The Ancient City of Hoi An, Vietnam
After a 14 hour overnight bus ride, we arrived in the ancient city of Hoi An for a week stay. Our first three nights were spent in the actual old town area at the fabulous Tea Garden Homestay (more on that later) and our last three nights by the beach. Our homestay (essentially a B&B) was so wonderful, in retrospect we would've stayed there the entire time and just biked to the beach when we wanted to get some sunshine. The beach isn’t as fun or as happening as the city. Too many restaurants and tailors (more on that later:) to choose from as well. We absolutely loved Hoi An. Between the history and beauty of the town and all of the shopping with tailors who personally make anything you can think of. Everything is also negotiable. Negotiating prices with any vendor or store seems to be a national pastime in Vietnam. There seems to be a three tiered price system. One tier for tourists, one for expats, and one for locals. The negotiating was rather fun at first but its did become rather annoying when you feel the need to even negotiate for a decent price on drinking water. After I learned a bit of the language and some of the shopping lingo I was making deals left and right.
