of Morning Glory, not the flower but the restaurant.

Thanks to google maps, we found it quickly and walked briskly into the restaurant. We ordered 2 servings of fried spring rolls, claypot fish in caramel sauce, five spiced pork belly that came with a plate of rice and pork stuffed squid which was simply delicious.

above: the boys really enjoyed eating the 5 spiced pork belly. My total bill came up to $760k viet dong.

 above: after lunch, a walk down the Ancient Town. Good thing we packed caps for the boys!

 above: quilling art magnets for souvenirs.

above: there were many shophouses that had puppet shows, theatrical acts, lantern making classes to occupy your time when you visit. But with 2 very young boys whose attention span is like a mere 5mins....we just had to give all these attractions a miss.

above: we spent about a good 4 hours at the Ancient Town before we headed back to a supermarket to stock up on drinks and snacks. The next night we were going up Bana hills and hubs is very afraid that we wouldn't be able to find anything to eat there. He says he feels a bit "safer" when we had potato chips, beer and 4 cups of instant noodles in our luggage before heading up the hills.... >_<

above: the kids love the car ride at the supermarket...and what we bought from the supermarket. I went crazy with all the tidbits and spent $823k viet dong here! Cab back to my hotel was about $50k viet dong.

and our last night here at Fusion Suites Danang, so hubs bought a crab, squid (sotong), huge clams, BBQ prawns (because James loved it) and 2 packets of seafood fried rice. This time round, the bill came up to approx $50SGD which i thought it's very affordable!

The kids had fried rice in front of the telly because it had their favourite disney channel. They didn't want to get out of the hotel room because of the Disney channel so we had no choice but to tabao our dinner back for them.

ritey ho. stay tuned for my post on Bana Hills - French Village!