Before I talk about Hoi An itself, getting there was an adventure that seems worth describing. It started with a moto taxi from our homestay on An Binh to the ferry landing. Our homestay host had arranged a bus for us to get back to Ho Chi Minh City. He told us to take the ferry accross the river and to cross the street when we get to the other side and a shuttle would pick us up. We had no idea what this shuttle would look like or how to contact them if they didn’t show up but he assured us that they would be looking for us. After waiting almost 40 minutes sure enough, a shuttle pulled up and waved for us to get in. The shuttle took us to the bus station where we caught a bus back to Ho Chi Minh.

From the bus station we took an Uber to the Ho Chi Minh Train Station where we had tickets booked on the overnight train to Danang, the closest station to our next stop, Hoi An. The overnight train was a surprisingly pleasant experience. We were in a small cabin with two sets of bunk beds. The beds were fairly comfortable and, despite the train noise and sharing a cabin with a small child, we both slept well.

We arrived in Danang the next morning and upon leaving the train station were accosted by taxi drivers offering to take us to Hoi An. But we had done our research and knew that the cheapest way to Hoi An was by the public bus that picked up near the station. Riding the public but was an experience in itself; it was filled with a mix of backpackers and locals hauling absurdly huge bags of produce. The driver chain smoked cigarettes and swerved around motorbikes, honking loudly the entire time.

This was probably the largest variety of transportation methods I have ever taken consecutively (rivaling an epic journey home from Thailand a few years ago) but after about 27 hours of total travel time we finally made it safely to our hostel in Hoi An.

When considering how to describe Hoi An the first word that comes to mind is charming. The entire Old City is a Unesco world heritage site, meaning most of the historic shop house architecture has been preserved.

Its streets are lined with hanging silk lanterns. It is built on a river spanned with beautiful little bridges.

It is also incredibly packed with tourists, more than anywhere we have been so far, and the streets are lined with the accompanying shops filled with cheap souvenirs. However, you can’t expect someplace so exquisite to remain undiscovered.

The rural and the urban run together in Hoi An. One day we took a long walk across town to the beach and as soon as we got out of the city center we were surrounded by rice fields.

We hit Vietnam’s goldilocks weather here; not too hot and not too cold. It was a great place to explore for a few days.