Basket Boat Ride, Lantern Making & Cooking Class Hoi An

Bay Mau Coconut Forest

The Bay Mau coconut forest covers the tidal wetlands of Cam Thanh, about four kilometres east of Hoi An's Ancient Town, where the Thu Bon River spreads into channels before meeting the sea. Its palms are water coconuts, low nipa palms that thrive in brackish water, and the thick groves once hid local fighters during the wars of the twentieth century. Today fishing families still work the channels, and the forest is one of the most popular half-day escapes from Hoi An.

The drive from your hotel takes around fifteen to twenty minutes past rice fields and village temples. How to get to the Bay Mau coconut forest without a tour? You would need a taxi or bicycle and then buy your entry and boat ride on the spot; with this tour the transfer, entrance fees and boat are all arranged, so you simply step aboard.

Basket Boat Ride and Fishermen's Show

Basket boats, thung chai, are round bamboo vessels about two metres wide, sealed with resin and steered with a single paddle. Local legend says they were invented so fishermen could avoid a colonial tax on boats. In the coconut forest your boatman paddles you through narrow channels under arching palm fronds, a peaceful ride of about thirty to forty minutes.

Along the way the boatmen put on their famous basket boat show, spinning their crafts in fast circles to music, and local fishermen demonstrate how they throw circular nets, fish and catch crabs among the roots. You are welcome to try. This basket boat ride in Hoi An is great fun for families; the boats are stable once seated, and there is little shade, so a hat helps.

Phin Coffee Making

Back on land, your next stop is a short coffee lesson. Vietnam is one of the world's largest coffee producers, and its everyday cup is brewed in a phin, a small metal drip filter placed over the glass so hot water seeps slowly through dark-roasted beans. The guide shows you how much coffee to use, how to let it bloom and how to press the lid.

You then brew your own cup, black or with sweet condensed milk, and taste it while it is fresh. It is a simple skill that travellers love to repeat after their trip, and it gives you a taste of the café culture that fills Hoi An's riverside terraces every morning. Allow about twenty minutes for this part of the tour.

Lantern-Making Class

Hoi An's silk lanterns are the town's best-known symbol. The craft came with Chinese and Japanese merchants who settled here when Hoi An was a major trading port in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and today hundreds of lanterns glow along the streets and the Thu Bon River each night. On the full-moon night of every lunar month, the Ancient Town switches off its electric lights and lets the lanterns shine alone.

In the lantern-making class you learn this history and then build your own: bending the bamboo ribs into shape, stretching coloured silk over the frame, gluing and trimming the edges. The instructor helps with the tricky steps, and you keep your finished lantern as a souvenir. Is a lantern-making class in Hoi An worth it? It is one of the most rewarding hands-on activities in town.

Cooking Class with Cao Lau

The tour ends with a cooking class led by a local chef in an open-air kitchen surrounded by the coconut forest. You prepare fried spring rolls, banh xeo crispy pancakes filled with shrimp and pork, crunchy fried wontons, a Hoi An snack reflecting the town's Chinese heritage, and above all Cao Lau, the noodle dish found only in Hoi An.

Cao Lau noodles are thick and chewy, traditionally made with water from an old local well and lye from wood ash, then topped with sliced pork, fresh greens, herbs and crispy noodle croutons. The chef explains each step and the balance of herbs and sauces, and then everyone sits down to eat the dishes they have cooked before the car takes you back to your hotel.