Hoi An buying snow

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Hoi An buying snow

I was approached by Mike from the Hoiannow. Do read his account on the Cyclos of Hoi An below. But I quickly changed my mind about that when I got on my first cyclo tour around the historic town of Hoi An. While at first, I felt a bit lazy as I watched more ambitious cyclists pedal around, I figured out quickly that I could grow accustomed to the cushy seat and royal treatment…hidden away in my private, covered cabin while everyone else wasted valuable energy on transporting their increasingly weary bodies. Just before this transformation — from commoner to prince — took place, my translator Kiet and I met our drivers. There we had to decide whether we wanted to tour the Old Town , head out into the countryside, or venture to the beach and Tra Que vegetable village. We opted for the Old Town and hopped into our private carriages with a corresponding feeling of entitlement. Just as we were setting off, the mockingly full clouds decided to burst — and my visions of a dry, lazy drive through the charming Old Town were shattered. That is until our trusted drivers pulled out the rain gear and sealed us up as snug as could be inside our cyclos. The back and sides were sealed with heavy plastic and my legs were covered with another sturdy tarp, allowing me to savour the scenery from my safe, warm, and effortless ride through the narrow streets. I sat in dry splendour on my throne, watching other tourists frantically pull on their plastic ponchos and get soaked in the steady rain. Those poor saps on bikes, or — heaven forbid — their feet! Such a pity. They could use a good cyclo, I thought rather smugly. Our first destination was the Tran family chapel, which is still possessed by the ancestors of its original Mandarin owner. Built-in , this well-preserved home consists of only three small rooms. We were given a mini-tour that explained the important architectural and culturally significant features of the house. Then it was time to shuffle us into an area for buying souvenirs. We were dry and warm in our comfortable seats and found the town much more charming from that view. Because aside from the Hoi An museum, not much is written about the buildings at each site — so all we could do was take a look and enjoy the art and architecture before getting into our cosy cyclos again. Apparently, to get the full learning experience, visitors should ask for a tour guide at the Information Center. Their guide can explain the history behind these buildings with better accuracy than the small information placards at each home, communal house, and assembly hall. The show at the Hoi An Art Craft and Manufacturing Workshop was a real treat — but get there early for a seat as it can get pretty packed! Showtimes are at am, pm, and pm; when the shows are not on, visitors can wander around the interior and browse the souvenir shops set up in a village market style. Throughout the trip, I had a growing curiosity about the lives of the cyclo drivers, especially as they were lugging me and my heavy backpack around plus countless other cumbersome loads throughout the day. His prior cyclo life involved transporting fish to the market. I can only hope I was a less smelly passenger! Thank is such a mainstay of the cyclo community that his cyclo registration number is ! I was so honoured to have the very first cyclo as my guide. The bike is actually very comfortable and extremely easy to use. The guys can cruise along quite easily in these babies — especially as Hoi An is fairly flat. An hour to the two-hour tour cost , per person plus the cost of the entrance ticket at , VND. I hope you like it! Heaven in a dynamic, diverse and exciting country. What an incredible opportunity that I. In the Overberg town of Kleinmond roams a herd of feral horses. These majestic beasts live a life of freedom, their dark manes flowing in the wind. My story on The Wild Horses of Kleinmond,. While in Hoi An at the moment I wanted to follow your advice and go for a cyclo tour. It really surprised me when I learnt about the price they charge: , VND for 20min around old town! I could negotiate them down to k for 20min, but they refused to add time or get any lower. Thank you for your comment, and for reading my blog post. Forgive the delay in my response, I was actually in Saigon for a few days. I do love Vietnam. Regarding the cyclos tour, I imagine that the costs will be higher near the most popular tourist attractions. