A month in Hoi An

[GarrettM]

Also since I'm venturing off topic, and I love immature humour, here is a store I couldn't help but visit.
Turns out it was just a vintage clothes shop.

 

[GarrettM]

And another funny Vietnamese toilet sign for your enjoyment.

That's from the Reaching Out Teahouse, which you can read about elsewhere. Nice and quiet, except for my son anyway.


We talk an evening stroll through the Old Town after a Reaching Out visit. The weather was nice, the light was good, the vibe was pleasant, the kids were bloody painful, so we decided to call it a night.

 

[GarrettM]

By the by for those with more VN airport experience, would you recommend the fast track process for departure from SGN?

We fly home next Saturday with Vietnam Airlines.

DAD -SGN - PER, with a roughly three hour layover at Tan Son Nhat. We've read about immigration delays and how the fast track can help on arrival, but dunno if it's necessary for departure. Think we'll arrange it as an insurance policy if for nothing else. Our bags will be checked through, but anything that eases the stress when dealing with our kids is probably worth it.

I am looking forward to trying VN's international service in any event. Read decent reports of their Y class.

 

[drron]

I like taking pictures of gates around Asia. Some very interesting stuff.

 

[GarrettM]

Friday marked the end of our 3rd week in Hoi An, and we had a couple of things on the agenda. First off, making our own lanterns. Like most activities here there are many options. We went with Thuy, The Lantern Lady. Her shop, again, is down an alley in the old town. Honestly half the fun - at least for me - of these things is the little expeditions they require to find. This one I'll admit wasn't too difficult.

We opted for 20cm sized lanterns, at 250,000vnd each. Roughly $14. We all chose different shapes, but somehow MrsGM and I transposed our styles. It didn't really matter. She filmed most of the process, so these pics are largely hers.



The girl enjoyed it thoroughly, and also had hers completed well before the rest of us. The boy wasn't so enamoured, but he persevered with the help of Thuy. He has always been a fan of scissors so that part of it came easy at least. The class took the best part of two hours, and we all got rather sticky fingers from the glue. But once more we all finished with something of our own to keep.


Not sure how we'll hang them at home, with or without lights. That's a question for later.

 

[GarrettM]

Following the lanterns we convinced the boy to take a short walk along the river to where we stayed on our previous visit, Emotion Villa. Or more specifically the restaurant directly opposite, Song Thanh. I was hoping to see if the incredible beef satay I had in 2018 was still on offer. Sadly it was not. So we just got some drinks and spoke to the owner a bit.

Back then.


And now...


And a pic of Emotion Villa as well. I think it's had a little work done since our stay.

 

[GarrettM]

I forgot to mention, we did not try the sauteed frog with lemonglass. Too sharp for our palates.



The rest of Friday was devoted to downtime for the kids. Ipads, books, puzzles. Mum did some work and dad did some trip reporting.
But with the weather nice and clear it was time to tick off one of the supposed must dos of Hoi An, the sunset lantern boat ride. With a twist as we would not be releasing lanterns. We'd decided we didn't want to contribute to the eve present pollution ofnthe river. They say they clean up everything every day but that's clearly not true. And we're not judging the process, or those who take part. It's obviously a major economic driver for Hoi An but it's just not for us. At least on this night. What difference our abstinence makes in thr grand scheme of things I'll leave others to assess.
The ride itself, 20 odd minutes at sunset, was pleasant. I think it was 220,000vnd for the four of us.




After hopping off thd boat we were about to walked into Mayviva for dinner. Probably we should have gone to Mango Mango right next door. I got a quite good cau lao but all up it cost more than it should have. I shrugged it off at the time, but it does irk me. The girls ordered different rice dishes from the Vietnamese menu, but somehow we got charged for the "Western" fried rice. Also there is the location tax. The food was fine, it just wasn't value.