Hoi An Full Moon Festival
The Hoi An Full Moon Festival happens on the evening of the 14th day of every lunar month. It is the day when residence of Hoi An offer their monthly prayers. On this evening, the streets light are turned off and the town is only lighted up by lanterns.
We took the 3pm free shuttle from Angsana and got to Hoi An Old Town at around 5pm. It was a long ride. Upon arrival we made our way into this UNESCO World Heritage Site. During our previous trip to Hoi An a few years ago, we did not have to pay an entrance fee. This time round that was an entrance charge. For international visitors, it cost VND120,000 per pax. It included free entry to 5 attractions and a tratuonal art show. But as it was not our first time here and we had visited most of the places previously, we did not make us of the free entrance pass.
As our dinner reservation was at 6.30pm, we wandered around went over to the Japanese Bridge to take some photos since it was dusk and lighting was good.
As we wondered around the streets, we saw shop keepers preparing for their prayer offerings that evening. It was the Full Moon Festival. One every 14th of the lunar month, the locals hold their monthly prayer offerings. This is also the time when the street lights are turned off at night and the town is lighter up by the traditional lanterns.
Top left: Locals preparing prayer offerings for that night.
My favourite boutique in Vietnam is Ginkgo. It has interesting locally designed Tshirts. Here you can find fun Tshirts with local themes and they are of good quality. Definitely not mop shirts but then they are not cheap. You get what you pay for. They have a shop at Hoi An Old Town near Morning Glory Restaurant where we were going to for dinner.
As we wonder the streets, it started getting dark and the lanterns along the streets were all being lighted up. It was amazingly beautiful.
We then headed to Morning Glory Restaurant for our dinner. This was our favorite restaurant from our previous trip and we so wanted to eat here again. I had emailed the restaurant for a reservation as this is a very popular restaurant and is always full.
We ordered several appetizers and main courses to share. We like the appetizers in Vietnam more than the main courses!
We had spring rolls (VND85,000), green mango salad (VND98,000) and white rose dumpling (VND85,000). White rose dumpling is a speciality of Central Vietnam. All were yummy! ?
Then we had the prawn on sugar cane (VND115,000). It is a prawn pattie wrapped around a sugar cane and fried. It is eaten as a wrap using Vietnamese rice paper. You remove the prawn pattie from the sugar cane, add the fresh herbs and garnishing and wrap it with the rice paper. We shared 2 servings of this.
Banh Xeo (VND75,000) is another Central Vietnam specialty. The crispy pancake is made with mung bean flour. Again, the pancake is eaten as a wrap with rice paper. We had 2 servings of this too. We love this and have been craving for it! ?
For the mains, we shared 2 servings of Bun Cha (VND125,000), a dry rice noodle dish served with grilled pork. We also had a BBQ chicken skewer dish with rice (VND155,000). For vegetable, we ordered the fried morning glory (VND85,000).
We had a wonderful meal. So glad we came here. This is good Vietnamese food and a much welcomed change after the less than satisfying meals that we had been having at the Angsana.
After dinner, we wondered to the river to see the festivities of the evening. Vendors were selling paper lanterns for guest to float on the river. This is a monthly tradition in Hoi An. One can also rent a boat service to take you up and down the river to enjoy the festivities and release your paper lantern from the boats. Otherwise, you can release the lanterns from the river banks.
We decided to have a boat ride. We got our lanterns and got on to our boat. It was a pleasant boat ride on that cool evening. We didn’t do this on our previous trip. We all had fun releasing our lanterns and making our wishes. It was fun!
After this we wondered across the river to the lantern shops that I remember from our previous trip. I wanted to get some lanterns which are great decorations for Chinese New Year. They are also so much cheaper here than if I were to get them in Singapore. They also have so much more choices and variety here.
After more browsing, it was time to catch our shuttle bus back to the hotel. We took the 9pm shuttle leaving Hoi An and were back in Angsana around 11pm.
It was a enjoyable evening and I was glad that I finally get to go back to Hoi An for its Full Moon Festival after so many years!