First Day in HOI AN, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 It's So Beautiful Here!

♪♪ Good morning from Hoi An. We arrived yesterday. We came from Da Nang, which was only a 35-minute drive down the coast towards here. And I think we are already in love with this place. Look at his face. How can you not love Hoi An? We haven't explored town yet, but look at this place we're staying at. Surrounded by the paddy fields. I think we definitely made the right choice booking this place. And we got really lucky because right now the rice fields are all green and it's very beautiful. And in the evening, we see a lot of local families and kids just coming to fly kites. It's just a very romantic setting, yeah. There are some crazy kites too. There's some small ones and some are car-sized kites. Like a huge octopus in the sky. That was our first time seeing a flying octopus. So if you come to Hoi An and you don't mind staying six minutes outside of the old town, then we recommend this hotel. It's called Hoi An Tranquil Lodge. It is a beautiful boutique hotel. The service is excellent. The rooms are big. Huge bed. Huge bathroom. Very comfortable because we spent the night here already. So we paid $35 a night for this room and it includes breakfast. And we should go and grab breakfast before we head out for a full day of adventures. Rentals available for you for free. Or like us, you can also rent a motorbike which was $130,000 per day. So right now we're just going to head over to meet our morning tour group. And we'll head off to go to the bamboo basket boats by the river. So it's only a 7-8 people group. Oh. Nice and small group. Yeah, I was expecting it to be a bit more. Looks like we're going to be doing a lot today. We're going to first go to the local market. Do a little shopping. And then we head to the coconut forest where we do the famous Hoi An basket boat. And she even mentioned karaoke. Curious what that is. How do you sing on the boat? Maybe they have the giant karaoke machine on the boat. I'm not surprised because everywhere we go in Vietnam we've been just seeing random karaoke happening. We were at the gym the other day and then they were just karaoke-ing. In front of the gym. Outside. What do you call this again? Fish lips. Yeah, this is a fish lip. It has a fishy smelling. Very fishy. So we're walking through the market here and we just went through the meat section. Now we're in the seafood section. And it's just so interesting to see how most of the vendors and the butchers and the fishmongers are all women here versus back in Canada for example most of the butchers are men because you think they need to be stronger to cut it but these ladies here, they're really really strong and super efficient at handling the protein, the meat, the fish here. Want some unagi? Is that eel? Yeah. Oh, they freak me out. They're slow. They're slow in the bucket. When you take them out, they're so slimy. Yeah, they're really fast. I like her cover though. The cover is... The fan. It's the fan cover. So there's actually a double purpose for coming to this market this morning. First, we are learning about the vegetables learning about the markets in Vietnam but the second purpose is that we are buying ingredients for our cooking class that's happening after our boat tour. So she has these two tiny bags that she's filling up with certain ingredients that we will need. Now we know all the ingredients are fresh. Yeah, so later when we start a cooking class we'll kind of already know what we're using so it's actually a great way to introduce that to us this morning. Oh, we sit in the front? Yeah. You have enough room there? Yeah. You got the front row. Front row seat. Xin chào. I think that's our boat. He seemed wild. Are we getting on with the wildest boat driver? What's his name? Tuong. Tuong? Tuong. Tuong, right. Good pronunciation. So if you look up things to do in Hoi An this is one of the top things you have to do. And it's actually not far from the main city. I thought we would have to drive like an hour out or something from the old town but it was only 10 minutes away so it's perfect for a morning or afternoon. And so far, it's just really relaxing. You know what? It's surprisingly steady even though the bottom of the basketball is round. And he's only using one paddle. Oh, you try. Okay. You try. Okay, I try. Ready? Oh, okay. Why are we spinning? We're going in circles. That doesn't seem right. Hold on, there must be a way to do this. Why are we going in circles? Maybe you have to pull towards you. Yeah, teamwork. Wow. I like that, these kind of boats. Not motor boats. It's nice and quiet. Yeah, it's nice and quiet and peaceful. Is it though? For now. I can already hear a lot of music in front of us. Looks like there's a party ahead of us. Real quick, we just wanted to say a quick thank you to Get Your Guide for sponsoring this video. Get Your Guide is an online platform where you can book unforgettable travel experiences around the world. We know how it can be overwhelming planning your vacation. That's why we always do a little search on Get Your Guide to see what curated activities they have to offer. In Hoi An, there are tons of activities to choose from. From learning how to make lanterns to morning bicycle tours. And all the tours are hosted by verified local tour operators. We decided on this Hoi An day tour because of its amazing reviews by travelers who