Everything on living
in Hoi An after almost 6 months here.This post started out in 2017 as a bit of
a whinge about how dull it was sitting still for a couple of months but in our
second month, after starting this post in the wee small hours, we went out for
breakfast and a bike ride and I found myself falling under a car.  Being
alive and content in an ultra charming little riverside town with its wonderful
people suddenly wasn’t so bad. More on my accident down the page, back to the
slow travel thing. Over the last 5+ years of nomadic travel we’ve had several
slow travel periods but it’s never been a style we’ve embraced and has always
been brought on by necessity. We’ve spent months on end in both London and
Romania but I can’t think of anywhere else, in 50+ countries, where we’ve stayed in one
place for more than a few days at a time.  We ended up living in Hoi
An for over 2 months before leaving and returning for another 3 months. By the
time we left we were in love with this town and not one of us wanted to leave.

I love this town! The
kids are rehearsing right now for the next full moon. There will be dragon
and/or lion dances. It’s incredible to watch them practice in the evenings and
we’re always welcomed with smiles.

Hoi An is a lovely
town for expats or digital nomads, it’s not another Chiang Mai, there’s no malls, movies,
co-working spaces or ice skating, but it’s a lovely town with cute shops,
interesting markets, beautiful countryside to explore, wonderful people and
great food.  For malls you need to visit Danang, they are there along with
the ice rinks and Starbucks, about half an hour up the road. The house we
rented just outside the Old Town was amazing, brand new and very budget
friendly and there are some big day trips to do to nearby places. It’s not
perfect for a long stay but it’s extremely pleasant. There are beaches in Hoi
An too, but we’re not generally beach people. So although I sometimes struggle
with slow travel and feel that my wings have been clipped, I LOVE this town, in
some ways I didn’t want to leave.

Finding a House or
Apartment in Hoi An

We arrived with an
Airbnb reservation which went bad, thankfully. When we saw our planned Airbnb
we took to Facebook and found ourselves a beautiful, brand new, 3 bedroom house
within hours. It cost us under $20 per night. We can put you in touch with our landlady,
Dao, she has a couple of houses and is one of the nicest people you could meet.
Contact her through the Facebook page of her tailor’s shop, Khan Tran Tailor Shop.
she also makes excellent shirts. There are plenty of places to rent in Hoi An
but you’ll sometimes need a minimum of a 3 month visa because of government
regulations.  Expats mostly stay out of town, some towards the beach, many
near Cua Dai Rd., some prefer paddy fields, we chose to be within walking
distance of the Old Town. Check the flood maps if you are staying in the wet season.

Daily Routines and
Eating

Mi quang from a tiny
shop in the countryside. The best places only serve one dish and it’s always
perfect. I could write poetry about this mi quang it was so good. $1,
breakfast.

During our first few
months in Hoi An Chef’s training took priority and if you know what Ironman is
you’ll know that he was training for 3 disciplines, swim, run, bike. A stupidly
long swim, an insane bike ride and then a full running marathon at the end. He
trained for hours, 6 days a week and we let him have the prime 5 am to 9 am
slot. That’s when I would have liked to be running, going to yoga or practicing
my photography, but I couldn’t and that didn’t help with my stir-crazy feeling.
Once that was all over I could do all of the above and it was great, we had a
small gym almost opposite our house and I was able to run in the countryside,
this is a perfect place for fitness minded people but you need to be used to
the heat. Between November and March temperatures were very pleasant, even
cool.

We normally ate out at
least once every day. Breakfast was usually pho or mi quang from a street stall
and we’d have a restaurant meal in the evening. We rarely eat 3 meals, usually
just late breakfast and dinner so with the ultra light, ultra delicious ( but
not spicy) Vietnamese food we all lost a fair bit of
weight. That was great for me, not so great for the boys and our Ironman. We
bought fruit at the market to make smoothies at home and I rarely cooked much
more than eggs, veg, tofu and fresh rice noodles. We could order pizza online
and have a movie night on our huge flat screen TV, we found great pizza and
they accepted our Payoneer card ( that’s Amazon paying for
our pizza, thanks Amazon!) They could deliver Vietnamese dishes, Indian and
baguettes, it was almost like having room service, but I prefer to be out
mingling. If you crave western food and company, head to Jim’s Snackbar or The
Happy Buffalo, but be warned, once you hit these places the weight starts going
back on.

