Second stage of my trip to this country, Hoi An enchanted me and reconciled with Vietnam after the disappointment of Ho-Chi-Minh-City. I love this city and I will return with pleasure. However, there are some negative points and I will start with this to finish on the positive:

The beaches

The promise

Having read in different places that there were wonderful beaches here, and in particular the beach of Ha My, presented by the site authentikvietnam.com as one of the most beautiful in Asia, I admit that I was a little disappointed. Here’s what we can read on the site:

"A strip of extremely white and clean sand stretching as far as the eye can see is bordered on one side by green filaos and coconut trees, and on the other side, turquoise waters. The resort is remarkable for gentle slopes with secret corners, surrounded by such a wild setting where you will be quiet to enjoy your stay. ”

The reality

Ha My beach is indeed a beach of fine white sand, but it is far from clean. Like many beaches in the world, there is a lot of waste from the sea. This can be explained by the storm that occurred the week before my arrival. Perhaps this storm also explains that the turquoise waters are not there? The water is dark gray or brown as you want, it is absolutely not transparent, and you can’t see anything from the seabed in this place. It is not unpleasant to swim there; of course the water is hot, we walk relatively far and there are small waves that provide a very nice thalasso.

On the other hand, it is better to look at the sea side, because if we look inland the idyllic image takes a good hit.

See the photos below

It is possible that I did not come to the right season, and that there are times in the year when we find this magnificent water sold in the guides.

Although I was not very connected to organised activities, I thought I found this authenticity that I did not have on this beach by going on a day trip to the Cham Islands.

On the program departure by fast boat then 45 minutes of snorkelling to admire the fish and seabed, then typical seafood meal in a beach restaurant, small stop in a fishing village before returning to Hoi An.

The islands are very beautiful, the white sandy beach, the coconut trees, the beautiful colour of the water, everything is there for the charm to operate.

Unfortunately again it’s the disappointment. The snorkelling takes place in a place where the water is very far from transparent, there is very little underwater fauna, in the end I would see some starfish some beautiful corals, and very few of these multicoloured fish that we see on all the photos in the guides.

The typical meal provides the same disappointment, shared by my table companions, two very friendly Germans.

But then why am I a fan of Hoi An?

The city

This old fishing village is beautiful.

The houses that are several centuries old and are built on end sides of the river, have a very interesting architecture. They are spread around small streets and the two sides of the river are connected by several bridges.

The whole city is a market.

You can buy pretty much everything you want, including beautiful custom-made clothes, leather goods that seem to be of very good quality, of course a lot of counterfeiting of different products, the classic Dior bag or other great French brand, but also and it is more surprising we find in abundance of stores offering North Face brand products, which despite being counterfeit products obviously seem of excellent quality. This is how you can buy down jackets and mountain jackets in a country where it is always more than 30°. There are also plenty of shoes, obviously souvenirs, and you can eat in various places between the massage parlours.

I stayed three days in Hoi An, and I ate well everywhere.

The main feature of this city is that it is very lively in the evening since on both sides of the river it is a huge night market illuminated by the countless lanterns while on the river many boats also illuminated by these same lanterns.

It’s a magnificent show, I went back three days in a row.

It is a very romantic and very pleasant place that of course welcomes many European tourists but also many Vietnamese who come from surrounding cities or more distant destinations such as Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi.

I will return with great pleasure to Hoi An on my next trip to Vietnam.