Em's House Homestay - Deluxe Triple Room @ Hoi An in Vietnam

I was at a crossroads when it came to choosing accommodation at Hoi An. On one hand, I really enjoyed my stay at La Charm Hoi An Hotel & Spa back in March 2024. On the other hand, I would like to experience a new accommodation, and blog about it too! 

Eventually, I decided on Em's House Homestay for three primary reasons; it's at the immediate perimeter of the old town, there's an option for a 3-bedder (not foldable bed), and the rate was less than S$100 a night. 

The word "homestay" was my concern as it gave the AirBNB vibes, which I am hesitant with although photographs and reviewers seemed to be more "hotel"-like. Reception was simple with a lift at the side to bring us to the upper levels. 

A water ionizer machine next to the reception for you to fill up your bottles with alkaline, ionized water; safe to be healthier for the body, although I am not that strong of a believer, preferring distilled water generally.  

Deluxe Triple Room

If i recall, this should be room 04 on the third floor, and it came with one single bed and a double bed. Size was alright, even though I prefer a proper wardrobe as an open one can look very messy.

Amenities at one glance; including a rare air purifier! 

Mom made full use of the iron in the room.

Ironing board can be requested at no charge.

Balcony area, which we didn't use much at all, except to air and dry my jogging shorts and sleeveless tee. In actual fact, balcony is not much of a requirement for me when I travel.

And even less so when it wasn't a high floor and the scenery in front of me didn't excite. Otherwise, I would have a a lot more photographs and videos, especially if the balcony faces the east / west for time-lapse videos of sunrise and sunset.

We were granted views of the swimming pool though.

Washroom in this deluxe triple room was luxuriously big in my opinion; with a separate rainfall shower and even a bathtub! What I love most was that the wet flooring dried up ridiculously fast! 

Imagine my surprise to find a toilet roll with no hole in the middle! Is that the norm in Vietnam? Some people would likely comment it's not hygienic to leave the toilet roll on the table although I think this would result in less wastage, and you are in fact getting more paper per roll.

Evacuation route for the room; only one escape path for us! 

Guess we can still jump into the pool as a last resort.

Miscellaneous

There wasn't a gym in Em's House and I am happy to jog at the great outdoors in the morning, when the ancient town had yet to welcome its usual influx of day tourists.

The swimming pool was there in plain sight on the ground level; we did bring our swimming trunks and swimming goggles but there's no urge to swim. Maybe also because it's super close to the in-house cafe, where many pairs of eyes would be looking at us.

Breakfast wasn't provided as part of our stay but the inhouse cafe, River Square by Em's House, commanded a perfect review score on Google Maps! Therefore, we decided to have breakfast there on our last day. Click here for the review. 

Bicycles were available for complimentary usage.

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How was our stay? Air-conditioning was good, pillows were too soft, the "hotel" seemed to be a bit on the quiet side with not many guests (can be good / bad). We also encountered two power trips in our two-night stay. In comparison, La Charm Hoi An Hotel & Spa was a lot better; albeit a bit further away at about 300 meters away. 

Address

10/1 Đường Cao Hồng Lãnh, 

Phường Minh An, Hội An, 

Quảng Nam, Vietnam

Map

As above.

Website

https://emshousehomestay.top/

Pricing

Deluxe Triple Room - S$86 a night

(Booked via Booking.com)

芙蓉食堂 - Furong Eatery near Anping Old Street @ Tainan in Taiwan

To gather insights on where to have our meals for our 11-day trip to Taiwan earlier this year, I narrowed my search to Taiwan-based YouTube channels that focused on local food recommendations. 

For Taiwan's ancient capital of Tainan, also known as the country's food capital, it was an arduous task to decide but 芙蓉食堂 (translated as Furong Eatery) appeared a couple of times across a few channels! Hence, it shall be our destination for brunch, and our first meal upon arrival in Tainan.

Located next to a sprawling cemetery and near Anping Old Street, Furong Eatery was a your local nondescript dining establishment selling pretty standard Taiwanese meals that don't usually catch my attention.

With the recommendations from the YouTube channels, I am well prepared on what to order, even though with just picky and small-eater Alex as my only companion, I had to reduce the number of dishes I could order. 

Bottled Oolong Tea - a simple bottle of tea from the fridge would not have generated much interest but this was well a mention for two reasons; it cost us NT$120 (about S$5) which was darn expensive given my humble earnings. 

Second reason: it was literally cold brew and tasted surprisingly smooth without the bitter, intense tartness when tea leaves were submerged for too long! As can be seen from the photograph, the tea leaves were IN the bottle and there's a filter for ease of drinking! Being a stingy individual, I reused the tea leaves a few more times.  

Braised Pork Rice - now, while Tainan is known as Taiwan's food capital, it was well known among locals that the food often had an added sweetness that even some Taiwanese couldn't accept. Therefore, I am already prepared for a different kind of luroufan.