Costs of Eating Out in
Hoi An

Prices start around
20-30,000 Dong for superb street food. You could eat mi quang, cau lau or pho 3
times a day and pay no more than $3-5. Of course if you hit up the tourist
restaurants you’ll pay more but some good restaurants, the markets, street
stalls and pho joints will feed you incredible, healthy nutritious food for
minimal cost. If you need western food expect to pay from around $4 at Mix
Greek restaurant,  around $5 and up for a pizza, around $4 for a great
burger at Jim’s snack bar and so on. A western style coffee at Mia comes in
around $1.30, their cheesecake is superb at roughly $2. Take yourself to the
Happy Buffalo for beers and incredible, well priced Vietnamese/Western fusion
bar food, it’s a great place.

Vegetarian and Vegan
Food

I prefer to eat
vegetarian or vegan but my family are omnivores so compromise is needed. I
haven’t as yet found a vegetarian street food stall but most restaurants have a
good selection of vegetarian options. They do tofu well in Hoi An. Vegetarian
and vegan restaurants do exist but my boys mostly won’t go to them without
bribery. Try Cafe 43 on Trang Cao Van for a good mix of vegetarian and meat
lovers’ dishes, or opposite Minh Hien Vegetarian restaurant is exclusively meat
free. Prices for a vegetarian dish in either of these two restaurants start at
around 40K Dong A lady on this street also sells great Mi Quang in her front
room at just 20 K Dong. It’s not vegetarian. Most Mi Quang stalls charge us 30K
.

Staying Fit, Running,
Cycling, Gym and Yoga in Hoi An

We can recommend Trinh
Xuan gym on Nguyen Tuan, it’s a solid, cheap, basic gym. For a more up-market
gym with air-con try Super Fit Gym and Yoga on Ly Thai To. Nomads Yoga is also
good, find them on Facebook for their daily schedule, in summer they also offer
beach yoga. We run and cycle seriously, the road to Danang and beyond is OK for
bike training. There is a local Hash House Harriers group that meets
infrequently. If you Hash, get in touch, if they know there are a few people in
town they are more likely to organise an event.

Wi-Fi and Powercuts

The wi-fi is the best
we’ve encountered anywhere in the world. It’s strong and it’s fast. In the run
up to APEC we had one full day when power was off and one period of 4 hours. We
had notice that power would go off both times but it was still incredibly hard
to cope with in the heat. Often one side of town has power, another doesn’t, so
you can get on your bike and find a cafe if you try. People talk about the
wi-fi going down in Vietnam because of under sea cables ( there is some truth
in sharks chewing the cables apparently). We got the chance to talk to a Hanoi
IT professional ( through our local Hash House Harriers meets) and he said it
hasn’t happened in the last 2 years, but you never know.

The Hoi An Ticket

Hoi An has over 200
ancient buildings and around 20 are open to the public on the Hoi An ticket
system. Some are museums, this is the Cultural Museum, others are simply
traditional homes kept exactly as they were built for over 130 years. These
buildings flood regularly, to a depth of up to 2m. And still they stand.

This is a tricky one
to get information on before arrival, but now we are here the infamous Hoi An
ticket is no problem at all. Adult visitors ( kids are free) need to buy a Hoi
An ticket to go into the numerous museums and ancient building that are open to
the public around town. You DO NOT need a ticket just to wander around Hoi An.
The only snag with this is that the Japanese covered bridge is considered a
ticketed item, so visitors simply wanting to cross can get very angry when they
are asked for a ticket. I’ve seen it happen. There is a second bridge that you
don’t need a ticket for just metres away, but I guess they don’t realise. If
you visit early or late there is rarely anyone checking tickets on the bridge
and I’ve walked over it dozens of times without a ticket. I have bought a
ticket and we spent a pleasant half day exploring some of the museums with the kids, it’s a nice thing to do and
with them being free it’s an absolute bargain. The ticket will only get you
into 5 attractions of your choice.

