Aah: Hoi An!

Have just spent two-and-a-half wonderfully relaxing days in the beautiful fishing village of Hoi An, about 50K south of Danang.   It's yet another UNESCO world heritage site (seems that designation covers just about the whole of Vietnam:  in the UK I think we only have two such designated sites - one of which is Cynthia's house in Dorset, with a bit of the Jurassic Coast thrown in for good measure!)

Hoi An is really beautiful and colourful - a cross between the slightly dilapidated beauty of Venice and that of Upton-upon-Severn. The other similarity with these two is that this little coastal town also frequently floods, and has only just recovered from some heavy flooding earlier this year.  Indeed, the river water was slightly lapping over the port-side when we took our first 'orientation walk' with our tour leader, Nak, on arriving here.   Lots of ochre-yellows, brick-reds, turquoise blues and greens cover the painted walls of the higgledy-piggledy small water-front houses.  

We had planned to meet up with John here -  Cynthia's son, and brother of Jo in Vientiane.  Unfortunately for him, and us, he's currently in hospital in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City, recovering from a knee operation, followig a bout of Dengue Fever.   Also, his girlfriend, Liz, went down with Dengue Fever whilst he was being operated on, and he's now looking after her, also in hospital in HCMC!   Get well soon, both of you.  Our consolation, however, is that we shall be seeing the pair of them over Christmas-time, when we'll be returning to Hoi An, on John's recommendation (good one, John!).   That's when his mum, our lovely friend, Cynthia, will also be joining us all from Dorset, leaving her dog, Sally, to guard that particular UNESCO site for a while.   (You will just LOVE it here, Cynth).

On our first afternoon, we went off for a fantastic seafood lunch in a local restaurant, the Mermaid.   Andy had a Vietnamese hot-pot with massive prawns, clams, squid, river-fish and vegetables, whilst |I had prawns in coconut milk, served piping hot inside a white coconut shell.   Absolutely gorgeous.   In fact, we can think of several of you who ought to be chartering a plane to get out here just for the seafood - Clive, as you were amongst the first to spring to mind, perhaps you could organise this flying charabanc, and make sure you include Sandra next-door, Len and Maggie in Mallorca, and any others who might want to hop on board?!!  

After our first lunch here, we walked through an amazing riverside street-market, covered in low-slung tarpaulin over and between the stalls, for shade we imagine, under most of which Andy had to walk headbowed, so low-slung were these tarpaulins.    The market sold every kind of fish, seafood, fruit, vegetable, herbs and spices imagineable.   Outside of the market, Hoi An is renowned for its tailor and shoe-shops, any one of which (around 200 of each, despite the town's small size!) will make you a dress, suit, shirt, blouse, pair of shoes or boots, to your exact measurements, in whatever style you choose, within 24 hours.   Not surprisingly for here, there's lots of silks, as well as wools and cashmere, to choose from.   There are also loads of handicrafts, jewellery, artwork and pottery shops as well.   And the traders, particularly the women, are really, really persistent.   As we walked along these narrow streets, we were constantly entreated by all of them, "Mam, Mam, M'dam, Sir, Sir, you buy somesing?   You come only lookee my shop?   Sir, where you flom?   You ha chillen?   You buy somesing take home for you chillen?"   Many of them also attempt flattery - "Sir, Sir, you velly hansom man, I make you somesing nice to wear."   They have no qualms about taking you by the elbow and trying to manoeuvre you into their shop, and, much to Andy's chagrin, three or four of the women actually stroked his stomach, saying "Happy Buddha belly, Sir, velly nice"!   THEY think it's a compliment!  Not many men round here have any paunch at all - probably 'cos there's no Harvey's!   AND they all seem to work so very hard - in fact, we've noticed that many of the men and women here will sleep by their market-stall, or in their shop, presumably rather than miss any potential passing trade - hope that's the case, anyway, rather than it being their only home!)

Our first full day here, we wandered around the 'old town' streets, taking in the Japanese covered bridge - which dates from the 15th century, when Hoi An was first established as a trading port with Japan, China, and other trading partners -  as well as several similarly ancient old houses with intriguing architecture, one of three folk museums, and took in some 'intangible heritage', as they call it, in the form of folk music, songs and dance.   At one of the folk museums, we wanted to buy some silk scarves, but were a little short of cash.   When I asked about the nearest ATM (there seem to be plenty everywhere), the female shopkeeper, Vung, called for her brother, Hung (yes, really!), who stuck a crash-helmet on my head, took me outside to where his motorbike was parked, sat me on the pillion, and shot off through the little alleyways to an ATM about 5 minutes' drive away - and all before I even realised it was happening!   The transactions completed, we continued our sight-seeing/shopping tour around the old town.   On the way back to our hotel, we'd stopped for yet more gorgeous seafood in a bar recommended to us by John, the Hai San, and also treated ourselves to one of his other recommendations: some sugared ginger, from one of the many street traders.   Delicious - AND good for the digestion, too.

That evening, we dined by the port-side (another seafood restaurant), and got talking there to the owner, Mr Phong.   After learning that we were from England, living 'near London', his first question was to ask if we knew Leyton in London.   (Dad, you'll be pleased to hear that your birthplace is 'on the map' over here.)   Mr Phong's question led to him showing us a whole portfolio-full of letters from people all over the world - the latest from a travel writer based in Leyton, London - thanking him for tours he had arranged for them to his own village, about 15k from Hoi An, where, it would seem, his wife cooked a marvellous lunch whilst Mr Phong talked to his visitors about the various struggles for independence - from French colonialism, from Japanese invasion in WW2, and from the American war of the 1960s and 70s.   (Cynth, John and Liz - we've taken Mr Phong's card, and would highly recommend us taking up his offer of a tour while we're here at Christmas-time.)

On our second full day here, Andy and I hired some push-bikes, and cycled the 5k to the gorgeous Cau Dai beach - a long, white-sandy, palm-fringed beach, with a wonderfully calm sea (after several weeks of typhoon turbulence) in which we swam around lazily with some of the younger crowd from our tour group.   In the afternoon, the two of us took a boat tour around the islands and islets, and our boat 'captain' took special care to arrange for some local fisher-folk to position their little sampan and throw their fishing net, several times, into the water, in front of the by-now setting sun.   As a result, we managed to get some lovely pictures.   What a treat!   After this delightful hour-long voyage, we had yet more scrumptious food, near to a restaurant famed for having given Mick Jagger culinary 'satisfaction' on several occasions.

The previous afternoon, we'd also both seen some lovely leather flip-flops/thongs in a shoe-shop, and wanted to buy them.   Seems you are rarely allowed to buy 'off the shelf'.   Despite both of us believing we'd got the right size, the shop-girl insisted on measuring us both for a perfect fit to be made.   This involved drawing around our feet on paper, making a mark where the big toe and the second toe part company, and measuring the 'girth' around the narrowest and widest part of our feet.   We collected our personalised footwear the following day - and all this for around £7 per pair!

Hoi An Street Market

Typical Hoi Ann Street

A Hoi An Tailor's Shop

Hoi An Market

Hoi An Fishers at Sunset, with their Sampan

Hoi An Quayside



More Hoi An Fishers at Sunset

Beginning the Boat Trip

Bike to the Beach

Japanese Covered Bridge



Our last night in Hoi An, before fying from Danang to Ho Chi Minh City, saw an absolute deluge of rain, the noise of which kept us both awake in the wee small hours.   We weren't staying near to the harbour/riverside, but we could only guess, as we drove away, that the frontage there would have been at least ankle-deep in water by then.

Hoi An Riverside Scene