Did We Crack The Hội An Code? Or Are We Crazy?
By Lauren Gerzina & Justin Hayes
Lantern-Making, Pampering Ourselves, and More Mezcal
Apparently, no one stays in Hoi An for 6 days. But we are.
At every shop, restaurant, and tour we do, we are asked two questions: “Where are you from?” and “How long are you in Hội An?” The answer to the first question usually doesn’t lead anywhere — just a polite “Oh” or “Oh. New York City?” Classic. But the second answer always shocks them. “We are here for 6 nights — leaving on Tuesday.” Then we get the looks. And the “Wow.” And the silent “why??” Rinse and repeat with every local we meet.
It seems most tourists stay in Hội An for three days, tops — but never 7. We have been thoroughly enjoying every day here, flying by the seat of our pants mostly. There is so much to do in this beautiful town and so much to see, eat, and buy. So why do we seem to be the only ones staying for so long? Did we do Hoi An the wrong way? Because so far, it feels like the right way to enjoy this city. Perhaps it’s because this is the first time we have been able to slow down since before the wedding. Or maybe the city has so many hidden charms that most tourists don’t have enough time to find them.
Regardless, we seem to fill our days nicely and would never have wanted only three days here.
We started the morning as usual, going to get breakfast/coffee at a cute nearby restaurant and relaxing while writing this blog and chatting about what we want to do with the day. We went back to Ellie’s Cafe (we went there for lunch a few days ago), and Lauren decided she wanted to do a proper “brunch”. You see, Lauren thinks that any meal before noon at a restaurant is brunch. And it is even more like brunch if there is a sweet and a savory aspect to it. So she ordered two meals — the pumpkin toast and the granola pancakes. And both dishes were absolutely phenomenal. Justin ordered an English breakfast with the GF substitution for the bread — some brown rice crackers. He enjoyed this English breakfast way more than other ones he has had in Vietnam.
We then parted ways for a few hours as Lauren decided to take a lantern making class which teaches you every aspect all the way from how to created the bamboo frame. Justin decided his hair was too long in this heat, so he opted for a Vietnamese hair cut.
Lauren’s Lantern-Making Class
After a quick Grab ride to the lantern class, Lauren got to the shop a bit early. It seems that the shop runs these classes in waves. As people finish their lanterns, they duck out and every hour on the hour a new class begins. There were two class options everyone was working on: the express (premade lantern frame) and the full class (build the frame and then decorate). Lauren opted for the full class since we had done the class with premade lantern frame during the tour on our first day.
At the beginning of the class, the family (three brothers and one sister who all live in the house this class is in) explained the history of why the lanterns are so popular in Hội An and the different types of lanterns with their names. In the class, they only teach how to make the “garlic” lanterns but they could be in a “sunrise” or “sunset” style (depending on if the bulge of the lantern was near the top or bottom). These configurations are made exactly the same way — the only difference is which direction you install the hanging frame.
Lauren got to work quickly stringing bamboo sticks onto wire frame, separating these sticks, bending them, and placing them into the grooves of premade wooden top and bottom pieces. This gave the overall shape of the lantern which the hanger was then added to. Afterwards, a string was woven around the widest point of the latern frame and tied off. Then came the fun part of gluing and placing silk pieces onto the frame. There was lots of pasting, cutting to fit, and trying to make the edges not look jagged as if a five year old cut the silk. In the end, she created a pink and black lantern to hang in our home in Nashville for good luck and happiness.
Justin’s Haircut Adventure
Justin got a recommendation for haircut place from Mint, one of our Airbnb hosts. The shop was very close to our place and the custom clothing store we are getting our clothes from. Justin wanted a haircut and a shave and was hoping they would also do a head massage as many of the reviews said that was included. Apparently, unlike the Vietnamese barber shop Justin used to frequent in D.C., you have to explicitly ask for the head/shoulder massage. Still, the haircut and shave were nice and quick.
When Justin went to pay, they asked to be paid in cash, but unbeknownst to him, he didn’t have enough cash on him. He asked if there was an ATM nearby and the owner/manager told him that one of the staff could take him to one — on a motorbike. So after struggling to adjust the helmet to fit Justin’s big head, he clumsily got on the bike and was told to put his hands on the waste of the driver, hold on, and relax. Honestly, it was a fun ride and not as scary as expected given how crazy some of the motorbike traffic can be around here.
He pulled the cash out, headed back to the shop, paid, tipped generously, and then went back to the Airbnb. They were cleaning our room, and Justin accidentally scared them when he went up to grab some sunscreen.