actually completed the tour. Get Your Guide provides detailed tour information and booking is super easy. You can check the availability right on the website and they have a very lenient cancellation policy as well. We think Get Your Guide is a great resource for anyone planning their next trip. Go to their website or download their app to browse over 60,000 curated experiences in more than 3,600 destinations worldwide. You might just find your next unforgettable experience there. What's going on here? I don't even know how to explain this. There's a boat show? The crazy part was just the small part. And this part is beautiful and very, very peaceful. So if you're coming to Hoi An, I think it's still something that you should experience. But maybe try to come on a weekday when it's less busy because this is so popular not just with foreign tourists but also for local Vietnamese. And yeah, a weekday will probably be slightly quieter, not as crazy. We're starting to cook now. We're cooking four dishes today, right? Four dishes. And it'll be the best meal we had in Vietnam, right? I will help you bring the food. Okay. We'll have food coma after this. Does this make you want to go back and work in the kitchen? Not quite, now that I enjoy just eating so much. Cooking is hard. But this is fun. Cooking is meditative. Okay. I believe you. Press and pull. At the same time, pull. And everything you need in the center. Move. Three times. One, two, three. Finish in the center. No more. Perfect. What are you talking about? You make the outside a little bit thinner. That's the trick. So that when I fold, it's easier. Here we go. One, two, three. Go. Wow. That's not bad. And one turn. No, direct to one turn. Okay. Take a plate. Not fragile, huh? Oh. Oh, no. Be careful. No, it will stick. Okay. Hey. Like him. It's wrong already. Okay. Oh, you saved it. Thank you. Okay. Now, we put the stuffing that we made. This looks delicious. Very good. Knock, knock. Who's there? Daisy. Daisy who? They see me rolling. It's so good, but it's so good. And top it with our sauce that we made. Garlic fish sauce. And chili. Fried shallots. Look at that. Everything made from scratch. Flavor of love. Is it the best? That's delicious. That's so delicious. Wow. We made Banh Xeo before on the Mekong Delta tour, but it's very different. Yeah, each region kind of does it differently. So here, you wrap it inside this rice paper roll and it's so crispy and it's small. The other one we made was like a huge pancake. Yeah, in a wok. Yeah. Let's try this. Cheers. That's good. Wow. It's a different type of food. Cleaner. All three dishes were delicious. This is our last dish. They made us a dessert, which is a Mang Dean. With coconut milk. Yeah, and peanuts. Roasted peanuts on top. I like that. But a lot of people couldn't even finish this because we ate so much food. This tour is worth it just with the food alone. We paid $35 a person for this tour and it includes the pickup, the market tour, the boat tour, cooking class, all of this. And drop-off. It's a really good deal. And if you want to do the same tour as we did, we'll leave the link in the description box below. It is just after 1pm, so we're going to finish this and head back to our hotel. Relax a little bit and we'll take you with us to explore the old town this evening. So we've now made our way to the walking street here in Hoi An, which is the most popular attraction here. You just can't help but stop and take photos with the flowers, with the lanterns, at all these old buildings. It's really, really beautiful. I think the most beautiful walking street in all of Southeast Asia. I feel like I could spend hours walking down these alleys. It's good to see though that tourism is back now in Hoi An. The sun is setting now, so let's go find a rooftop bar so we can enjoy the sunset. You mean like the one right there? That one looks pretty nice. This is pretty amazing. Now you can really feel that it is an old town when you look at the rooftops. These are really, really old houses. Could you live here? I could live here because knowing that the touristy central area is kind of along here. Once you just go 5-10 minutes outside of here, you have calm places with rice fields. It's just really, really peaceful. And the food has been amazing. We noticed that in the daytime, it's not actually that busy around town. But it's only around this time and later in the evening that the whole old town is just packed with people. And I think that is because most people come from Da Nang and they just come for the evening. They don't actually stay in Hoi An overnight. So then they come and that's why suddenly the town is just booming at night. But we get to enjoy the daytime which is amazing and it's so lovely. So I think staying in Hoi An is the way to do it. Beer Saigon to close up the night. I honestly think 3 nights in Hoi An is not enough. It's just our first day. We still have 2 nights but we already seem like we're missing it already. Like I don't want to leave. And we not only enjoyed Hoi An so much, we also enjoyed Da Nang a lot. I think this combination of places is a must-try, must-go-to for any travelers who are thinking to come to Vietnam. It's just beautiful. It's so beautiful and I think you'll really love it. We had an amazing day in Hoi An. Thank you so much for watching and as always, have a wonderful day. We'll see you in the next one. Bye! Thank you for watching!