Finally I visited Vietnam and I am glad I chose the most beautiful city – Hoi An. Recently JetStar started the new direct flight from Singapore to Da Nang. From Da Nang to Hoi An by car is around 40 min. We stayed 3 days there and had a wonderful time!

Hoi An is a town in central Vietnam and it’s famous for its ancient and well-preserved buildings. It was one of the economic and trading centers and was selected as UNESCO heritage. There was once a lot of immigrants from Japan, China, the Netherlands and India thus you can see especially the big influence from Chinese culture. It is not allowed to drive cars inside the old town area, only bike and rickshaw, so it’s quiet and calm when you walk around the streets.

Unlike most tourist towns where you see many shops selling the same things. Here in Hoi An, a lot of shops are unique, and the qualities are quite good. The old town area has so many streets that it’s impossible to finish all of them.

One thing worth mentioning is that the place is invading by Koreans!! I think most tourists are Korean and I felt I am in Korea.. A lot of Korean groups love to hire richshaw drivers so the below is a normal scene everyday!

If you want to visit historical and cultural sites, they only sell one ticket where you can visit at most 5 places. In total, we tried our best to visit 4 must go places.

1. Xuong San Xuat Thu Cong My Nghe: this is an artcraft galery situated in a house of 200 years history. You can find lanterns and other artwork. Also, every day there are two performances of traditional dancing and singing so it is always crowded during the time.
2. Hoi Quan Phuc Kien: this is the gathering place for people from Fujian Province. You can imagine the population during the time because the place is huge. They worship Mazu inside the temple.
3. Nha Co Tan Ky: The most well-preserved old house here with over 200 years of history. You can see from the design that it is also influenced by Chinese and Japanese.

4. Cau Nhat Ban: Japanese bridge is the linkage between Japanese district and Chinese district. It is said that there is a big monster living inside the river, and if the monster moves it will cause earthquake, therefore people build this bridge and a temple on the bridge to protect it. There is one dog and one monkey on each side to protect the bridge as well.

A lot of people also come here to buy tailor-made clothes. The most famous shop is Yaly. They said that the quality is very good and more expensive. But we didn’t give it a try!

The night view in Hoi An is even more elegant and pretty because all the lanterns are lighten up. The riverside and also restaurants, shops are still crowded even in the evening! Many people selling candles which you can put it in the river and make a wish. If you visited Hoi An, make sure you stay here during daytime and evening so that you won’t miss anything!!