Pre Wet Season Heat (September)

It’s insanely hot,
from 30-37º C here right now ( September). The wet season will be here any day
and we’ve already had a near miss with a cyclone. Mostly we’ve had blue skies
with rainless thunder clouds rolling in around sunset. It’s dramatic, beautiful
and hot. We picked this climate for Chef’s training, but we’d much prefer it
cooler. We have to run air-con for most of the night, we’re used to tropical
heat but this is intense. We only have air-con in our bedrooms, that’s typical
here, by day we’re fan only. It’s rare to find anywhere with air-con, no
restaurants or coffee shops ( other than Dingo Deli) have it. It’s OK, everyone
manages. But laundry piles up incredibly quickly and we’re very glad of our
washing machine.

Living in Hoi An in
the Wet Season

Flood levels in one of
the restaurants on the waterfront. Today, November 2017, I’d guess that the
water is to the top-most marker, all of the Old Town is flooded.

The wet season hit us
in late October, days of torrential rain, but interspersed with sunny periods
and a welcome drop in temperatures. It was still warm enough for fans, but no
more air-con. The rain wasn’t much of a problem until a cyclone or typhoon came
too close, then 4 days of torrential rain brought on the typical Hoi An floods.

Living in Hoi An When
it Floods ( November – December)

The scene in the Old
Town this morning. Motor boats replace scooters, life goes on. Hoi An Flood
season, November 2017.

Life just went on.
Today you’ll need a boat to get around the old town and there are plenty. Some
roads outside the Old Town are flooded, some aren’t, we still have power and
wi-fi but we can’t get an Uber and no restaurants are delivering food. 
There is a full post on Hoi An flooding experiences here.

If you’re thinking of
staying in Hoi An through the wet season take a look at the flood map before
you rent a property.

Living in Hoi An in
January

January has been cold!
Daytime temperatures sank to 17º C and we needed a light fleece in the evenings.
Locals wrap up in coats hats and scarves, I guess it’s the only chance they get
to wear them. There was also a lot of rain in January but interspersed with
some sunny periods or even days. We swam in the sea one day in January, air
temperature was good but the sea remained very chilly. On other days the beach
was gloomy and cold, the water rough and murky.

Coffee in Hoi An ( and
wine, tea and beer)

The best coffee in Hoi
An ( for our western tastes) is Mia. Their cheesecake and carrot cake is also
spot on. They were housed in a smaller building until a few days ago, they’re
now in their beautiful new home on Rue des Artes. We love this road, packed
with galleries and amazing photography. Can you see Chef and the boys there?

If you’ve been reading
for a while you’ll know that my veins flow with Americano black coffee, Earl
Grey tea and red wine. I have all three here in Hoi An. Coffee is semi
problematic as we can’t buy instant and we don’t have a cafetiere, Aeropress or any other travel coffee maker with
us. But we’ve found a couple of fixes. Firstly, the little stainless steel
over-cup Vietnamese coffee filter works just fine and you can buy one for around
a dollar in any market. Secondly, our favourite coffee shop, Mia, sells great
Arabica beans which they grind freshly for you. Vietnamese coffee tends to be
sweet, chocolate-y  or caramel-y and we don’t like it. There are loads of
western style ( mostly Australian style) coffee shops and roasteries in Hoi An,
as well as traditional Vietnamese coffee joints. Mia wins hands down for us,
they also do great carrot cake and cheesecake. Unfortunately they don’t have
air-con so I can’t really sit down there to work. Dingo Deli has coffee and
air-con but their coffee leans more towards Australian long black than
Americano, also it’s a lot further away.

We do our shopping in
the market. This is the central market, there are a few others away from the
main town. Other than corner shops, the markets are the only place to shop and
the only places that sell fruit, veg, meat, noodles and fish. We buy mountains
of fruit to turn into delicious smoothies.

I bought my Earl Grey
with me from Sainsbury  but there are plenty of fancy tea shops around and
most local supermarkets in expat areas have a selection of western goods. Every
corner shop sells wine ( from $7 up ). Although mostly I’ll have a Saigon Green
(from 50c up)  if we’re out, it’s colder and wetter.

