Hoi An, Viet Nam | The Town of Nostalgia - Day 1

Hello everyone! How was your Lunar New Year holiday going? Lacking of posts recently so I shall wish you the best of luck, health and happiness this Year of Monkey at the beginning of this post haha.

To start a great year, I made a trip to the Middle part of Vietnam. And Hoi An, a place that blew my mind away. As a habit, you will know if I like certain city or not depending on whether I'd want to live there or not. So far in the list, Hoi An has taken the second place (the first belongs to Vienna).


Hoi An is a special town, at least it is to me. It brought a combination of peaceful, loving and wonderful sensations when I walked down its little streets. For the first half hour, I couldn't believe my eyes, everything was so breathtaking to me. Before stepping my feet to this town, Hoi An was very, what's the right word, 'opaque' in my mind. I knew it exists but the thought of travelling to this city was never a goal I think I should accomplish, such a pity right? But then again, because I completely underestimated it so much, it blew my freaking mind haha.

Transportation 

We arrived at Hoi An in the afternoon, after 40 minutes riding the scooter from Da Nang City following the coastal street that was called 4 names depending on which part was belonged to which communes (☉_☉). It was a pretty long trip since we always wondered when the hell we were gonna reach Hoi An and surprisingly the distance was only 30-ish km.

Initially, we were gonna take the bus there, but riding the scooter was more convenient and at no cost (except for gas) cos our friend lent it to us (thank you thank you). You can rent one of your own but for me it was too expensive for a day really, 150.000VND/day without gas (about US$6.5). 

There were other options, by bus or taxi. 

• If you'd like to take the bus, which is low cost, comfortable, economical and safe, then you can go to Danang Central Bus Station, located at 159 Tôn Đức Thắng Street, Da Nang. The price ticket is about 20.000VND (less than US$1), and takes about 1 hour to Hoi An. But you gotta take in account the cost travelling from your hotel to the bus station.

• If you'd want a faster, convenient (reaching the front door of your hotel/homestay), taxi is also an option. I'd recommend this if you travel with another 3 people, you can share the cost and of course the benefits it comes with. But only taking Tien Sa Taxi, the yellow cab or Mai Linh Taxi, the green cab for your best interests, other taxis could be good but you don't know if they had done funny things with the money metrics and made the price ridiculous. The cost is 300.000~400.000VND.   

*I have researched more about the option where you can rent a car to Hoi An from Da Nang with a fixed price but it varies a lot, from 220.000VND to 300.000VND but I don't know if anyone who speaks English can communicate with the drivers. I'll update the info soon so stay tuned!

Accomodation

We stayed at Hoa Phong Lan Homestay (Orchid Homestay). This place is superb, perfect for the price. You should contact them directly to get a cheaper price, we booked a room for 2 for 550.000VND a night, Booking.com's price was 716.000VND (which was US$32). They speak English so don't hesitate! The location was really close to the central Hoi An, like 5 minutes walk through a very busy market. It'd be an interesting experience passing the market trust me haha

My lovely Hoi An

One of the reason I like Hoi An because I was lucky to be walking on its streets with no cost at all. During the time we were there, the tourists were able to enter the central area without paying 80.000VND/Vietnamese and 120.000VND/foreigners (the ticket should be kept for the next entry during your stay, like multiple entries).  

The best way, ok not the best, but an alternative way to go around Hoi An is by bicycle. Luckily, our accommodation provided one free bike for each room, we also took one for free cos the guests were not using them (really nice hospitality eh?). But if you have to rent, the receptionist told me the rent would cost 20.000VND/day (like less than US$1). But I have to confess that sometimes the bikes are the burdens, the darker it gets, the more crowded the streets are. You just can't stay on the bike's seat for 2 seconds because there will be people standing in your way. I wanted to dump it somewhere and walk around. Gosh!

But, fortunately, you can leave the bike anywhere you fancy, lock the bike and you're free to go. But as an authentic Saigonese, I was worried sick thinking the bikes would get stolen and therefore kept whining to my friend we should take the bikes back to the homestay (I'm so annoying). But nothing happened so I confirm you can leave it anywhere, just remember to lock it!

