A Slice of Vietnamese History

Hoi An's beautiful Old Town is situated right at the river
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The trip from Hanoi to Hoi An was really enjoyable - despite lasting well over 16 hours.  We caught the sleeper train South and, precisely because it was a longer trip, we got some good rest.  The train stops in Danang, from where we caught a taxi for the 25 minute drive to Hoi An itself.

Home to about 88 000 people this small city is really a slice of Viet history. In the 1st century it was the site of the largest harbour in South East Asia and was a major trading hub - plying its commerce with the Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Indians and, of course, the French (during the French occupation of Vietnam it was known as Hai Pho).  In 1999 UNESCO recognised the whole of the old quarter of the city as a World Heritage Site - offering visitors a really well-preserved experience of the unique architecture and cultural mix that came to define the city.  Walking through its streets and narrow alleys you really do get the sense of stepping back in time to the 15th and 16th centuries.

Historical, Charming, Cheap and Fascinating

Lots of tailor, art & lantern shops line the streets of the Old Town
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Admittedly our first impressions of Hoi An were a little dampened by the fact that it was raining buckets when we arrived - and had been for some time - so things looked a little wet!  Nonetheless our cosy hotel cheered us up (see seperate review) - and we even worked up the courage to swim!  The Hoi An of today is famous for many things - not least of which is its thriving budget tailor shops (more than 200 of them in the old quarter alone) - so our first order of business (after lunch) was to check out the options.  After looking into about 7 shops we settled on one that was mid-range in price - Denise ordered a tailored three-piece work suit and I got fitted for a snazzy tuxedo! Dinner was at another local eatery in which we sampled two of the local specialties: white roses (shrimp dumplings) and cao lau (savoury broth with pork slices, flat noodles, croutons and greens) - mmmm!

Our first meal at Bale Well Restaurant
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Tuesday was a sightseeing day.  The system is quite simple - to visit any of the major sights in the old quarter you have to first purchase a combined ticket from one of two outlets in the centre.  With the ticket you get to visit your choice of attractions - although only one from each of the four categories (so one museum, one communal hall etc.).  We stopped by the famous Japanese covered bridge (which we chose to not use a ticket for since the best is seen from outside anyway), and the Cantonese community hall (which had some superb statues and sculptures of dragons decorated with pieces of broken porcelain (don't stop before you get to the 'back yard' where the amazing 9 Dragon statue towers over the hall).  Also worth a look is the "Statue Garden" lining the opposite side of the river and the Ty Family cultural house (7 generations have lived here and its Japanese/Chinese/Viet architecture is stunning - they also have markings on the one wall showing the water level of the annual floods that sweep right into the house!).

Yummy food - Vietnam has the BEST spring rolls ever!
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Wednesday was still raining - but we were determined to continue seeing the sights - so we boarded a bus to travel the hour or so to the famous My Son ruins - the spiritual heart of the ancient Cham kingdom which occupied central Vietnam for over a thousand years.  The rain was pelting down - and the road to the ruins was quite flooded in places - which of course did nothing to deter the crazy Viet drivers!  The ruins themselves were breathtaking - but the pouring rain made photos and sightseeing challenging (especially with no umbrellas) - the fact that they have stood since the year 1300 and were built without any kind of mortar is simply amazing - especially considering the fact that they were targeted by bombers in the American war.  Our return trip was by boat - on which we had a very simple lunch.  The river itself was flowing really fast - and was also very muddy.  It wasn't what you would call attractive but we did get to meet up with Jasmine (from Ireland) and Eva - a German girl travelling alone who we ended up linking up with and with whom we are still travelling almost two weeks later (welcome to our Blog Eva!).  On the way back to town we stopped briefly at a "craft village" - really just one wood carving store - then it was back to Hoi An.

Visiting the Japanese Bridge
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That night was something special - the 14th day of the lunar month - which is celebrated in Hoi An every month by shutting down the centre of the old town to all traffic, turning off the lights and using candles and incense to honour the ancestors, and floating candle-lanterns down the river.  We met up with the girls at the Cargo Club restaurant (AWESOME lobster bisque), enjoyed the festival, and many fine cocktails!

Thursday was our last day in Hoi An and we again decided to make the most of it.  We packed, checked out and headed into town (by taxi since it was still raining hard).  First stop was the tailor for final fittings - the tux and Denise's suit both looked splendid (hope they make it back to South Africa in one piece - we have entrusted them to the Vietnamese and South African postal services!).  Then it was off to the Gioan Restaurant (94B Bach Dang St - the one right on the river) for cooking classes!  Our chef, Hahn, was amazing!  Unlike many of the large cooking schools in Hoi An (like Red Bridge - where we had first planned to go) they have very small classes (we were just the two of us) and her English was perfect (makes all the difference).  We were also able to choose in advance the menu we wanted to cook - for $2 per course per person.  BBQ fish in banana leaves, shrimp spring rolls, chicken in orange juice, pork BBQ with sesame oil and sesame seeds and Beef Pho (noodle soup) - with a personalised visit to the market to gather the ingredients (and learn how to tell good produce from bad) came to a grand total of US$11 each!  We loved every minute - so watch out when we get home as we will be cooking up a Vietnamese storm.

At one of the Buddhist temples in Hoi An
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To kill time before our bus arrived we tried to use the free karaoke room at our hotel - but the TV monitor blew up (literally) - I guess from all the moisture in the air - so we settled for a few games of pool instead.

Hoi An was one of the best surprises of our trip so far - it was historical, charming, cheap and totally fascinating - we can't recommend it highly enough.