Keeping Busy in Hoi An

Another day another bike ride. You can cycle to the pottery village, the
silk village, the fishing village or the carpentry village. It’s all beautiful
and once you’re off the main roads it’s as safe as cycling will ever be.

Hoi An’s famous lanterns are just as pretty as I remember them 17 years
ago. We loved this town on our first 1 month tour of Vietnam, we chose it
because of that and knew what to expect. We’re pleased with our choice.

I’ve wanted to work on
my photography for a long time and there’s fantastic inspiration here in Hoi An
with galleries such as this one ( It’s also a free Hill Tribes museum). I have
a photo tour booked soon, so hopefully a little expert help with my camera. ( Update, Photo Tour Guy #1 failed to
deliver and never contacted me about my booking so I went with Pieter of Hoi An
Photo Walks, it was superb!, More to come)

The Night Market

In some ways the Hoi
An night market is very similar to those in Chiang Mai or Bangkok. The kids can
still fire little winged whatsits into the night sky ( they’re cheaper here) .
There are pluses and minuses. It’s not same same.

The  night market
is on the far side of the river, opposite the old town. It’s pretty tacky but
fun. This is the “party” side of the river with plenty of bars, there are also
nightly fun games and attractions along the water’s edge, it’s fun for
kids.  More on Hoi An with kids here.

There is an abundance
of street food and cheap restaurants over this side, quality is variable. See
our full Hoi An food post here.

Getting Around

We hired bicycles at
$1 per day, others prefer motor bikes or scooters. Uber is OK in Hoi An and
cheap but quality of service has deteriorated in the last 6 months. There are
plenty of taxis around, taxis, as in most of SE Asia, are cheaper than Uber or
Grab. We have NEVER been ripped off by a taxi driver not had any difficulty,
they’ve all used their metres and we tip them well. There are local buses to
take you to Danang .

The Traffic Accident and
the Fabulous Vietnamese People

We’d already be blown
away by how nice everyone is here, hotel owners, our landlords, the guy at the
corner shop, my mi quang lady, just about everyone, but my accident brought
this into sharp focus.

What happened was this,
we were all out cycling, mostly it’s pretty safe round here, there are plenty
of push bikes and mopeds but not too many cars and trucks, some streets in the
Old Town are pedestrianised and push bike only and in the countryside you see
little on the road other than ducks and water buffalo, so we use the bikes a
lot. Yesterday morning we were passing the market on a congested, slow moving
traffic street. I got distracted, I wasn’t looking at the road and I hit a
drain cover causing my bike to topple towards a passing car. There was nothing
I could do to stop myself falling, the car hit my foot and pushed me back the
other way towards the gutter. It’s a bit of a blur, I’m not sure exactly how it
all happened but I have one bruised foot, one skinned foot, a big bruise on my
hip and a mangled bike. I was VERY lucky to not go under the car. It wasn’t
nice. I’ve always ridden bikes, I cycled  across Cuba for my 30th birthday
and I biked to work every day in London, I just lost my concentration and took
my eyes off the road and it’s the first time I’ve fallen off a bike in about 25
years. Falling seems to hurt more at 50. But there you go, shit happens when
you least expect it. Chef falls off from time to time too, it’s inevitable.
He’s caught his wheels in train tracks, skidded on wet surfaces, cars have run
him off the road ( NEVER in Vietnam!), all sorts. He’s usually moving fast with
his feet clipped in as part of his Ironman training and yes, it scares the crap
out of me but so far he’s been sore, nothing too major. Always take out travel insurance, it’s vital

What I wanted to talk
about was the response from the local Vietnamese people. I’ve never experienced
such extreme kindness anywhere in the world. They scooped me up, sat me down,
massaged me with tiger balm, got ice onto both feet, gave me a drink and a
shoulder rub. It was so nice of them. From our experiences here it seems pretty
typical, the Vietnamese just are nice, happy people. I have no idea why Nomadic
Matt famously had such a bad time in Vietnam that he left. Seems crazy. Anyway,
I asked Chef to take this picture to prove my point. Did you ever see such a
kind bunch?  So thanks ladies and gent of Hoi An, you’re superstars and
I’m a bad cyclist.

