Crafting a mother-daughter trip in Hôi An full of treasured moments

Returning to Vietnam with her daughter in tow, Jac Taylor goes in search of bespoke couture, authentic experiences and memory-making moments in Hôi An and the hills beyond.

The sky is turning to bronze as the sun dips beyond the roofline of the merchant houses along the edge of the canal. Here in Hôi An, the ‘Venice of the East’ in Central Vietnam, there is a bit of a moment – almost a collective breath held for a split second by the gathering throngs. As with every evening in the night markets, that collective breath is expelled with a soft, joyful “aaaah” as the town’s famous silk lanterns crisscrossing Nguyen Phuc Chu Street come alive with light.

The many lantern stores are suddenly the most popular shops as the last of the twilight fades. Families pose for photos amid the jewel-toned hues, then eagerly sign up for the next day’s lantern-making workshops offered throughout the Old Town area.

Hôi An lanterns shine a different kind of glamour.

I have brought my own child here, too, to sink deep into experiencing the Hôi An I last visited more than 10 years ago and have dreamed of sharing with her ever since. The crowds are certainly greater, thanks in part to a domestic tourism boom, and its continued placement as a beloved UNESCO World Heritage site. But still it remains Hôi An. Hôi An, the whimsical. Hôi An, the creative and clever. Hôi An, the truly original.

Thu Bôn River is a hive of activity in Hôi An’s Old Town. (Image: Jeremy Simons)

This is a town of artisans and it is still so easy to sidestep the usual souvenir stalls to find Hôi An’s craftspeople offering delightfully unique mementos, both in terms of items and experiences. Over in a grand 200-year-old merchant house, now home to the Hôi An Handicraft Workshop, Vietnamese and overseas tourists join in making traditional opera masks.

Noodles being prepared for cao lau, a dish Hôi An is known for. (Image: Thomas Levine Photography/Alamy)

Upriver or here in town, boutique cooking classes await travellers wanting to make their own rice noodles or pho. For those who are happy for others to do the crafting, the town’s famous model ship store ranges from brow-raisingly affordable through to ridiculously detailed – and more deservedly priced.

Local specialties found at Hôi An Central Market. (Image: Jeremy Simons)

Homemade and handmade in Hôi An

Our own mother-daughter shopping adventure here is the most glorious mission we could conceive: to outfit ourselves, head to toe, in the best Hôi An could create for us (budget allowing). The entire idea is laced with decadence, especially for a 10-year-old in a high-street sundress. But this is a town that makes decadence doable.

You can tell the travellers who have been to Hôi An before. They have their favourite tailors and other artisans – from linen suits to bamboo bikes, handwoven rugs to portrait painting. There is no end to the bespoke delights one can custom order on day one, only to have it all in hand by day two – with day three set aside just in case of emergency re-fits. The travellers who know don’t organise their days with locked-in tours but rather sign up on the fly to craft classes and cooking schools, to fit around a schedule of sittings and fittings.

Silk weaving is one of the many local crafts. (Image: Jeremy Simons)

Keeping this in mind on the first of our three days, we set out determined to find our bespoke outfits, strolling through street after street full of tailors. Sharply dressed mannequins interrupt us intermittently on the footpath to proffer a stop, a squint at the stitching and a feel of the fabric. If all is well, we are coaxed in for flick through the pattern books, a measure-up in front of the mirror and, before our first bowl of thick, chewy Quang noodles for lunch, we have already ordered bespoke dresses each and a suit for me.

With my daughter in tow, I find I want to give her the thrill of luxe travel – things we could never afford to experience at home, like bespoke couture – with authentic connection to the people and land we’re visiting. And this, Hôi An can provide.

Hôi An is still homemade and handmade if you concentrate on buying mindfully and shopping local – from clothes to shoes and even jewellery. Although a larger store, Lotus Jewellery is known for its locally designed and crafted treasures made of sterling silver, pearls and gems. I deliberate over a stunning silver necklace that would be three times as much back home. Although it’s not even $100, I am given impeccable attention in the store and feel like a million dollars when I leave, a uniquely designed necklace purchased for each of us.

The atmospheric streets lined with colourful lanterns. (Image: Jeremy Simons)

On our final night, I see my daughter’s face shining with excitement and independence within her cyclo rick shaw, pedalled at speed ahead of my own as we whiz through the night market crowds picking up the last of our packages. Dresses made of embroidered silk in one; in the other, two pairs of leather boots covered in traditional silk I picked out myself. Affordable couture – where else could we possibly have had this experience?

