So here am I, writing the last post for the trip I went with the girlfriend – Tiffanie earlier this year. It was the last full day of the trip at Hoi An, Vietnam and we already wondered why time flew by so fast.

While I was secretly wishing that our next trip could be much longer – prolly a week to a month, we took our own sweet time on deciding where to go and what to do. The ultimate plan of the day was to head to Cua Dai beach.

Before that, we embarked on a journey to seek for a good place for glorious food and well, we did find ourselves being 2 very happy person finishing some really delicious local food. We kinda stepped into this shop with nobody in it, a pretty decent place with a very friendly uncle to take our orders.

After 15-20 minutes or so, the scent of the food which were cooked heavily with assorted spices were presented in front of us. It was fabulous, slighly oily but fabulous. Yums!

The cycling trip to the beach was quite tiring. Especially when you’re under the hot sun going uphill! Cua Dai beach is quite a commercialized beach and we could see quite alot of foreigners there. As for me myself, I was a happy boy upon reaching the place as I’ve been wanting to visit the beach for the longest time ever.

Other random stuffs we did was dropping by a shop where Tiffanie shopped for some dirt cheap dresses and me pulling her aside to camwhore.

As we had quite a satisfying lunch, we didn’t really took much in for dinner. Just some random bites in the town enjoying each other’s company.

So yeah, the whole trip was surprisingly enjoyable as the small town of Hoi An was filled with a lot of friendly helpful locals. Liked the food there and the stay was decent as well.

Of course, the most important thing was I spent quality time off with my girl keeping myself away from the life back in Kuala Lumpur.

Not sure when will be our next trip, but I really hope it could be much longer then. Ha!

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There isn’t much night life activities to do in the small town of Hoi An, Vietnam. When I was having my vacation there last week, we walked passed the streets of shops and found ourselves amongst small stalls along Thu Bon River with lanterns on the bridge itself. It was a beautiful sight.

There were restaurants along the river for tourists to enjoy and chill. Many of them in fact. Didn’t explore those places but would love to go the next time I visit Hoi An again. A few more pictures below. Peaceful town. Too bad didn’t enjoy the night much, I blame it on the weather.

Went to the beach on the 3rd day. Can’t wait to blog about it!!

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The very first Vietnamese dish I had in my life is Pho – Beef Noodles. That particular night on the 2nd day of my trip in Hoi An, Vietnam, I was craving for Pho.

After chilling along the river, we headed back to hotel for a bath before going out to hunt for dinner!! We cycled to Hoi An town centre and found ourselves in a small area with 3 food stalls selling local food at a cheaper price compared to the cafes/restaurants around. Well, the main reason I decided to get our dinner there was because the stalls serve Pho!

I noticed the sign there and immediately went on and get a seat ordering my bowl of beef noodles while the girlfriend ordered Cao Lau instead.

In less than 5 minutes, our dish were served on the table and we quickly took a few pictures before we start to eat!

Well, we enjoyed the food very much. The bowl of beef noodles was better than what I’ve expected. The clear soup base were made to perfection and the slices of beef are just nice! On the other hand, the slices of pork served in the bowl of Cao Lau was tasty as well. One thing i noticed that the noodles they used there aren’t as oily as the Kuey Teow we have here in Malaysia, which is why I liked it really much. If you have chance to visit Hoi An, perhaps you want to remember the faces in the picture below and try out their food, awesome stuffs!

Next, we cycled around the town and saw this particular cafe with quite a lot of customers. Stepped in and saw that they have spring rolls, without any hesitation, we ordered a plate of spring roll and waited patiently for it to come. Sad to say, it wasn’t as good as the ones we had on the first day. Prolly because that there are different types of spring rolls served there and coincidentally, we don’t fancy this specific one.

The last dish we had that night was this – Chao Vit. A common dish in the town of Hoi An, Chao Vit is a bowl of porridge served with duck meat. Don’t look down on this bowl of porridge, it’s extremely delicious and it’s 1 of my favorite food for this trip. The broth cooked along with the duck meat will be mixed with the porridge itself and it really spice up the dish. Eating it while it’s hot is the best thing you can do!!

Both me and the girlfriend had 2 bowls of Chao Vit through out our 3 days 3 nights stay in Hoi An town. Hehehe.

Above are a few more pictures featuring Hoi An town centre at night. Shops in the town normally close around 9-10PM. If you plan to visit the town & have nothing to do when the shops close, you can walk to the river and you’ll reach a bridge with colorful lanterns. A lot of tourists frequent that place during the night. It’s quite a scene.

Will talk more about the bridge soon with more pictures!!

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Hoi An is a very small town and there are just a handful tourist attractions there. By paying 90,000 Dong (Which is approx. RM14), you can visit 5 different places.

One of the main place to visit is the ancient houses there which aged around 200 years old. Most of these houses used to be homes of influential figures residing in the area. If I’m not mistaken, there are 5 different houses to visit and we only went into 2 of them.

Basically, the designs of the houses are quite similar to the ones we usually watch on Chinese dramas set in ancient times. Check out the pictures below and you’ll know what I mean.

There was this particular house which was built along the river. On one of the walls, they indicated the date and height the house was flooded before.

Later on, we hop onto a boat along the river & chilled there with beer for myself and coconut juice for the girlfriend. Stayed pretty long on the boat as we managed to connect to the internet through a local cafe’s Wi-Fi connection!

A few random pictures.

Time spent in Hoi An doing nothing most of the time, AWESOME. Stay tuned for more updates on the trip!!!

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Sleeping early and waking up late is one of the best thing to do in life and I did that quite a number of times over my recent vacation. I had the rest I needed for the longest time ever & was pretty much happy with it!

