Lanterns, Dragons and Bicycles

On the weekend I headed to Hoi An to catch up with Alison and just chill out after an exhausting week The weekend in Hoi An was exactly the break I needed to remember why I love Vietnam so much. The beautiful ancient town is bustling with people and it has the most amazing restaurants but the thing I love the most about Hoi An is that the food stalls have English and Vietnamese writing on them. I no longer had to just nod and hope I was getting something I could eat. It was great to have a little taste of normal especially after being homesick. My favourite street stall in Hoi An had to be the fruit shake stand they made the most amazing mango shakes for just 15 000 dong (about 70 cents).

I spent the weekend riding around and just loving the place I could not get the smile off my face. Hoi An has the best atmosphere and it is shopping heaven. As it turned out it was the perfect weekend to be in Hoi An, it was the Luna festival of something and there were dragons and drumming everywhere. We headed down to a great little restaurant overlooking the river. There was happy hour (2pm - 9pm) where the cocktails were $2 instead of $3 and the food was great.  

Exploring on my bike

Vietnemese shop keepers

At the markets

The ancient Japanese bridge

Kids Practicing their dragon dancing

The lantern covered bridge over the river

Then the dragon came! We could not have had better seats to watch the whole thing unfold. You could see the crowd as it began to cross the bridge, following the dragon along and stopped directly in front of us. The dragon began dancing to the traditional drumming and danced right through the restaurant. We were impressed and thought that was it, boy where we wrong. They stacked two large wooden discs down on the street and the dragon continued its dance right on top of the discs. A group of men then lifted the smaller disc to shoulder height, at this point we noticed a pole hanging off the second floor balcony with money attached. The dragon was nowhere near high enough to reach the money so another group of men proceeded to lift the larger disc up to their shoulders. Still not high enough to reach the dangling money the man who was the dragons head jumped atop the shoulders of the guy acting as the dragon back. It was crazy but o so cool. The dragon danced for what must have been at least 20mins before moving on.  It was an experience I will never forget.

Alison and I 

Dragon Dancing at the resturant

Dragon tamer

Dragon Tower 

Hoi An has amazing food and it is also cheap. I have found the most amazing dessert shop that sells amazing little cakes for $2 or $3 each. I ended up eating there twice over the weekend. 

Dessert 

The most delicious cakes ever!

I returned home Sunday with a renewed love of Vietnam, glad that I am living in Da Nang rather than Hoi An because I got that sick of the phrases “you buy, you buy” and “come look in my shop”. I may not be able to read the menus but at least I don't have to deal with hawkers. 

Hoi An Lanterns