This time last year, I made my first visit to Vietnam and unlike most, it wasn't to Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh, my pick was Hoi An. It's located on the coast about 30 minutes by car from Danang.
It is recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Picture Melaka but better managed and that is Hoi An. It is a well-preserved example of a Southeast Asian trading port of the
15th to 19th centuries, with buildings that display a unique blend of
local and foreign influences.
The best part, the heritage area is a Vehicle Free Zone!
Unlike the crazy streets of Melaka choked with cars and motorbikes. Here hotels loan bicycles to guests to explore the streets of Hoi An
The streets are free of fast food outlets and foreign brands. Instead it's tailors, shoes makers, cafes, museums and souvenir shops that I enjoyed walking around.
To visit the museums and the Japanese Covered Bridge is by purchasing a coupon for 120,000 dong. The Japanese Covered Bridge is one of the most beautiful places to visit.
The bridge was constructed in the early 1600's by the Japanese
community, roughly 40 years before they left the city to return to Japan
under the strict policy of
sakoku enforced by the Tokugawa Shogunate, and renovated in 1986.
Today is it jammed pack with tourist and locals taking wedding photos.
But what I loved was just watching the locals do what locals do.
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