Hoi An - Vietnam :: the town

Next stop? Paradise. Come here if you have an itch for travel in southeast Asia. Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage Town in Central Vietnam, just south of Danang. And it. is. stunning.

There is so much to see and do here. We stayed for 6 days and could easily have stayed longer. It didn't matter that I forgot my carefully researched list of restaurants and activities back at the hotel -- we winged it and it was fabulous!

kid friendly... yellow painted buildings, old rooftops, conical hats (pronounced "non lass" according to my researched 7 year old)... not a Starbucks in sight. (Plenty of delicious coffee, nonetheless!)

  

bit crowded

Traffic is "tangle and hope for the best". No one waits for anyone else, especially not pedestrians (that guy in white in the next photo just marches through this chaos and somehow no-one gets hurt)..."lanes" seemed to be more like suggestions than delineations. Motorbikes bear entire families - 4 at a time! Even itty bitty babies!

Silk - see the story from worm to finished product and then buy a silk dress!:

silk worms - 5 days old - eating fresh vegge

silk chrysalis - harvested from a wooden trestle

loom

women busy embroidering with the silk... working on framed art duplicates that will take them roughly 3 days to complete

old school electricity

 local market: 

market - from the river

This next sign cracked us up -- 

-- because there was enough honking here to rival NYC!

she was absolutely devastated that she didn't get to keep it ... "my bicycle!"

bamboo rocking bassinet in a fine jewelry shop - napping while mom worked

Thu Bon River flows through the ancient city...

The woman above was fishing for a skateboard that inadvertently rolled off the bridge. She didn't give up easily - a generous heart.

banana pancakes on the street -- WIN!

famous - ANCIENT - Japanese bridge - originally built in 1590's

  
The kids loved it ... and I even went into town solo to get a little shopping done. (Hoi An is full of seamstresses and tailors ready to make anything your heart desires for "cheap-cheap".)

a bit unsure about fresh coconut juice

Channeling Great-Grandpa-Curly -- our social butterfly made friends with the locals

DINNER...

ABear had her heart set on pho ("fuh") after learning about it in a first grade research project. We went local for this meal... the restaurant was part and parcel of this family's home... the tables set out just outside of the bead-curtained kitchen in the family room and on the front stoop. The entire meal cost $12USD for 4 entrees, a side of fries, and 2 beers. And it was YUM!

Bunny quickly made herself at home, bunny-style, and climbed onto the couch to watch "shows" with the owner's kids

in front of the restaurant -- Bear sporting her new Vietnamese dress ($2)

GETTING THERE:

The flight from Hong Kong is 1.5 hours - breezy.

packing with littles is an experience of its own

we're off!

Getting into town from our beach hotel .... by boat ... An adventure in its own right. (Speedboat in, slow boat back.) Other days we took a 10 minute, $5 taxi.

boarding

at the dock

Whoops! What's going on with BunnyCakes?

how can she SLEEP at a time like this!?