Colors of Hoi An

We walked for a while and decided to rest a bit, I wanted to go to a special place, Reaching Out Teashouse but the place was all packed so we chose Hoi An Roastery instead.

- 135 Tran Phu, Hoi An Old Quarter -

I ordered egg coffee. That's right, they put egg yolk in the coffee, a special Vietnamese coffee that I've never tried so I did. It was really sweet but somewhat quite ok to drink.

My friend was like "urghh too sweet" haha, more coffee for me then. The place overall was very nice and cozy, but for me it was a little bit too pricey. Probably because I don't really associate Hoi An as a an expensive destination but in reality, I was surprised how much I spent for it alone. 

The street food is told to be one of the highlight  of Hoi An so we decided to try some Vietnamese sweet desert. 10.000VND for each like that small bowl she was holding in her hands. 

Hoi An is famous for its tailor boutique, you can get the style you wish done in the next day for the price of around 350.00VND to more than 800.000VND. But for that much of money, I have my own source back in Saigon so I was looking for another alternative. A small shop that once I read about that sells jumpsuit, dresses, pants for less than 100.000VND. I was told to find it near the Market, with no other information, it seemed really hopeless at one point. But then at when I was about to give up, I found it.

The street where I found the shop

Here it is
- 15/1 Nguyen Thai Hoc, Hoi An Old Quarter -

To be fair, with that price range, the clothing was ok to wear, not like superb looking as those boutique I told you about. But you can buy more pieces with the same money spent for one tailored dress or jumpsuit. And you can find many styles in here as well, took a picture so you don't have struggles finding it like me (good friend eh? haha kidding). So next time, go find that shop with a fish name to buy more clothes if you happen to run out of it.

At dawn, hungry because of extreme excitement (the thing I found above haha) so we went for food. At first we consulted with TripAdvisor and planned to go to one of those super expensive restaurants in the very central, next to the main river to observe people putting their lanterns float on the river's surface. But the food was priced like a fine dining restaurants, even more expensive than Saigon, the taste could be good but so overpriced.

We settled for the famous and reasonably priced traditional dish of Hoi An, chicken rice. The most popular one is Bà Buội's, but at 6pm, uhm ish? There was no more left to serve. Quite disappointing, we left. Yet there was this smaller cart opposite to Bà Buội's restaurant. 

Our order 

The whole thing costed 110.000VND, we was short in change so we gave the owner 500.000VND bill. But he was like just give him 100.000VND, the other 10.000 was his lucky money gifting for us since it was Lunar New Year. We was like AWW! Definitely coming back to this cute cute restaurant again! 

- 27 Phan Chau Trinh, Hoi An - 

The name of the chicken rice restaurant. Sorry bit blurry, my cam doesn't work well in the dark :(

There was more seats walking deeper into the ally. Oh! Did I mention the iced tea was free also? 
After the feast, we walked back to the central, I managed to took some pictures of the Japanese Bridge but didn't turn out well. At least I tried.

We then slowly walked further down along the river side, discovering many many awesome street food. But since my friend was so cautious about the food hygiene, I didn't get to eat any TT___TT. Definitely coming back to try those food myself. After swallowing my throat for a few times, we turned back to walk on the Japanese Bridge. But it was too crowded, I just wanted to pass it asap, apparently there is a small temple in it.

On our way back to the homestay

We managed to visit Hoi An's distinctive chandelier shop. They were extremely visible on the street, you would run into it definitely. The price is from 100.000VND, depending on the size, you can bargain if you want but if the price is ok for you, just buy, they put a lot of hard work making the chandelier. I think it's important to put a hand preserving these cultural products. They were really lovely and would be a nice gift for your loved ones.

We didn't really want to discover more of the ancient city, partly because we were exhausted spending 6 hours walking around, partly because it was so crowded, my friend and I as introverts, like places with less or preferably no people at all haha. So we went home and rest.

Hoi An at night is extremely busy, it can't seem to have an end to the night. There was one thing we regretted not doing, going on one of the boats and make a wish with our own lanterns, let them float along the river. So if you can bargain a good price with the lantern seller, then please do it, I think it'd be a worthy experience.

Nite Nite Hoi An!
Continue with Hoi An Day 2 here!

