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| New Year's Eve at Hoi An, Vietnam |
Our Vietnam tour for 9 days, our first stop was in Hoi An. We arrived DaNang from Singapore on the eve of CNY 2024, 09Feb. The flight took only less than 3 hours. Vietnam is one hour earlier than Singapore. I heard so much of Hoi An, especially its food. I am not fond of joining day tours, we decided to spend overnight in Hoi An. Was a day enough?
I have arranged earlier with the hotel, Hoi An Central
Hotel, our pick up from DaNang airport and drop off the following day to BaNa
hills. The drive to Hoi An was around 40
minutes, slow speed for some reasons. On
the way, I saw tangerine trees in pots being transported. It has been a tradition in Vietnam displaying
this tree in front of their house. It is
a symbol of luck influenced by China. In
Singapore, most of the offices and establishments display also tangerine tree during
the CNY. But it has not been a tradition
in all houses. I made sure though we
have any kind of oranges such as ponkan or mandarin in our home. We believe too it could bring luck.
We were charged 350,000 vnd for the trip from Danang airport
to Hoi An Central Hotel. We gave 50,000
vnd tip to the driver.
An hour after the check in process, that was around 5pm, we went
out to start the explore. The ancient/old
town is just 9 minutes on foot from the hotel.
The path is lined with clothing and souvenir shops. There were also a few line of streetfood in this
street. We can’t help and start our food
trip. I had the sausage and the twist potatoes. Hubby had the octopus and sausage too. The processing of the sausage is different from
the usual one. It is not salty and you
can say “I want more”.
We almost finished our food when we arrived at the old town.
The crowd were there. Boat rides were busy. We have to try this ride too. I paid 150,000 vnd for the boat ride. We had the boat to ourselves. I paid 50,000 vnd for 2 paper lanterns. I think though you can get it for 10,000 vnd
each. It was a 20-minute ride. We released the paper lantern near the edge
of the river with our wish. It was fun.
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| lantern boat ride in Hoi An |
We crossed the beautiful lantern bridge or An Hoi bridge spanning the Hoai river, the center of the old town. The bridge provides access to the new town with lots of street foods, pub houses and theatres.
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| pubhouse in Hoi An |
Before 10pm, we were so full as we tried almost all the
offered food in the streets. There was a
line of vendors in the old town side of the river selling the famous Cao Lau
where you can only have this dish in Hoi An. Cao Lau is a dish with meat, mostly pork, and
green leaves and herbs on top of the rice noodle.
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| Hoi An streetfood |
There was a count down with fireworks at midnight to welcome
the Chinese New Year. We decided not to
wait for it and went back. We were still
up till midnight though and it was really so loud together with the fire
crackers. The noise lasted till half
past 12mn. Before sunrise, I think I was
still hearing some fire crackers. It’s
not new to us anyway. It is even noisier
in our home country, Philippines, when we welcome the 01Jan New Year.
I was planning to swim in the morning but the venue of the hotel
breakfast is near the pool. I just
jumped for breakfast instead. The
breakfast was simple but all were good!!!
They served the Bahn tet which is only served during the Tet
season. I feel so lucky I was able to try
the authentic bahn tet. Bahn Tet is a savoury cake made with glutinous
rice filled with beans and pork. It is
rolled with banana leaves then broiled. The
banana leaf is removed when served, and sliced into wheel shaped.
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| Bahn Tet |
They served also for breakfast the famous Cao Lau. Super lucky!!!
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| Cao Lau |
The hotel staff are very accommodating. All our arrangements were attended well. Our car arrived before 11am, bound to BaNa
hills, our second stop for this trip to Vietnam.
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