One last stop, one last indulgence. We visit three sisters in their recently opened crochet toy store Là Lá Handmade. Le Thuy, Le Suong and Le Thao float around the store on bare feet, their light pastel dresses adding to the magic. All three women smile widely as they settle in to do some crochet while we chat.

“We learned basic crochet stitches from our grandmother,” they tell me as my child is in the background going into raptures over their adorable products. “Now we have single mothers and others in the town who make toys we can resell for them. We teach them to crochet and to knit, and then they can make a good living.”

A woman makes crochet at Là Lá Handmade. (Image: Jac Taylor)

Sun World Bà Nà Hills is unlike any other theme park

The next day sends my child into fresh raptures as we venture off to the behemoth theme park, Sun World Bà Nà Hills, inland from Danang. She’s seen Disneyland in Shanghai (lucky writer’s daughter that she is) but that was a piece of America transplanted. This is something entirely different.

One of the quirky sculptures at Sun World Bà Nà Hills. (Image: Jac Taylor)

Sun World Bà Nà Hills defies belief, up here in the rarefied air. One moment you are walking through the flower-strewn streets and Versailles-like sculpted gardens, next minute you are whizzing down the fairy-tale mountainside dotted with castles on an open-air alpine coaster, 1500 metres above sea level.

Those who live for the ’gram head straight for the Insta-famous Golden Bridge, held aloft over the hills and beaches of Danang by gigantic hands, as if once and for all reclaiming this erstwhile French hill station.

The Insta-famous Golden Bridge is suspended nearly 1400 metres above sea level near the beaches of Danang. (Image: Thanh Hoan Cong/Alamy)

The dreamlike quality of InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort

There is an equal fantasy to experience back down from the clouds: the InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort has a similar dream-like quality. Sharing the peninsula with rare monkeys, surrounded by glittering ocean, it seems to live in its own languid time zone in a fairy tale of jewel tones and cutting-edge design, exoticism and indulgence.

Just like Hôi An, there is eccentricity and creative spirit embroidered throughout the guest experience here. The resort is stepped in tiers across a steep hillside, leading down to the pristine beach. The levels are named Sea, Earth, Sky and Heaven; a custom-designed system of thatched ‘trams’ on super-steep rails carries guests from the Sea to Heaven and back again.

InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort is nestled into lush hillside.

Soaring up in Heaven (otherwise known as the Executive Club Lounge), it doesn’t take them long to notice that my child does love a coconut. Every day, a perfectly hand-stamped drinking coconut arrives in front of her. Breakfast in neighbouring Citron restaurant is taken sitting in a giant upside-down traditional hat, seemingly floating on air over the landscape of blue and green. That evening, we descend to feast on barbecue and bombe Alaska in a full-sized timber boat at Barefoot restaurant by the sea.

Dine in conical hats at Citron restaurant.

The remarkable detail and whimsy in the resort can be directly attributed to professional dreamer, landscape architect and man-of- the-minute resort designer Bill Bensley, whose art pieces are also found in the onsite gallery, and whose tastes seem to run to extravagance and an almost filmic sense of occasion. Forget the Golden Bridge up the mountain; every corner of this resort has its best face on for Instagram. Every private plunge pool. Every penthouse suite.

Bill Bensley designed the resort’s interiors, including this Heavenly Penthouse.

Bensley also believes in connection – a two-way relationship between a resort and its location – and this philosophy is echoed in the InterContinental’s ongoing work with nearby villages, and also its stewardship program for the surrounding Son Tra Mountain Nature Reserve, complete with full-time zoologist. Guests can easily catch sight of the red-shanked douc langur monkeys residing in old-growth forest on the reserve: an endangered species that are clearly doing well here. My junior companion is impressed and heartened.

Keep an eye out for cheeky douc langur monkeys hiding behind tree branches.

Ultimately, we indulge in the greatest luxury: time. There are so many stunning nooks where we simply stop, and look, and feel, and experience. Reclining on the cushions in the L_o_n_g Bar, we lazily wave to ourselves in the ceiling mirror as the giant fans wave in turn. No need to schedule anything, so we test how long it takes for an ice cube to melt through our fingers instead. That’s luxury enough.

InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort overlooks a secluded bay. (Image: Jac Taylor)

A traveller’s checklist

Getting there

Fly direct to Danang from all major Australian capital cities with Vietnam Airlines. Hôi An is a 45-minute drive south of Danang.

Staying there

Intercontinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort is a luxurious stay overlooking a secluded bay on the So’n Trà Peninsula.

The resort’s palm-lined infinity pool invites relaxation.