Apparently, when Justin is left to his own devices, he seems to find himself in awkward situations.
Back Together
After being separated for a full two hours, we rejoined at a local Vietnamese restaurant called Com Linh. Justin ordered the duck, rice, and bok choy dish (shocker), and Lauren ordered a young mango salad with chicken skewers. Both dishes were delicious.
We decided we were really stressed out from all the tasks we had been doing the past week, so why not get a full body massage at a highly rated spa in town. We walked 10 min in some crazy heat and finally arrived at Five Senses Spa where we ordered a couples massage. Apparently they were super busy so they offered to drive us to their sister location so we could get a massage immediately.
During the five minute ride across town (which ended up being really close to our Airbnb), the driver told us there were over 300 massage places in town. This was unsurprising to us given the amount of spas we have seen during our adventuring. It seems there are three to four every block with people outside begging you to to come inside. We arrived at our new spa and were greeted with a quick foot bath. Then they brought us upstairs to a private air conditioned room where we had an amazing massage. Lauren somehow got a short nap in during this. Shocking. When we were done, they brought us downstairs and gave us cold water, mango candies, and some sweet coconut crackers that Justin could eat. And he loved them! They even gave us an entire package of these crackers so Justin was REALLY happy.
We walked back to the Airbnb and went for a refreshing dip in the pool. This heat and humidity makes it rough to even walk five minutes from a spa to hotel it seems so the pool has been nice for a refresher.
After the pool, we went back to the custom clothing shop for another fitting of some of the new clothes that Lauren ordered and adjustments made to the other ones. We should hopefully have one more fitting before everything will be ready. Our clothing sherpa named Hong Le noticed that Justins pants were swallowing his feet since he has tiny legs and it’s often hard to find pants that fit him length-wise, so she offered to hem them for us to pick up tomorrow. (See the pictures in the gallery below for a preview of some of the new items).
After our fitting, we headed back to the Airbnb to get ready for dinner and drinks at the Dia De Los Muertos party at the Mezcal bar. Before dinner, we had to make a pit stop at the shoe store to try on Lauren’s boots and Justin’s dress shoes. Lauren also decided to get a matching belt, because why not.
At dinner, we had tacos, chips and guacamole, and some mahi mahi and prawn ceviche, which was all very good as per last time. We talked to the owner’s wife again who told us about the process for non-Vietnamese to open up a restaurant/bar. To rent any building in Hoi An, you must be a local or have a local partner. And because it’s a UNESCO world heritage site, there are tons of rules about what sort of decor and renovations you can do in your shop. But you can still bribe your way to get things you want if you know the right people.
Then we headed upstairs for the party. The party started at 7:30pm, but because we like to eat early, we arrived at the bar about 30 minutes before it started. We grabbed two seats at the end of the bar next to two ladies who had accidentally happened upon the bar and decided: why not join the party? We received free welcome drinks which were amazing but we had NO idea what was in them since they were not on the menu and made just for the party.
We eventually got to chatting with the girls next to us about the amazing drinks, and it turned into a full conversation for the next 3 hours of the party. They were from Brisbane, Australia so naturally Lauren had lots to talk about and enjoyed showing off her amazing Aussie lingo like “brekkie” and “Brizzy”. The line for face painting had slowed a bit, so Lauren went over to get her face painted again and the lady doing the facepainting was the same as Thursday night. She painted Lauren’s face in the same colors as her dress which really pulled the outfit all together (PS. Lauren brought exactly one dress for the entire trip). As soon as Lauren got back to join the chat with the others, Justin decided to get a half face which was inspired by Two Face (of Batman fame). It looked amazing.
We all continued to order delicious drinks over the course of the night and talked about everything from travel, work, to Justin’s fear of Australia. At 10:15, we decided it was getting late (this was already the latest we had stayed up for the entire trip) and started to pack up. But we realized that the bar had hired a professional photographer to take fun Dia de Los Muertos pictures. So naturally, we had to get some taken. The photographer was surprisingly really into it and gave lots of cool poses for us to do. We are looking forward to getting these pictures back. Our new Aussie friends, Pip and Elle, took pictures and videos of our photography experience so you can check out the sneak preview below.
We then walked with the Aussies to a street that allowed for car pick up (most of Hoi An old town does not allow cars). We said good byes with some promises to try to meet up in Hanoi since our travels will overlap a bit or even Brizzy when Lauren goes their for work in 2024. We spent a good amount of time in the Airbnb trying to get our face paint off and eventually passed out around 11.
Staying up until 11 isn’t our usual M.O. on this trip, but it was worth it for the good drinks and conversation.
