5 Houses to see & Boat ride in Hoi An

Hoi An is a town by the beach, and also by a river, and also where the river goes to the sea. In the past, it was an important Port town and many Japanese businessmen arrived in Hoi An to trade. They built up the Japanese Bridge Temple (Chùa Cầu), the icon of Hoi An.

Then, according to some change in political environment in China, a lot of Chinese people no longer welcomed by the new politics went to Hoi An too. They settled down in Vietnam and they built up their community house that are now still around for us to visit. The Chinese people came from Fujan, Canton, Hainan, Chaozhou and the respective assembly houses were for their fellow from the same region to stay before they could settle down on their own in new life in Vietnam.

I personally LOVE Chinese culture. I love Chinese food and their language. I believe that Vietnamese food is so delicious somehow because there is some blend of Chinese.

Fujian Assembly House, (Hội Quán Phước Kiến) 46 Trần Phú, Phường Minh An, Hội An

We took the chance to have some Chinese family styled photo. It is a very big and beautiful architect with many myths and legends on the wall paintings and other decorative details. The circle incense can burn for a month or more, donated by different people and their names are written in the yellow paper hanging.

Picture above is the front gardern of Fujian House, a lot of bonsai and flowers.

Middle garden of Cantonese House, very close to Japanese Bridge. Powerful Dragons flying in colors like the future of Asia. (Patriotic time, never mind me).

Back garden of Fujian House.

Why is the title 5 Houses to see? Because The Hoi An Old Town charge tourists a ticket to see its heritages houses and I think we pay 120,000 to see 5 places. Vietnamese people have an option to spend 80,000 to see 3 places. So if you see 5 places I suggest you see:

- Fujian Assembly House (Hội Quán Phước Kiến) 46 Trần Phú, Phường Minh An, Hội An

- Cantonese Assembly House (Hội Quán Quảng Đông) 176 Trần Phú, Phường Minh An, Hội An

Cantonese House is very close to Japanese Bridge temple. You don't need to tick your ticket to walk through the bridge, but they will count as one if you see the temple on the bridge. To be honest I suggest just walking by and have a look from the outside. But of course it's your choice.

- Chùa Ông - Quan Cong Temple. Quan Cong is a spiritual character that is supposed to be a powerful General. His altars are in many places in the world. The temple is right in front of Hoi An market, so very convenient to grab some food after the visit. 24 Trần Phú, Cẩm Châu, Hội An.

- Old House of Tan Ky: typical old house in Hoi An, with long shape, each end facing one street. This house has one end facing to the river, so that people could buy in merchants from the boats, and re sell merchants on the other end. Very interesting place with many ancient stuffs. One of the most interesting could be the cup of Confucius. I will spoil what is so special about that cup for you because if you go alone and without any tour guide, chances are high that they won't show you the cup. Don't take it serious, they just are too busy. Alright, the cup is in some special engineer that if you pour water in fully, water will all leak away and leave you an empty cup. But if you pour water to 80% of the cup capacity, you can have it. Moral of the cup: Don't be extreme and don't push too much.

That is why I only provide you with 4 places, make it 80%. The 5th House to see in Hoi An will be for you to decide!

(Plot twist: I'm Vietnamese so I only bought the 80,000 ticket to see 3 places)

Behind Hoi An market, there is boat port for when you want a boat ride on the Hoai river. . I think we paid 350,000 VND (~16$) to rent a whole boat for us 4 and then they suggested to add 150,000 (6,5$) to ride further toward the countryside and we ok.

If you stay in some kind of luxury hotel, in my case Vinh Hung Heritage - the only hotel in the Old Town, they give you many free things including 30 minutes boat riding, but it feels much more than 30 mins.

You can even try riding the boat on your own.

Lobby of Vinh Hung Heritage, 143 Trần Phú, Phường Minh An, Hội An

The hotel is located in an old house itself. It sells out quite quickly so if you want to grab a chance to live in an old house, you should take it early. It's more pricey than cheap places, of course. I stayed there one night and it was very lovely.

The other time I went to Hoi An, I share a big room with 2 big beds with 3 of my friends in Thanh Binh hotel. We paid 800,000VND (34,5$) per night, so each of us only pay like nearly 9$ per night and the hotel is very decent.

Hotel Thanh Binh 2, 712 Hai Ba Trung, Hoi An