Exploring the old quarter of Hoi An

The next morning I slept in and had breakfast in the hostel. Since I needed a break after the last few days, when I was always on the go from morning to evening, I couldn’t start the day directly with activities in Hoi An, so I spent the morning in the hostel first.

Around two o’clock in the afternoon, I went out to have a look at the area a bit better. However, it was so warm that I returned to the hostel relatively quickly and decided not to go again until the afternoon when it got a little cooler.

Shortly before four I left again and made my way to the old town. This was about 1.5 kilometers away from the hostel. As soon as I got there, I was immediately hooked. It was pretty crowded, but there were colorful shops and coffee shops everywhere. In the old town I met someone I had met in the hostel the night before. We looked at the market and strolled through the streets of the old town.

We split up after a while as I wanted to stay in town for a while longer to take some photos. When the sun went down, I went back to the hostel.

In the evening I went to a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. After dinner I went back to the old town, since the lights and numerous lanterns were on everywhere. Especially the light of the lanterns made everything look very romantic. When I finally got back to the hostel, it was already 10 pm, which is why I went to sleep.

Exploring the rice fields on a bicycle

The next morning I got up a little earlier than the day before. After breakfast I borrowed a bike from the hostel. I had heard that there were numerous beautiful rice fields outside of Hoi An’s city center. So, of course, it was much more suitable to ride a bike than a scooter.

But I quickly regretted that I had borrowed a bicycle instead of a scooter. It was extremely warm, so of course it was incredibly tiring to ride a bike. Especially when it went uphill.

I really wanted to go to Lò gạch cũ cầu tre, an old brick factory in the middle of the rice fields. I found this spot a few weeks ago through Instagram and, as far as I know, it is not yet well known to tourists. To get there, I had to drive 10 kilometers. When I finally arrived after more than half an hour, I was pretty exhausted. Right next to Lò gạch cũ cầu tre there is a small café, where I took a break.

Finally I looked at the old brick factory. After all, it’s just a tower that you can climb up via a stairway on the side. It’s definitely a cool photo spot, especially since there weren’t many other people there besides me.

When I finally felt ready to continue cycling through the heat, I made my way to some more rice fields. It was really nice to cycle through the green fields there. But in the end I was much too warm, so I drove back to the hostel at some point. I spent a while there in the air-conditioned room before I drove off again in the afternoon.

Back to the old quarter of Hoi An

I first drove back to the old town and strolled through the streets of Hoi An there again. In the meantime I sat down in the famous Faifo Coffee Café and drank a coconut coffee there. This café has a rooftop terrace overlooking the streets of the old town of Hoi An.

After my break in the café, I actually wanted to see a few more temples in the old town. But since they all cost an entry fee and weren’t that special, I decided not to visit them.

When I was cycling in the rice fields at noon, I had seen a local market in the streets, which I now wanted to check out. The market was another 3 kilometers away from the old town. But since it wasn’t too warm in the meantime, it wasn’t a problem to cycle the distance. However, I have to admit that in the end the market wasn’t as interesting as I had initially hoped. The market in the old town was much nicer.

The Lanterns of Hoi An

So I drove back to the hostel. When it got dark, I drove back into town because I really wanted to see the colorful lights in the town again before I left the next day.

After visiting the old town for the fourth time, I went to dinner at the same restaurant where I had eaten two nights earlier. There, at the table next to me, was an elderly Australian who had emigrated to Vietnam a while ago and now has a wine shop in Hoi An. I had a really nice chat with him. After dinner I actually wanted to take the time to edit pictures and write blog texts. However, I got stuck with numerous documentaries on YouTube and I had to postpone editing the pictures until the next day.

Joining the basket boat tour

But before I could devote myself to editing pictures and writing blog texts the next day, I borrowed a bike after breakfast. Since I only wanted to drive 5 kilometers to the famous Coconut Village, a scooter was not worth the price for me. So I cycled five kilometers through the heat again.

The entry to Coconut Village cost 30K Dong. The village itself isn’t really interesting as there are only a few tourist shops there. However, what is interesting is the Basket Boat Tour that you can do across the water. There you sit with one of the locals in a small wooden bowl shaped like a coconut and then you are paddled across the water. The price for the Basket Boat Tour cost another 150K Dong.

A local lady then paddled me across the water. Unfortunately she couldn’t speak English, but what she could say was „photo, photo“. Again and again she stopped somewhere, took my phone and then took numerous pictures of me. First we paddled between the reeds until we finally came to a lake where everything was like a party. Loud music was playing and a few Vietnamese were singing on a stage in the middle of the water. Then around the stages were a few of the basket boats with the tourists who watched the show.

