Dabbling in the World's Wonders: Hoi An: Viet Nam's Lantern Lit Harbor Town

Hoi An is located on the coast of south central Viet Nam. During the first century, this town boasted the largest harbor in all of Southeast Asia. Quite a feat! Especially when today's population is just over 120,000 people (who are incredibly bubbly and kind). A portion of the city, called Old Town, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and rightfully so. What makes Old Town so special is the preservation of its 15th-19th century old cobblestone streets, vibrantly painted buildings, and lantern lighting culture. At night, they shut down the streets to traffic so that you can get lost in the stony byways of historic Viet Nam that are lit up by hundreds of colorful, glowing lanterns. Needless to say, we absolutely fell in love with the place.

Typical street in Old Town

Looking out into the harbour.

Typical street in Old Town.

Adorable lantern shop.

A lantern shop across the water from Old Town.

Beach Life...

What we didn't expect out of Hoi An was a perfect 2 days spent on the beach in pure bliss. The sky was so incredibly blue; we couldn't stop gawking at it. It is refreshing to think that there are some things in nature that cease to amaze human beings like fall colors, mountain ranges, full moons, shooting stars, the first snow of the year...and Hoi An's beach was no exception. The sound of the breeze rustling through the palm trees mixed with the waves crashing onto the shore created the most organic orchestra celebrating the beauty of the day. It was intoxicating.

Quite perfect.

A river we biked by on our way to the beach.

15 minutes from Old Town and you get to look at this...

Clothes, Shoes, Suits, Dresses...Oh my!

Disclaimer: I haven't been this excited to shop for anything since the time I earned enough money to go on a Barbie shopping spree. Yes, I was that kid.

One of the major highlights of our trip to Hoi An was being able to custom design our own clothing and shoes. The town is the place in Southeast Asia to get clothes custom made at extremely affordable prices. We felt like kids in a candy shop with all the options the stores had in terms of materials and designs. Essentially, for the design process, you can pull an outfit online, sketch something out (which Jen did for her dream dress), or flip through loads of magazines to get design ideas (or mix and match). They can do it all. The next step is deciding what type of cloths you will need for the article of clothing. And then the color. Afterwards, they measure you for that particular item during which you can make altercations to the design. Within 24 hours, you return for a fitting to see how you would like it to be altered. It is addictive... After seeing how well some of our shoes and clothing pieces turned out, we ordered more! My proudest purchases were a suit and two pairs of leather flats for Deloitte! :)

Getting measured for her dress that she sketched out.

At the shop looking through designs. That's My in the corner!

Suit measurement!

Leather options for our shoes.

Jen getting her feet measured for her flats.

Our combined aftermath.

Mmm mmm mmm...

Let's just be honest here. I like food...a lot. Jennifer has been incredibly nice putting up with my routine celebrations that occur every time food is placed in front of me. Hoi An has some incredibly special dishes that can only be found in town. Their pride and joy is cao lầu, which consists of a medley of greens, pork, sweet brown sauce, wonton flakes, and noodles. After commenting on how different the noodles were from others in Viet Nam, we were informed that the secret ingredient to this dish is the Hoi An water (specifically from an ancient well) which is used to make the special noodles. No wonder why other parts of Viet Nam cannot imitate this beauty of a dish! Scrumptious! A very popular snack in Viet Nam is roasted watermelon seeds. If you look down when you are walking from point A to point B anywhere in the country, you are bound to see loads of their little shells lying around. They are pretty tough to crack open! Luckily, our friends helped us open up our first ones :) Aside from that, Hoi An is also known for its specialty dumpling and wonton dishes, which are both phenomenal.

The ladies at the clothing store introduced us to cao lau! (Plus some watermelon seeds!)

Hoi An's dumpling specialty, the White Rose.

Hoi An's wonton specialty and one of the top dishes of my life.

Heavenly spring rolls.

Yellow fried noodles with vegetables.

We can't get enough Vietnamese iced coffee.

A pork, prawn, and veggie medley 'pancake' that you break apart, roll in rice paper
with lettuce and dip in peanut curry sauce...

Street side goodies. The things in the back left corner are banana fritters.

Vietnamese pork sandwiches are out of this world.

Full Moon Party...

After our second full day of going to the beach and having more fittings for our clothing, we biked into town to pick up a pair of sandals Jennifer had ordered. To get into town, we biked along the scenic bay, cut through a little alleyway into the main city, and were astonished to find 'rush hour' traffic in this tiny town! Literally bumper to bumper motorbikes. One thing we have learned being in SE Asia is that you have to be bold with traffic so we biked our way into the middle of the chaotic mess and made our way through. There's nothing like some adrenaline to get you through traffic! :) After arriving at the shoe store, we found out that the traffic was due to everyone heading into town to celebrate the first full moon of the year. What makes this even more special than any other incredible evening in Hoi An is that they shut off all the electricity in town and light up the night with candles. During the full moon party, it is also tradition to release a floating lantern into the water accompanied by a wish.