Hoi An, Viet Nam | Reaching Out Tea House - A must Do in the old town

There was this particular place I felt I must go when visiting Hoi An, it's called Reaching Out Tea House. I knew this place thanks to Andrea Chong, a Singaporean blogger. She took breathtaking photos and that one in Reaching Out was so impressive so I thought I should do the same haha! 

The place being beautiful itself was not the surprised element. When we went in but there was no seats, I decided to come back early the next day's morning so I asked one waitress when the store opens. And she was mumbling. After a few seconds going blank, I realised the wonder of Reaching Out Tea House, that special place with that distinctive silence. What do I mean? 

Uhm... all the waitresses are mute deaf people. 

How to order

I was so confused not knowing how to communicate but they seemed to be very experienced with guests like me. She grabbed one of the menu quickly for me to look for the information I need. Ok! The opening time ... the opening time. Here it was, I looked at the waitress again, nodded to her and left quietly. She did a hand gesture, I didn't know what it was, later I guessed it meant 'Dạ!' (a very lovely, extremely formal word for Yes! in Vietnamese).

The golden spot

We arrived at 9AM sharp, the earliest customers. My aimed spot was empty and we quickly took it. There were these little wooden cubes leaving on the table next to some pencils, each was written with only necessary word for the customers' and the waitresses' conversations.

We ordered green tea, arabica coffee and some chocolate cookies. Notice the communicating cubes in the left corner?

At first when we communicate with the same waitress we met the day before, she seemed not so friendly, at least not the level I expected her to be. But then after I realised I haven't thanked her, the conversation happened so fast I didn't really have time to think of a way to react to be honest. After that, I quickly touched the thank you cube before she turned away, she then smiled brightly and did that 'Dạ!' hand gesture, for a moment, my heart skipped a beat.

Apart from the time we tried to capture that perfect moments, ok not really perfect but we tried our best haha, I felt so peaceful to the point that for me the time did stop for a while there. I cannot describe the feeling, but I definitely knew this place will always have a place in my heart. It was even more special since I knew there were still people who made all this happen had the biggest hearts. I don't know if the same thing will happen to you but I ensure there would be a magical feeling.

We were supposed to return to Danang at 10AM the latest. But I didn't know where 2 hours had gone, I guess we stopped keeping track of  the time! Someday if you ever come to Hoi An, there should be several hour well spent at Reaching Out Tea House, you know you deserve a peaceful moment sometimes in your life! 

If you have visited Reaching Out Tea House, mind if I'd like to know how was your feelings? ;) Please share with me hehe!

Reaching Out Tea House

131 Tran Phu, Hội An 84510, Việt Nam

+84 90 521 65 53

Until next wonderful café I can find, 

Love, WO. 

Nha Trang | Weekend Getaway - Day 3

Hi hi! I know it's been a month already since my last blog about Nha Trang. So I guess I should finish the story about my boring getaway hehe. Is anybody excited for it? *Yay* only myself *sob*

The last morning was a little depressed because we were approaching reality. We woke up, got ready and had another big-ass breakfast.We then went up to the pool and regretted not swimming in it for the last two days.

The plan for day 3
- Visiting Thap Ba Ponagar
- Buying Nha Trang's specialties at Chợ Đầm (Dam Market)
- Chilling at I-Resort Mineral Hot Spring
- Chilling (yet again) at Runam Cafe (unexpectedly dued to delayed flight)

Thap Ba Ponagar  

Dress code 

Since we were going to a spiritual place, I was extremely careful about our dress code.
Note: you should wear clothes which cover your shoulder, your knees (for female), and entire legs (for male). You are obliged to dress respectfully before entering any temple. Or at least bring a long scarf to cover your skin.

Location

It doesn't say the exact address, just type in google map and follow it. Or simply ask the hotel receptionist.

Thap Ba Ponagar is located 2km away from the city's central and 5km from Alana Hotel. We went with the grey route and came back with the blue one. If you want to enjoy the coastal scenery, choose blue, and if you want to see more of Nha Trang city then choose grey. My advice? Go with the blue one, shorter, more beautiful and more fuel-efficient haha. Oh and probably where you stay would be located along Tran Phu Street anyways.

