We really tried to experiment with food, try different places, try different dishes - we really tried. In Hoi An though, we fell off the wagon when we came across Mango Rooms and its sister restaurant, Mango Mango. Mango Rooms is a restaurant on the banks of the river, and has views over to the bridge. It is painted in vivid colours, serves up cocktails aplenty and the best green papaya salad I have ever tasted. Sitting there sucking back cocktails, papaya salad, looking out past the palms to the locals riding past on bicycles along the river - I felt like I was in Cuba which was bizarre. The music probably wasn't helping. We found that the place was incredibly laid back and relaxing, and almost went back there every afternoon over our four days there - I recommend the salad!
Sister restaurant Mango Mango was also good, but was a little heavy on the flavour, meals here were also quite expensive compared to other restaurants in Hoi An. We still really enjoyed eating there - again they had delicious cocktails, a great view and laid back vibe so we spent quite a bit of time there. So much so the staff ended up giving us complimentary dishes!
We did try some other restaurants, Green Moss, a few bars and some riverside restaurants but while they were all fine we also decided that our days were limited and we needed to inhale as much green papaya salad and cheap cocktails as possible, these other restaurants were just getting in the way of us and Mango Rooms.
Looking across the main river to Hoi An, from mango mango
mango mango in Hoi An
mango mango meals
Vietnamese cocktails, super cheap and usually nasty - but the mango mango ones were tasty!
Mango Rooms in Hoi An - would be a crime not to have their papaya salad
beef salad
Mango rooms view out to the river
I haven't mentioned much about the hotel we stayed at this entire time, but have written a lengthy review on this on tripadvisor: Orchid Garden Homestay review
Not the most positive of reviews, I was really looking forward to Orchid Garden Homestay and unfortunately it didn't live up to my expectations.
Enjoyed reading your blog. I have just returned from Vietnam and am trying to work out the best way of writing a trip report/blog after the event.
ReplyDeleteI think I read somewhere in your blog that you decided to write it some weeks after you returned. Am I correct that the dates of the blog entries are not the actual dates you were there?
I've looked at travelblog but that has so many ads. I have used blogger( the one you use - not sure if that's the correct name) so will probably use that again, but there's the problem of the 'backwards' chronological order.
You have some beautiful images and a very readable style.
Gerri
bolandg@westnet.com.au
Hi Gerri,
ReplyDeleteYou are right, the dates are not the dates I was travelling but the dates I posted the entries. I find it hard to write updates when I am overseas - usually harder to access the internet and/or I get tired!
I think Blogger and Wordpress are the best, and I agree with the backwards chronological order being annoying sometimes but all blogs seem to work that way, I am no expert but I have seen some people do summary posts with their itinerary and links to each post so that people can easily read it in the correct order.
I think the best thing is to always include lots of labels and archive links so that people can use them to navigate as well.
Please let me know when you have started your blog, I would love to read and reminisce!
Cheers :)
Thanks for your reply Ponderosa. I will let you know when I have completed my blog.
ReplyDeleteGerri