Layers of glistening pork fats were already winners in my opinion and taste wise, more savoury than sweet, and I was more worried about the sinfulness and the cholesterol load I gained! Loving it; the taste that is! 

Signature Fried Fish - in normal circumstances, this would not be something I would order. Fish meat had a tendency to be fishy, and it's just a safer bet to go with chicken or pork. However, this was a must order in all the YouTube videos I watched and I ordered, with bated breath, as my chopsticks picked out a piece to pop into my mouth! 

It was unforgettably good and fresh; look at the thickness of moist fish meat! None of the fishiness and would definitely appeal to fish lovers like my mom! Batter was similar to those from the crunchy salt and pepper Taiwanese pork cutlet and there was a light sprinkling of sour plum powder for increased palatability!

Dipping it into the Thai sweet chilli sauce; heavenly! To be fair, I am obsessed with Thai sweet chilli sauce, especially the Kimball brand; to the extent I would usually stock up whenever I am in Malaysia! p.s. Kimball Thai Chilli had been out of stock in Singapore for like forever.

  

Pickled Watermelon Fish Soup - another signature for Furong Eatery and it's something that made me scratched my head; how amazing can fish soup be although I bet it would still be nice for the tummy when the weather was cold. 

No doubt the eatery was generous with the fish meat; they were chunky with a solid, satisfying bite! Taste wise, it was more like freshwater fish which was renowned for the unwelcome "muddy" taste. Something had to offset the muddiness and that's when the soup played an important role! 

Cooked with this ingredient called watermelon sponge, I would say it would be easier to call it pickled watermelon skin that made the soup sour! Similar to 酸菜汤 (pickled vegetable soup) yet mild and not too overpowering! 

Alex, the picky eater, was impressed! 

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Would I be back? A 101% yes! There were so many things I wanted to try but didn't manage to! If not for the fact that we needed to rush off to Chiayi the next day, we actually had the intention to return and check out other dishes like furong beancurd, boiled squids! There will be a next time! 

Address

No 51, 運河路, Anping District,

Tainan City, Taiwan

Map

As above.

Menu (in Chinese)

As above.

Pricing

Bottled Oolong Tea - NT$120

Braised Pork Rice - NT$25

Signature Fried Fish - NT$170

Pickled Watermelon Fish Soup - NT$340

(NETT)

Click HERE for 11 Days, 10 Nights Taiwan Trip: Summarised Itinerary for Chiayi Alishan (嘉义阿里山) - Kaohsiung (高雄) - Tainan (台南) - Taichung (臺中)

Breakfast at River Square by Em's House Hoi An @ Vietnam

Our accommodation at Em's House Homestay didn't come with breakfast but there's an inhouse cafe that commanded a high review score of 5.0 from over 700 reviewers on Google Map! 

Called River Square by Em's House Hoi An (although it's not beside the river), we decided to check it out on our last morning in the City of Lanterns, before departing for our next destination; Bana Hills.

Salt Coffee - said to be one of the signature coffee drinks in Vietnam, my verdict was that the coffee wasn't as intense and it was more milk with slight saltish aftertaste. I prefer my traditional Vietnamese coffee.

Body Detox - ordered by the health conscious Alex, this was a blended mix of cucumber, apple, ginger, pineapple and lime. He might look hopeful from the above photograph but shortly after, it was an expression of rejection! Guess it must be extremely nutritional! 

Rainbow Salad - I love rainbows and expected a lot more from the rainbow salad which bore no traces of even the basic rainbow colors! More like your typical salad with avocado and onions with passionfruit dressing. Can give it a miss. 

Em's Wake Up - sounded like a potent alarm for the sleepy brain, this was your usual fried eggs with bacon, sausage, mushroom, grilled tomatoes, salad, spinach; typical enough to be found in many western cafes in Singapore.

Best thing was the bacon! Usually too salty, too dry and too hard, this appealed to my palates for its balanced saltiness, crisp texture that continued to ooze juiciness as my teeth bit through! 

Second best was their sausages; delicious and juicy! Even the mushrooms were appetising, despite covered in an oily, spicy sauce! 

Almost forgot about the accompanying white bread which was lightly toasted but sufficient enough for me with plain butter and jam. Such combination would be my type of simple yet comfortable breakfast.

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Was it worth the 5.0 review score? For me, maybe a 4.0 to 4.5, with the extra 0.5 to the great service. I guess foreigners would generally give a higher score, especially when the pricing was economical compared to places like Singapore! 

Address

10/3 Đường Cao Hồng Lãnh, 

Phường Minh An, Hội An, 

Quảng Nam 51309, Vietnam

(Within Em's House Homestay)

Map

As above. 

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Salt Coffee - 35,000 dong

Body Detox - 40,000 dong

Rainbow Salad - 85,000 dong

Em's Wake Up - 130,000 dong