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The Incidental Tourist is a Personal Travel Blog of a conscious traveller with a deep love for Africa, its incredible people and the environment. Here I bring you narratives, stories, video and photographs from my travels around the globe, including accounts of gorilla trekking in Uganda, turtle rescue in Kenya, tree planting in Zambia and setting up a temporary home in Lisbon. Not to mention falling in love with Marjorelle Blue in Marrakech. Included too are accommodation and restaurant reviews, as well as details of the conservation efforts that I support. A self proclaimed earth advocate and beauty seeker, I invite you to share in my love of sustainable impact travel — and the rich offerings of our beautiful world. With a long career as a Dream Holiday Maker, I can assist with travels arrangements to any of these areas too. Facebook Pinterest Linkedin Instagram Youtube. Home Destinations Africa. Three tips for travelling the world as an engaged couple. Iconic for a reason: What not to miss when planning your trip to South Africa. My 7 Recommended Iconic Thailand Experiences. Three unusual venues for your show-stopping wedding. The Americas. Cruising in a timeless carriage: Cyclos of Hoi An. By Guest Post. Tags Cycling , Hoi An , Vietnam. Share this article. More Articles. South Korea Seoul. A city of pop culture and connectivity. The Wild Horses of Kleinmond. They Maybe I went to the wrong place to find a driver? It was close to teh Japanese bridge. Thanks for your advice, Heike. Hey there Heike Thank you for your comment, and for reading my blog post. Either way, enjoy that wonderful city, and Vietnam, and thank you for reading. Warmest, Dawn. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Dawn Bradnick Jorgensen. My interview with Earth Chats. July 1, No Comments. The Incidental Tourist. Travel Better, Not Less. Follow me on social media. Search my blog. Follow me on twitter. Tweets by DawnJorgensen. Follow me on Facebook. Sign up to my newsletter. First Name. Last Name.

VIETNAM – Day trip exploring the old town of Hoi An; a UNESCO site

Hoi An buying snow

One by one other backpackers either get in a cab or walk off to their hostel, until I was the only one left. The architecture is very old-school and you get a very different vibe from the fairly modern Nha Trang or the beach town feel of Mui Ne. This is no doubt a place of culture, of which I know none. Basically I just have to follow along this river, where a lot of oldies are already up doing their daily dose of fishing. Good job! By the time I arrive at my hostel, I was pretty tired, not to mention hungry. I will be exploring more of their culture and relics on another day. Today is mostly about getting a hang of the Old Town and getting a taste of two things that Hoi An is known for — local specialties and tailoring. I have no idea how tailoring became the lifeblood of the town, but there are literally hundreds of tailors in Hoi An, all concentrated within the Old Town area. Going a little off the tradition of my blogs, which is to do coverage day by day, I will cover all the clothing related content in this post. Therefore, within this post I will talk about my experiences with tailors in Hoi An, and tips I can pass you to you guys, in addition to other stuff I did during the day. The best advice I can give you is do your research and come prepared. I was fully committed to get a fair amount of clothing done here so no expenses were spared when it came to research. The leather shoes I use for work have all but worn out so I was in the market for some quality leather shoes. Therefore, I was fairly excited when I heard Hoi An also has expert shoemakers that can make affordable but quality leather shoes. Roni is the name of the wife, takes care of the sales and speaks excellent English, while her husband is the shoemaker. As soon as I stepped in, I was greeted by a smiling Roni who handed me a chilled bottle of water. As I will soon find out later, this is standard customer service in any clothing shop in Hoi An, but not knowing this at first I thought they were just super friendly, which definitely gave me a good impression of them, especially since it was a super hot day. She sat me down and gave me two giant catalogues of different kinds of leather shoes for me to browse through. The shop itself also has many shoes on display so you can get a feel of their finished products. Plus they were so friendly, although you should take this with a grain of salt when it comes to salespeople. Still, I really thought I hit the jackpot when it came to shoes in Hoi An. I lost my Havianas at the White Sand Dunes and b. I wanted a pair of sturdy thongs since they are fairly prone to breaking apart, so a leather pair seemed like a good investment. Her husband the shoemaker then traced out my feet on a piece of paper so he can make the shoes according to the shape of your feet. After that I gave her my preferences on certain aspects of the shoe, namely the colour of the laces and specified that I wanted the tip to be pointy rather than round. It took two fitting sessions after the initial measurements to get the fit right, as they were initially far too tight. I have no idea how they loosened the shoes, as I can understand if it was too lose they can just cut it down, but how they go other way around? Maybe they just started from scratch again, but that seems like a waste. This review is purely based off my experience actually wearing the shoes for about 3 months, which mainly involves me wearing it to, from and during work in an office, so what I consider standard usage of leather shoes. Firstly, the leather quickly wrinkles and fades. Now I know all leather wrinkles but this is on another level. In comparison, the old pairs I had from Florsheim took almost a year to reach this state. Secondly, the construction seems shoddy. Both the heel and the outsole the part