There was also someone on the water who was spinning around in the boat the whole time. You could also sit in the boat and spin around for 100K dong. But it wasn’t worth the price to me. Later, the lady who led me across the water spun me a few times, just not as fast as they usually do there.

After more than half an hour I was dropped off at the jetty again. But before that, the lady made me a ring out of reeds and put it on my finger. Of course, she wanted to take pictures of it as well. Now I hvae the worst touristi pictures of myself on my phone you could ever imagine. But it’s a funny memory.

Heading to Da Lat

After the tour with the basket boat over the water I rode my bike back to the hostel. There I spent the noon at the pool. In the afternoon I drove to the old town one last time. Shortly before my bus came in the evening, I went to the restaurant next to my hostel and ate something there.

My overnight bus to Da Lat arrived shortly after five. I had previously considered skipping Da Lat and going straight to Ho Chi Minh City. However, I have heard from many people in Hoi An that Da Lat is said to be very beautiful and there is a lot to do there. Since the journey to Ho Chi Minh City takes around 18 hours from Hoi An and I still had time before my visa expired, I decided to make a stopover in Da Lat.

After 15 hours of driving, the bus arrived in Da Lat the next morning. I then took the Grab Taxi directly to the hostel and went back to bed there and slept for a few more hours.

I had always stayed in a lot of party hostels before as these were always the ones with the best reviews. However, I’m not in the mood like all the others who have to party every night and then sleep until noon the next day and spend the day by the pool with a hangover. I want to use my time in the few days that I’m in one place and see as much as possible. That’s why I always get up early and then in the evening I’m far too exhausted to go out anyway. Besides, my money is too good to spend only on alcohol.

But I had found a hostel in Da Lat, which should be a bit more familiar but still super social. As soon as I was on the terrace for breakfast in the morning, I met a few people who I talked to. But since most of them were either already leaving or had planned a relaxing day, I went off alone at noon.

Visiting the Clay Tunnel

I had borrowed a scooter from the hostel, which was quite expensive with 180K Dong per day, and drove to the Clay Tunnel. It was significantly cooler in Da Lat than in Hoi An, Phong Nha or Ninh Binh, which is why I froze a little while riding the scooter.

As soon as I got to the Clay Tunnel, it started to rain lightly, but stopped very quickly. The Clay Tunnel is known as a famous artificial construction in Dalat city. It is an art gallery with several architectural works and attracts several tourists every year. Some of the artwork was really beautiful and interesting, but in my opinion it wasn’t anything that was definitely worth seeing. It was also packed with Asian tourists who wanted photos everywhere.

While I was visiting the Clay Tunnel it started raining. I then had to shelter for 20 minutes and wait until the rain stopped so as not to get soaking wet.

Eventually the rain stopped and I was able to continue visiting the Clay Tunnel. However, every few minutes it started raining again. At some point I was pretty wet, so I didn’t have as much fun exploring the Clay Tunnel anymore. I had pretty much seen everything anyway, so I went back to my scooter.

By the time I made my way back to the hostel, it wasn’t raining anymore, but my jacket was already soaked and it was still dripping a little so that the water got in my face the whole way. Actually, I had planned to visit a waterfall, but with the rain it made no sense and I was also quite cold. When I arrived at the hostel 45 minutes later I was quite relieved to be able to warm up first. I didn’t have much motivation to do anything again later.

Family dinner at the hostel

In the evening there was a family dinner on the terrace, where everyone from the hostel came together. It was really nice to sit, eat and talk with the other backpackers. After dinner we played cards for the rest of the evening.

At the family dinner I also met a German girl with whom I finally found someone who thinks like me. She also ended up in this hostel because she can’t stand all the party hostels anymore.

We talked a lot about how exhausting tours can be and how we prefer to get up early in the morning so we can do as much as possible in one day. While everyone else then went to a bar, we stayed on the hostel terrace and continued talking there.

While there is much to be done in Da Lat, all these are things that are not specific to Da Lat. For example, there were a few waterfalls that you can see, but they didn’t look particularly spectacular on the pictures on the internet. There were also things like the crazy house or a light garden. But I had already heard from the people in my hostel that it’s not something you absolutely have to have done. So I decided to take the bus to Ho Chi Minh City the next day at noon.

It left the bus station in Da Lat at one o’clock in the afternoon. A shuttle picked me up at the hostel beforehand and brought me to the bus stop. I had paid for a normal sleeper bus, but in the end I got a VIP sleeper bus. Which of course wasn’t that bad. These are much cozier and more modern. You also have more privacy as you are in a small capsule where you can draw the curtains.

In the late evening I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City. If you would like to know what I experienced during my time in Ho Chi Minh City, please read my next blog post Learning more about Vietnam’s History in Ho Chi Minh City – Vietnam Travel Diary. Coming soon.