Ticket price and optional tour guide

The ticket price per person was 22.000VND. There was an option for you to hire a tour guide at the ticket counter, costed 150.000VND, doesn't matter how many people in the group, it all costed the same. We didn't think we needed one but then just seeing the temples wasn't interesting because we didn't know anything about this famous historical place. Luckily, nearby there was a tourist group hiring one tour guide. And we sneakily followed them and heard the story for free (so cheap of myself haha but yeah, couldn't resist) but not all the way anyway.

Interesting facts about Thap Ba Ponagar  

 

Thap Ba Ponagar was built to worship Queen Po Ina Nagar, according to legend who was created by the sky and the sea foam, she created the Earth, rare wood, trees and rice (according to Vietnamese Wiki). She had helped the people in the very early days of Nha Trang, and make this place prosperous. She had 38 daughters, who were all became Saints. But Cham people selected three daughters along with Queen Po Ina Nagar to worship and protect their land. That's why you would see 4 temples at the highest level, the central belongs to Queen Po Ina Nagar, another three belong to Po Nagar Dara - Saint Kauthara (Khanh Hoa Province); Po Rarai Anaih - Saint Panduranga (Ninh Thuan Province) and Po Bia Tikuk - Saint Manthit (Phan Thiet Province).

Second level

The vestige has three levels, the first one was the gate which is not in usage currently, the second levels was where guests gathered and prepare gifts for Thánh Mẫu (literal translation is Saint Mother) - Queen Po Ina Nagar in special occasions; the last level includes four temples as said above.

One thing that made me really interested is the stair connected between the second level and the highest one. It is really steep, like 45 degree. If you were to bring the gift to Thánh Mẫu, you must go through this stair (this is quite hard already) and once you were done, you must also come down with the same stair but....backwards (imagine how difficult it would be). The tour guide said this rule was to test the worshiper's loyalty. I was like 'Man! That's so cool' haha. Seriously, I should have hired a tour guide.

View from the highest level

Oh and almost forgot! The coolest thing of everything is that there was no such thing as adhesive to connect the bricks together but still the temples are concrete for centuries.

We spent about 30 minutes walking around the temples. There are many people came in and out of the temples, most entered the central one. I didn't enter any, didn't know why I didn't want to either, but I definitely felt something unease, kinda weird. Tell me if you have that feeling visiting the temples haha.

We took some photos, enjoyed the peaceful, surprisingly uncrowded atmosphere and tried to listen to the history the tour guide was explaining (well she was having a loud microphone at that moment haha). We packed our stuff and on our feet again to the next stop.

Dam Market 

Taken from Google Image 

This is where people sell Nha Trang's food specialties. In my opinion, the food here, most are dried food, is not favourable by the foreigners because they are made for the locals. But if you want to buy something, try to go further into the market. The very first shops you see often set more expensive prices, targeting tourists. You can buy dried cuttlefishes with tamarind sauce (mực rim me) or mango cake (they juiced the ripe mangoes, cook until boil and press them into long sticky mango strips, it causes addiction I warn you haha).

Above: Dried cuttlefish with tamarind sauce - Below: Mango cake (without or with sesame) - Taken from Google

I bought several items, dried fishes, dried cuttlefishes. I did bargain a lot but then it only works for Vietnamese I believe, but you have bargained before, don't hesitate. My advice is to look for a seller who make you feel comfortable and warm, don't settle with the first one you see.

We then came back to the hotel, packed our stuff and checked out. We also asked the receptionists to keep our luggage for us to go to our third destination.

I-Resort Mineral Hot Spring

This was recommended by my friend who went two weeks before I did. Normally I never went to hot spring, partly the way to go there was difficult and small, partly because it was so crowded, the environment was somewhat dirty and looked creepy, well at least when I visited them. But iResort changed my perception about hot spring.

It is definitely a place to relax, soak yourself in the warm mineral spring and then take a long lazy nap. We wanted to film some videos showing you the place, but GoPro often got hot easily, we haven't figured out why, and we couldn't cool it down  by the hot spring obviously, and also we wanted to relax and enjoy our time there. I'll try to paint a good picture for you to imagine haha.

Here is a video I found on Youtube showing you how it looks like.