that comes in contact with the ground on the bottom of the shoes started falling off or peeling away. This happened on literally the first day I wore this to work, as I could feel something coming off the shoes, which at first I thought was gum or rubbish stuck to my shoes. In comparison, my old Florsheim shoes never had this problem, but the part sticking the outsole to the rest of the shoe did rip in a few places after 2 years of wearing them. Thirdly, is there such thing as ventilation for closed shoes? But with these pairs my socks were drenched in sweat by the end of the day and feels disgusting. Lastly, and most importantly, they are not fucking pointy!!! I know this may be nitpicking but I did specifically ask for the pointy style, which is also what the catalogues showed. So technically this is false advertising -. I actually just gave up on this pair and bought a new pair from Florsheim during their Black Friday sale. However, I can only review based on my honest opinion, which was a thorough disappointment. On a side note, the leather thongs did turn out decently. It feels very sturdy and I think the construction is very durable as I wore it for the rest of the trip. Think of the difference between stepping on carpet vs. So the rest of the day was spent wandering around the Old Town on my bike, visiting the big tailor shops I mapped out in advance. On the way I stopped at various shops to try out some local food. The first stop was literally just a small cart on the side of the road that caught my attention. She had a simple menu and a makeshift kitchen, and quickly pumped out a nice plate of pork chops and eggs over broken rice for me. After another stop at a tailor, I went down to the local market in Hoi An which can be found towards the eastern end of the Old Town. I just picked up a freshly made juice of a bunch of fruits I can no longer remember and had a look around. Like most markets in Vietnam, the front is a collection of food and drink stalls while the back are for goods. I was a little overwhelmed now by the amount of freaking clothes I been looking at, and could not make a decision on which tailor to go to. I have extreme difficulty with making decisions, no matter how small, so I figured the best way to go is to take a rest first. They asked me if I wanted to join their beer pong tournament of because they only had 7 people, not enough to form 4 pairs. Yeah fuck it whatever why not. Got myself paired up with an American guy called Dominic, who just got discharged from the US Navy as an engineer and is taking a trip around the world before finding another career. We each put in 20k dong to the pot and the tournament is under its way. Is 2 pm too early in the afternoon to be playing beer pong? Should I be here doing this rather than making use of my limited time in a foreign country? Either way with our combined might Dominic and I made it to the finals, against the boss duo who are also the bartenders at the hostel. These guys are your typical tattooed-hippie-traveler-hermit-vagabond type people with dreadlocks and has surfing for a hobby seriously not kidding , but they seem like the resident champion that enjoys making money off waves of tourists that come here. But they did not anticipate a fearsome foe that is ore-sama, and after a tense match we rekt their ass to pocket a cool k dong. Not used to being bested by the best, they offered a rematch of double or nothing, and the stage is set for…. Fresh off making a killing hustling, I went back out to the town ready to spend my well earned cash. Again this includes information from various fitting sessions I did over next few days, but all condensed here for practical purposes. It was fairly busy when I visited around pm, with plenty of other travelers so a good sign! Around the store you can see various suits and dresses on display, as well as a range of fabrics for you to feel out. I told her what I wanted, starting off with a suit and business shirts. The next step is to choose the style and colour I want. Yeah this took a fucking long time as she handed me an iPad with all the different styles tbh a lot of them looked the same. In the end I chose a grey suit, as I already had the staples at home of black and blue suits. She pulled out a huge booklet filled with samples of different shirt fabrics. So while it was easy for me to choose a material full cotton, always go with full cotton imo for shirts, worth the relatively small price upgrade from polyester or a blend , there was so much more variety of not only colour, but the weave of the fabric too. Weave basically means how the strings of the fabric was put together to make cloths, which is then made into shirts. I actually recommend CT for shirts if you have a fairly standard body structure. They also do a free returns to help you get the sizing right. So yeah fml it took a while but I was able to ultimately decide on 5 shirts of various colours and weaves. After that the pants and coat was much easier to choose. Then comes the measurements, as one of the tailors will get a measuring tape and go all around your body. You can probably get more if you were more adamant, but I was pretty tired at that point. Luckily, I found a solution