Half a day, easy tour to Cat Kim Island, Hoi An with the boys on the back of the bikes.
We really wanted to get on bikes when in Hoi An as we knew it was the most popular way to get around. We pre-booked a half day tour with Hoi An Cycling before arriving thanks to reviews on trip advisor and sent a few emails just to check what the bikes were like and if it would be manageable for a 2 and 4 year old. They were great and emailed us back straight away with pictures of the bikes so we knew what to expect. You can check and book the Cam Kim Island Discovery Tour here.
Panda, the tour guide from Hoi An Cycling came to our hotel at 7:45am and took us in a taxi to the bike office where we were shown the bikes and got ourselves arranged with helmets and baby seats for the kids. We were very lucky to have a private tour that day, not through anything we had arranged or paid for, just the tour company (very cleverly with our monsters) thought it would be a good idea.
We set off for the river wobbling our way through the Hoi An streets avoiding the motorbikes and trying our best not to knock down any pedestrians. We are not cyclists and probably hadn’t been out on bikes for years! However, we quickly adjusted and were pretty confident within a short time when we arrived at the river bank ready to climb into a small boat to take us, the bikes and Panda across the short river crossing.
We were lucky that it was an overcast, cloudy day as it is pretty humid in Vietnam in July so being out in the sun would have been hard going. We meandered through fields spotting buffalos, past small houses, shops and holdings counting chickens until we arrived in the rice paddies. Panda was great at pointing things out and stopping throughout the trip and giving us information and asking any questions we had.
We continued onto the house of a war veteran who had pigs in a barn at the back which the boys loved feeding. He also made and sold rice wine which we tried with Panda – fire water! We then went to sit down and Panda told us the man’s story throughout the war and he then sang us a song on his guitar. There were other people looking after the pigs who very kindly kept the boys entertained for us so we could hear the story. The one thing we liked was there no trying to sell us anything or asking us to give money, we asked if he sold his rice wine as Phil wanted to take some home for his Dad.
When we arrived at our next stop there was a huge Mummy pig giving birth to many piglets and a Vietnamese couple bustling around trying to collect, clean and look after them all. A pretty incredible sight for us and the boys who couldn’t believe what they were seeing – queue many questions about how the piglets got there!
In this stop we learnt the process of making noodles, the boys got involved in this, spreading out the pancake like mixture and helping Panda turn the handle of the noodle making machine. Unfortunately I was a bit turned off the pork noodle lunch after watching those baby piglets come into the world 20minutes beforehand!
After this we cycled back through small villages, along the river, through a prawn farm, waving and shouting xin chao (zeen chow) to villagers and taking in the scenery before heading back to the boat and over to the mainland Hoi An.
A really unforgettable, worthwhile morning. We felt we got to see some of the ‘real’ Vietnam and interacted with many local people all who were welcoming and friendly and made the boys feel like superstars. Hoi An Cycling were brilliant and we would thoroughly recommend booking a tour through them, super kid-friendly, informative and patient.
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