 

Location

Address: To 19 - Xuan Ngoc - Vinh Ngoc - Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa
Phone: +84 58 3838838
Website: www.i-resort.vn

If you thew me this address, there was no way I could find the freaking place. Nope! No! The solution is only to type it into google and follow the route, it'll get you there. If you go by taxi, do pay attention as well, see if the driver goes with the longer route making you pay more.

It's pretty far actually, took us 20 minutes to get there from our hotel but it was so worth it. We had a footage of us walking towards the reception from the parking lot.

Ticket price 

Hot Mineral  Spring
Ticket for adult was 120.000VND, for children is 60.000VND each. The price includes free towel, swimsuit (up to you to take it at the locker counter, they'll ask), and one mineral water bottle. This was the cheapest option I reckon.

Hot Mineral Mud Bath and many more services 
Overall, it was not that expensive the service. We only chose Hot Mineral Spring service, since we didn't like dipping ourselves into mud and we were pretty cheap haha.

Where to put your stuff while you're enjoying?

 

Obviously you can guess there should be lockers for you. But there were two separate area, one counter at the front and the lockers in the changing rooms. 

Remember to put your most valuable stuff at the counter, money, wallets, cameras, they would put them together in a bag and wrap it like it was a mummy. They will instruct you carefully once you're there but do pay great attention. 

And for the less valuable stuff, such as clothes and bags, they would give you a key once you're in front of the changing rooms, female on the right, male on the left. Also they will ask if you need a swimsuit (I don't think that's very hygienic, so bring your own!).

What you can do there?

Bring in your vodka and just chill haha
Even though there was a sign said you cannot bring food and drink into the hot spring area. We brought two Lemonade Smirnoff bottles (supposedly for last night but too tired and full to drink), hid them into the towel walking in and I was so scared if the security men knew haha. But it didn't seem like they care at all, we chose a pool, opened our delicious boozes and just lied down relaxing.

Dip yourselves into the wonderful hot spring
But first, I must warn you that the water is hotter than you think (well at least I thought). Don't jump in but walk slowly into the water, make time for your body to adjust to the temperature and after a while, I believe you'd find yourself in the spring of heaven.

Exploring different pools
There are hot pools (in the ground) and the cool ones (in the upper artificial mountains areas on the left). I preferred the hot ones since it's really relaxing when you come out of it.

Cover yourself with mud
It's a good option for you to relax in the bath and have small talk with your peeps in your very one personal bathing area. That's why it's more expensive.

Enjoy the massage
When I was lying the bench falling asleep and minding my own  business. One of the masseurs came and handed me the spa's brochure. I didn't know why I chose body massage and paid 300.000VND, was not expensive but inadequate to my expectation. But hey! I might have high standards, so if you wanna try then do it.

We spent 3 hours there regaining our energy. Then it was time to go back to the Nha Trang cos we wanted to go to one very special coffee place at Tran Phu Street. 

Runam Bistro Nha Trang

This restaurant chain has been very popular in Saigon but I have never gone to one since they are pricey. But passing it for a few days riding around Tran Phu Street, it was so beautiful so we both wanted to experience it. And it was exceptional, the place, the atmosphere, the view, the interior, the combination was perfect. I didn't pay much attention to the drinks and food but most visitors in Trip Advisor said even though the taste was good but overall quite expensive. But I understand because it is really a luxurious place and most of the guests I saw were middle class people (at least they look like they were) so you gotta expect such price range. Anyway if you have time to kill like we did  (our flight was delayed for 2 hours) then I really recommend this place. 

Pretty blurry sorry T___T

We ordered an affogato and a vanilla milkshake. The bill was almost 200.000VND I remembered. 

We sat for another 1 hour and it was time for us to return the scooter. Then we caught the late airport bus and on our way to our flight to Saigon boohooo. 

Nha Trang, even though was a very familiar place for myself but coming back to it at different age gave me different feeling. With everything it offers, the culture, the nature and the people, it is definitely a place that you should sometimes in your life experience it hehe. 
And finally I hope you like my travel diary and find it useful. If there is any question about Nha Trang, please ask I'd be glad to help you! 

Here is my Nha Trang Getaway Day 1 (Click here) and Nha Trang Getaway Day 2 (Click here) if you haven't checked them out.