Vietnam 2 - Hoi An - Finding our way & Food Tour

So here we are, in a smallish hotel in Hoi An Vietnam, absolutely delirious with jet lag. 

However, if we are to live here for the next three months there are things that need to get attended to – namely how to communicate and how to find our way around, and then how to eat (beyond restaurants) and ultimately where shall we sleep. 

Basic – yes?

First things first – communication.  We brought our smart phones with us with the plan to get a local SIM card.  It turns out that there are counters in the arrivals baggage area to purchase local SIM cards.  It does require your phone to be unlocked, which mine was not, but Bob’s was, so we quickly purchased a SIM card for his phone (very inexpensive, and it included data and even foreign calls apparently, all done before the bags arrived).  The biggest benefits of the internet data access have been Google Translate and Google Maps. 

Let me tell you straight off that I have no illusions that I will be able to do much in Vietnamese other than say thank you, hello, good by etc.  Google Translate is a wonderful thing, and people here are using it too to communicate with the visiting foreigners.  The minute we stumble along with asking a question they whip their phones out and turn right to Google Translate.

Ultimately we did get the other phone unlocked and another SIM card purchased and installed.  So – now we can communicate (with each other and the world) and…. we can find our way back to the hotel, or to where ever it is we want to go…… tremendously helpful.  The streets in Hoi An are fairly well marked which is a bonus so with addresses (as found on the internet of course) we have managed to find our way around quite well (on foot).  No attempt yet at a bicycle though they and motor scooters are plentiful.  I have even used Google Translate to communicate with a taxi driver.

Eating here is a total treat.  The food in the restaurants is delicious.  We have not had a bad meal yet.  It is also remarkably inexpensive – that is at least in the places we have tried.  As far as I can tell there are some swanky hotels here that will sell you a fancy meal, but if you want to try local specialties what you are eating is the same food on nicer dishes and paying quite a bit more.

To stay here for 3 months means, of course, that we need to step out beyond tourist focused restaurants and into the markets.  Plus, when faced with an area full of vendors, street foods and restaurants we need to know what we want to order, and what some of the stuff actually is. 

Street Food tour to the rescue.

Street Food Tour

Mystery Fruit, until the tour

One of my Christmas gifts this year was a street food tour which was run by some ex-pat Australians.  This was terrifically useful as we got to try about 40 different things (in very small quantities of course) so now know that we liked those things (or didn’t).  We also got a list of what we had eaten which has proven to be very useful. The tour included time in the market trying different fruits which for a couple of Canadians was very helpful since most of the fruit is unknown to us.