after some online sleuthing, which may come handy for you guys one day too. The ATM you want to use is for the Military Bank, which not only has no withdrawal fees, it also has a daily withdrawal limit of 10m dong! You can see the in-house tailors working in the floor above the showroom, so that gives you some level of comfort on the quality. Given how they are also all women, you can get a sense of how important tailoring is in providing opportunities in this town. Fear not, as the tailors here have obviously prepared their infrastructure to cater to the foreigners who come here to get their clothes made. Mine was about 7. They actually arrived in less than 15 days, as they were already delivered to my house by the time I flew back to Sydney. As always, the customer service is excellent. After wearing the clothes for 3 months, my honest opinion is that the clothes were very good. In terms of the individual items:. Could I have gotten all these for cheaper at a smaller tailor? So on the actual day of this post, I just paid the deposit and left the order with them at about pm. After spending 3 hours making all these gut-wrenching decisions and discussions such as what shade of grey I want for my suit, my mouth was pretty dry. Therefore, it is entirely possible not to buy any water during your time in Hoi An. I ordered the Hoi An local specialty called cao lau , which is a type of thick noodle kinda like udon noodles served dry with bean sprouts fuck , pork and crackling. These noodles are the ones supposedly made from the water of the Ba Le Well I mentioned earlier, so they say that authentic cao lau can only be found in Hoi An. The sauce was easily the most amazing part of this dish, and the tangy noodles does a good job of soaking up the sauce too. This family-run restaurant is called Bon Restaurant and its location is shown below. The restaurant is very close to the Sunflower Hotel, which is I believe the number 1 rated hostel in Hoi An. Being literally a 2 minute walk, I decided to go check it out to see what I missed out on. The atmosphere was very rowdy and jam packed with your typical white backpacker drinking their kidneys away. FOMO cured. They sell a variety of different pork rolls, and you can watch the staff make them from different kinds of pork and fillings. It was good. It was even great. While the meat was tasty, I feel like they shoved in too much filling and at times it was a bit greasy and difficult to eat without making a mess. This night market runs everyday after dark I believe, and is attended by locals and tourists alike. The main entry point is the Bridge of Lights, and on the other side is a looooong stretch of stalls for both random souvenirs and food. It was not fun trying to get my bike across the bridge. Even better its not those basic carnival games but traditional Vietnamese games, and they are all found along the riverbank. Starting off with this one where you toss rings on small mystery prizes, okay I guess this one is pretty common all around the world. Next door is this game, the aim seems to be balance yourself on the bamboo and hit the drum at the end. Seems quite easy but most of the kids that attempted were unsuccessful. This game seemed quite fun, they dangle a little flower pot and the aim is for you to take a look, then approach it blindfolded from some distance away with a bat try to smash it. You only get one swing, so you need to get the distance and height perfectly right to win. All except this one, which seems to be a type of Vietnamese bingo with a bit of random activities thrown in. For the life of me I could not figure out how it worked, and the white guys that participated looked equally clueless. After all the games, you can turn left into a street full of random stalls selling trinkets and souvenirs. Most of them are not worthy of any attention, so I recommend you just skip them. The only ones worth your time are the stalls showcasing local artisanship, such as these beautiful lanterns Hoi An is famous for. Search for:. While there are hundreds of tailors, most small shops do not have their own in-house tailors, but send their order to factories on the city outskirts. Only some of the bigger shops have their own tailors Bigger shops will of course be more expensive than smaller shops, but I believe they are worth it since it will still be significantly cheaper than any western country. This does mean you have to make your decisions quickly upon arriving so the tailors can get to work ASAP. Therefore, I recommend you do what I did, skip all the small shops and do a round of the bigger shops on the day you arrive. Tell them if you want something tigheter or looser, longer or shorter, etc. Note that these prices are in USD, as this is the currency they are likely to quote you on apart from dong. So how did the shoes do? Not great at all. It was cheap and delicious, so definitely a great find randomly on the streets. My haul for the day, not including those I finished in the store. Look how far it stretches! Share this: Twitter Facebook. Like Loading Comment Reblog Subscribe Subscribed. Poor Man's Backpack. Sign me up. Already have a WordPress. 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Hoi An buying snow