Well, we woke up around noon on the 2nd day in Hoi An where we decided to ride the bicycle out after experiencing a tiresome day walking under the hot sun on the 1st day itself. You can rent a motorcycle/bicycle in almost anywhere in the town of Hoi An, however, we got our bicycle for free which was provided by the hotel we stayed in.

It was lunch time, we were clueless on what to eat. So we cycled aimlessly till we reached this junction and stopped when we saw this particular chicken rice (They called it Com Ga in Vietnam) shop having quite a lot of locals in it. When you see a place filled with locals, the food there must be good – that was what I thought.

Parked our bicycles, went in and got ourselves a table and waited for 15 minutes for our plate of chicken rice.

The wait was worth it. The dish of steamed chicken served with oily rice and a patch of dry vegetables was tasty. The sour/mild spicy sauces compliments the dish well and both me and my girlfriend enjoyed it very much.

We only ordered one plate & it wasn’t enough. We ride away in search of the next dish to have only to find ourselves having Mi Quang (Yellow noodles served with seasoned pork slice, sauteed shrimps, peanuts, fresh vegetables and pieces of crispy bánh tráng).

Personally, I don’t really fancy Mi Quang. It was pretty normal but the noodles was special, not the yellow noodles we have here in Malaysia which isn’t a favorite amongst quite a number of people i know.

After having a satisfying lunch, we ride around the town of Hoi An and went around snapping pictures at random places.

Dresses with flowery designs are available everywhere in the town of Hoi An. At one point, we spent like just 45 minutes – 1 hour at this particular shop where she slowly chooses the dress she wants. The girlfriend was delighted to get them at a very cheap price and she kinda regretted that she didn’t get more of them.

That’s all for now. Will update more when I have the time to do so!!

The post Hoi An, Vietnam Trip 2012 Day 2 – Cycling, Nga’s Com Ga & Mi Quang for Lunch! appeared first on JOSHUAONGYS.COM.

While others have the luxury of planning a trip one year ahead booking dirt cheap AirAsia tickets, both me and my girlfriend don’t have the option to do so due to work commitments. Anyway, this trip was actually planned just 1 month ago at the end of March 2012 when Tiffanie confirmed her annual leaves.

With limited knowledge on the destination, we booked our trip to the town of Hoi An, Vietnam via Air Asia’s route to Da Nang International airport. The route was pretty new and not much Malaysians have explored the place yet, so we thought it was a good idea doing so, further more the destination was far cheaper than places like Japan, Korea, Australia & etc. Haha!

We boarded the plane in the wee hours of Sunday (29th April 2012) and reached around 10AM at Da Nang. Took a cab with 2 other random Malaysians whom we met at the airport to the town of Hoi An and reached within 45 minutes. The weather was scorching hot. We quickly checked into the hotel we stayed (Hoi An Glory Hotel & Spa) and went out shortly after to explore around the town.

Basically, the map we obtained from the hotel served no purpose in the first hour of our exploration as we walked blindly into random corner of the streets. Got these tasty snacks with Sweet Potato/Bean Paste which we finished in seconds.

Within 20 minutes, we found ourselves in a restaurant (Dao Tien Restaurant) along the river. The food there was slightly expensive compared to the common food available in the town but it was still affordable for us. We were starving as well haha!

We ordered Cha Gio Hoi An (Spring Rolls With Sweet & Sour Fish Sauce) & Cao Lau (a regional dish made with noodles, pork, herbs and vegetables and is only found in the town of Hoi An). The sping rolls were made to perfection with delicious fillings and thin crispy skin while the bowl of Cau Lau was somewhat uniquely tasty. Good meal to start off the day!

Referring back to the map, we left the restaurant and headed to the central market in the town of Hoi An. The girlfriend bought some stuffs while I took some random pictures around.

While in the market, we realize that random food stalls were set up along the road with mini chairs prepared for customers. From satay-like food to wrap with vegetables, corns to fried snacks and special drinks, the market also has merchandises with big names as well as vegetables & household items for sale.

We had this special cake bake of sweet potato with Fresh Coconut & Green Bean. It costs less than RM1 & it’s quite delicious. Must try this if you plan to visit Hoi An, eat it while it’s hot!

Went to one of the attractions at Hoi An Town which is the famous Japanese Covered bridge. Bought 2 passes which contains 10 coupons for us to visit 5 different tourist attractions, used 2 at the bridge. Took quite a number of pictures with the help of other tourists we met randomly at the bridge.

We were really tired after walking for hours. Had sugar cane & coconut juice & rested for a while.

After that we, visited Tran Family Chapel which was a religious building built of architectural influence from Japan/Chinese & Vietnam cultures. Complicated yes, they have ancient items for sale as well.

Before we decided to call it a day, we bought the special cake we had earlier back to the hotel. Also, we tried the Tau Fu Fa (No they don’t call it that) available there as well, pretty similar to the ones in KL but with a slight variation of sugar syrup.

AWESOME hot Tau Fu Fa!!!

It must be the hot weather (much hotter in KL) that we were so tired and sweaty; we skipped dinner & reached back at the hotel at 7PM. We were exhausted.

Walking wasn’t the option anymore for the remaining of our trip in the next 2 days. Will write more about it!

The post Hoi An, Vietnam Trip 2012 Day 1 – Awesome Spring Rolls, Street Food & Exploring Central Market!! appeared first on JOSHUAONGYS.COM.

Just came back from long vacation which includes 2 location. A land of 42′ degrees celcius – Hoi An, Vietnam; and our very own food paradise up north – Penang. I am much darker now thanks to the scorching sun in Vietnam but the whole vacation was super relaxing + awesome & I enjoyed it very much with my girl. Will write more about it soon. I hope!!!

Hehehehehe.

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