Hoi An, Vietnam, one of our favorite cities in the world

Phillip and I are nearing the end of our six nights in Hoi An, Vietnam. This has been our third visit here (here in 2018 and 2023) and Hoi An remains a charming location with great people and a very walkable city area with its Old Town a designated UNESCO Word Heritage site. We are so fortunate to be able to stay in contact with Vi and her family, owners of Denovo Spa in Hoi An. Our first order of business here was to visit with them. Their hospitality and generosity know no bounds. They invited us to have lunch with them at the spa, a delicious beef curry that Tracey, Vi's sister-in-law prepared. We were so happy to meet Moon, Tracey's sister who had been traveling during our last visit. 

We didn't spend our entire time visiting with Moon, Tracey, Vi and the rest of the family, we also revisited locations in Hoi An, such as the river at night with its lanterns and brightly decorated boats.

Phillip got a haircut here. The barber did a good job.

Our hotel, the Hoi An Historic Hotel is quite nice with a large room. 

The grounds are extensive with a lot of outdoor seating in the shade. We will stay in this hotel again on our next visit to Hoi An. 

We ate tasty pho and bun cha.

On Monday, June 1, we took an ATV ride into the countryside. Phillip drove the 4-wheeler the entire tour so I could take pictures. It was evident that the 4-wheelers were not taken care of as well as we took care of ours when we had the ranch. 

The ride was still fun as we passed the bovine road maintenance workers.

We had seen the tractors working in the rice paddies, but this time, we saw one parked near the field and could really look at its rear tires, specifically designed for the flooded fields.

Our guide, Hau, took us on paths thru the rice paddies. They were narrow and sometimes rutted causing Phillip to have to work at steering the 4-wheeler so we didn't end up in the water-logged paddies.

We also went thru the jungle where we saw workers harvesting the trees in an area. I didn't catch the name of the trees, but they were harvested after four years of growth to be made into paper. 

Before the tour was complete, we came up behind the truck taking the harvested trees out of the jungle.

Phillip was the most experienced 4-wheeler driver of the group. We were also the oldest participants, so Hau had put us right behind her 4-wheeler. Several times, we had to stop so that the others could catch up with us! During one stop in the jungle, I noticed this guy on a nearby tree.

After a few hours of 4-wheelering, we returned to our starting point for a delicious barbecue lunch.

Moon invited us to her house for dinner on Tuesday. She lives fairly close to Denovo Spa, but she decided it was too far for us to walk so she took Phillip on her motorcycle and I rode with one of the other family members. 

Tracey, Moon, and the other sisters-in-law prepared a delicious meal! We were all stuffed when we finished. Vi sat next to me and kept sneaking more food into my bowl until I started covering it with my hand! They had watermelon, mango, apples, and dragon fruit for dessert. Phillip and I were so honored to be invited to join the family at their home for such a wonderful meal. 

Today, our last full day in Hoi An, we finally made it the 5 km to the beach. Hoi An is on the river that leads to the beach, but not on the beach itself like Danang is. We took a Grab from our hotel to Hoi An's Cua Dai Beach then walked north. 

Hoi An suffered a record-breaking flood last year, a typhoon brought 3.5 meters of water flooding into Hoi An. The beach area, however, also had wind damage. Not everything has been repaired yet at the beach.

We walked about three miles in the sand.

Once we had to leave the beach for a few hundred yards because construction equipment blocked access. The crane that was pounding in piers is visible in this picture.

We caught a Grab back to our hotel from An Bang Beach, considered Hoi An's northern beach even though it isn't close to Old Town. Now, having washed the sand off of us, we are relaxing in the air conditioning before we head out later for our last evening in Hoi An. Tomorrow, we take a car to the Danang Airport, a plane to Hanoi, and an overnight train to Sapa. Sapa is in the northern mountain area of Vietnam, and the daytime temperature is 77 degrees!