Vietnam: Girls Trip to Hoi An at Van Lan Riviera Villas

I took an amazing girls trip with three of my very best friends here in Korea, Heather DeWitt, Holly Rust, and Corianne Schwartz. Since Heather, Holly and I were due to move in a few months, we wanted one last trip together. All of us decided that it didn’t really matter where, we just wanted a time away to relax together. We talked about Japan, Hong Kong, Guam, and Vietnam. In the end Vietnam was closer and cheaper and none of us had been to Hoi An.

We made our way to Vietnam and checked into our Villa. We stayed at the Van Lan Riviera Villas. We each had our own private villa. At once the staff looked rather annoyed at us getting our own rooms. Each room had a queen bed, so they seemed taken back that we just wouldn’t share, but we paid for four villas, so that is what we got. The Villas property was beautiful and surrounded by such beautiful nature. We walked into the villa under an archway that had deep red lanterns. This was our first exposure to the magnificent lanterns of Hoi An.

Our villas were located towards the front of the property with three on the left and one on the right with a pool in the middle. There were bushes and trees in front of all the villas with a cute stone walkways. The property had bikes to use for free and cute tables right by the riverside where we ate breakfast each morning. Breakfast was always so peaceful. We sat by the shade of the trees surrounded by lush greenery listening to the flow of the river.

The property also has a basket boat that they said we could use and take out for a spin. On our last day, we took advantage of the offer and Holly, Corianne and I went out on the basket boat. When you went to the river or the ocean there were basket boats everywhere trying to get tourist to pay for a short ride. It usually cost about 200 Dong for one ride per person, which is about $8.50, but since we had a river and could take our basket boat out for free and not have a million other people on the river with us, we opted to go ourselves in the peace-fullness of our own private river section.

The villa staff let us use their own private Vietnamese hats as we went out on the boat. Originally Cori wasn’t going to come, but in the end Holly and I convinced her to come out.

We paddled upstream for a while and just loved the entire atmosphere. There wasn’t anyone in site, and we could see cute boats docked along the banks and so many green trees. There were coconut trees growing right out of the water flanked by taller trees and so much grass. The water was clear and everything was so green.

We went downstream and enjoyed just letting the current take up. We kept going until we noticed a crazy fast rushing river where our slow and peaceful side met up with the roar and rapids of a much larger and dangerous river. We quickly and frantically paddled back towards the villa and away, laughing as we went.

The property had a beautiful pool, and you better believe we took advantage of that pool. We went out a few times and just relaxed and chatted in the pool. It was so hot and humid that a dip in the pool always felt so nice.

Taean Flower Festival

Hey, it's Big Sis here. I'm going to tell you all about our family adventure at the Korean Tulip festival.   This festival is one of the worlds top 5 tulip festival's in the world. When we walked through the gate, the first thing we saw was a giant dog and puppy made out of flowers. 

After we passed the giant flower sculptures there was, of course, a sign. As we were taking pictures, there was a very large group of old Korean women who kept on wanting to come up with us. We quickly snapped a picture and moved on. 

Right behind the sign, there was a huge garden of tulips. It was so beautiful the amount of flowers in one tiny field was unbelievable. There was every colored flower you could think of (except blue). There were some parts that the clips were sorted by color, but most of the time, it was just a whole bunch of different colors all squished together. We spent a while just looking at all of the flowers and then we moved onto the trail that lead us into another section of flowers. 

There was an arch of heart lights that mom had to jump into. I think it would have been a lot better at night though. 

There was another field of flowers that were mostly separated by color instead of all together. It was so cool seeing all of the flowers. 

In the main area, there was a huge sphere that had flowers in it (why wouldn't it?). And there was a watchtower, where we could see the entire park from a sorta high sky view. There were so many random sculptures that were around the sky view. It was so Korean.

Around the main area were continuous fields of blood red tulips. There were also pink and yellow groups to, but my favorite, along with moms, were the red flowers.

While mom and the two littles were taking a bathroom break, I noticed that there were small flowers bordering a small lake. They were so beautiful so I could resist the urge to take a picture.

After the small pond there was, again another, field of tulips. There was a hill that had designs that were kind of visible but it took a few seconds to figure out the pattern. I think it was some sort of sunset thing or something.

There were so many fields of red tulips. There was also a section that had white and red tulips together.

There was a part of the park that have all the flowers planted in their own little area. There were so many different flowers my favorites were called lupines. They are so beautiful.

But Emily really loved the tiger tulips.

 I also really like the hanging bells flower.  Mom super liked these two.  She said she had seen them drawn in cartoons, but never for reals.

After the sections, there were rows of the different colored tulips. It was like an eternal line of tulips that never ever ended.

There was so much to see. The next thing we saw was the Queens of Hearts (From Alice in Wonderland) Castle and her castle grounds. The castle was huge and was made completely out of flowers. The grounds looked like the magic carpet from Aladdin or just like the obvious answer, a queen's card guard. The card design was about the size of a football field. It was so big. It was also so gorgeous.

There was a tunnel that was across from the castle. It was a tunnel that was sadly partly fake flowers, but mostly was real flowers. The arched flowers made a beautiful tunnel that had so many colors and so many different types of flowers.

After the tunnel, we decided that it was time to call it a day. on the way back, mom quickly snapped her usual selfie. It was such a wonderful experience and the flowers were so cool and gorgeous. I loved these adventure from the beginning all the way until the end.