My bike was fairly
badly damaged, I was expecting to have to pay for repairs. Instead our
landlords took the bike away, welded it back together, bought me dressings for
my feet and were just very concerned. Amazing kindness, they see human beings
not dollar signs.

We have only good
things to say about the Vietnamese, they are extremely friendly and welcoming
and a smile and a sense of humour goes a long way.

What is Slow Travel

You can’t put a time
limit on it, it’s a matter of slow-for-you. We tend to stay as long as we need
or want to stay and then move on. We can’t right now. But that’s what we
prefer. So the time you spend depends on how much there is to do and how much
you want to do. We cope much better in London, with endless places and events
to keep us busy and strangely, in Romania. You’d think there was nothing to do
in a tiny village but Breb works it’s magic on me, I just have
to look out of the window to be perfectly happy there. It’s related to climate
too, we don’t like this extreme tropical heat so we do tend to stay indoors
more to escape it. In contrast we love getting out in the snow, we all do.
 Everybody is different and everybody’s definition of slow travel will be different.

 The Advantages
of Slow Travel?

We’re renting a house.
It’s beautiful, new and comes with air con, wifi, drinking water on tap and
washing machine. We have bags of space and the price is great.  

There’s a list of
advantages of slow travel that most people can recite. Slow travel is cheaper,
it’s better for the planet and you really get to know a place. I think that’s
about it. They’re not big enough advantages for me. We didn’t  discovered
much more in Hoi An in the third week than we did in the first one but what
happens over time is you become part of the local scene. We live here now and
are generally accepted as locals, we fit, it’s home. It just makes it so much
harder to leave. We’ve undoubtedly saved a lot of money. Our house rental cost
us way less than any hotel round here ( under $20 per night) and included
washing machine, internet, drinking water and gas for cooking. I’ll give you
the final cost when we see our electricity bill. We’re running the air-con all
night almost every night in two bedrooms and it’s going to cost us. We’re used
to the tropics and rarely used air-con at home in Queensland, but it’s
seriously hot here right now.

Is Slow Travel
Necessary With Children?

For my children no,
absolutely not. They love what we’re doing now, they love that we’re not doing
much so they get to play more computer games. I don’t love that. I’d rather
they were busy and getting out and about more, so that’s a big part of why I don’t
enjoy slow travel so much. Once we reached the 6 month mark in Hoi An, they had
local friends that they were sad to leave.

When they were younger
we could take them out to playgrounds but they’re too big for that now and I
couldn’t let them go out alone here. That was one of the big attractions in
Romania, they could wander the village freely and safely, here that’s out of
the question with the obstacle of the main road .

We have take them
to pottery classes, Vietnamese lessons, bike
tours, shows, cookery and painting sessions. They enjoy them once we get them
there.They enjoy riding the bikes, they like Vietnam, but it wasn’t very
exciting for them at first because we weren’t doing enough and were initially
too isolated in the house. It’s one of the reasons I’d rather stay in a hotel
or guest house, being in a house puts you behind high walls. After a few months
that all changed and we had far too many social opportunities, how you live
your life changes with duration of stay.

Is Slow Travel
Necessary as Digital Nomads

Yes it is. It’s very,
very hard to travel at any kind of pace and work at the same time. Although
this slow, 5 months plus in one place, isn’t required. Generally if I’m working
I feel bad that the kids are doing nothing ( they’re perfectly happy, it’s a mum
thing). But quite honestly I’m hardly doing anything you could call work even
though my days are relatively empty, when we travel faster I seem to be more
productive. It must be the pressure.

What Do Our Future
Travels Look Like, Will They Be Slow?

I doubt it. When we
travel, we travel fast, but sometimes we stop to live-a-while, Hoi An has
certainly become one of our living places and we will be back. I was incredibly
sad to leave our new home early in 2018 and honestly wondered why we were
leaving, yet again, we’ve lost our hearts to a destination. More on Hoi An life
and things to do soon ( this post will be updated and others added)  For
now we’re busy creating our complete Vietnam travel blog and guide, check it out.

How are your plans
looking and have you tried slow travel or settling for a while? Do you dig it?