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Published: June 14th 2009
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Sleeper Bus
Would have been awesome if the "Beds" were not 4 inches shorter than me. Two cities that despite being close to one another, have very different flavors. Hoi An is a disneylandesque wonderland, a city that has been preserved as best as possible. The old town is UNESCO heritage site most of the decaying french colonial buildings are as they were decades ago. I say that it has a Disney flavor because close to one hundred percent of Hoi An's commerce comes from the tourist trade, namely tailor shops. While Hoi An is beautiful and to some the highlight of there Vietnam trip, to me it was a bit over touristed. With over 200 tailor shops in Hoi An you can't swing a dead cat without hitting one. This makes for a great deal if you are in the market for some new clothes. Custom made suits, shirts and dresses for a fraction of what you can get back home. While I think the quality is good, its not great. Plus what am I going to do with clothes when my whole life has to be carried on my shoulders.
Like most places that are over touristed the real action is found by simply walking away. And thats exactly what I did. I just
started walking out into the suburbs of Hoi An, the places where the people who run disneyland actually sleep eat and live. I walked for about two hours, with no sense of where I was going, when I realized I had no idea where I was. I guess because I had been traveling for so long this dident seem to bother me a bit. I stumbled upon a little local joint, just a few plastic chairs and tables under a palmtree shack. I decided this an ideal place to sit, watch the sunset and have a ice cold beer. And like anybody who gets off the beaten path will tell you, it wasent long before the locals came over to see what this forienger was doing all the way out here. A couple of older guys were playing what I think was Chinese Chess, one came over to attempt to teach me how to play. Now let it be known that learning a game that has letters in Chinese, rules you don't know, no common language between the players all over beers, is not easy. But in the communal language of friendship and alcohol I think I got the jist
Sign to Hoi An
"Primative Vehicles Only" of it. Sort of like chess but not really, remembering all the chinese characters was next to impossible I wish they had shaped peices. You could hop and double jump like checkers, and there were lines on the board that you could or could not pass depending on the piece. So yeah it was confusing. We played three games, he won one and I won one and we tied the last game. I have a sneaky feeling that he was trying to let me win, even when I lost... Its a common theme when you are traveling, when you are in the tourist district they will treat you like a tourist, when you get outside, when you leave the herd then you are no longer a dollar sign but someone they would like to know. When its was time to leave one of the bar owners offered to drive me back to my hotel free of charge, its these things that make traveling worth it.
Hue on the other hand is a oft skipped town on the backpacker trail. The reason I think is that while every city I have been to before was known for "something" Hue is
Incense in Temple, Hoi An
Each one of these coils will constantly burn for a month. a kind of ambigous town. Its hard to bottle up why you go to Hue. To me though this made the city more attractive. In its defense Hue does have a very respectable food scene. The roots go back to a Vietnamese emperor who resided at the citadel in Hue. He was quite the picky eater and demanded 30 different dishes, prepaired by 30 different chefs, served by 30 different waiters, at every meal everyday. This type of crazyness has bred a large and renowned selection of food only found in Hue. The big hitter is undoubtably Pho Bo. A beef ball noodle soup. They put all sorts of meats and bone in a pot and make one of the best soup stocks I've ever had. Combine that with fresh beef balls, noodles and veggie and you got yourself a cheap, delicious meal for around a buck. One stall I went to had these pork skewers that was so addictive. The pork is cooked but they don't over do it, the fat and the pork blend together into a spicy, salty, crunchy masterwork. Being me I like to smear mine with a fresh chili paste that adds a big kick
to the whole deal. Washing that down with a cold beer is nirvana. This is something that thousand of restaurants around the world cannot match, good honest food.
While both these towns were not blow me out of the water amazing, they did add something to the over all Vietnam experience. A little bit of the real and not so real Vietnam. But all good.
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