Little, Yellow, Different

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An old French colonial village painted in all yellow. The faded yellow colonial buildings creates a muted and calm feeling Hoi An is a rather sleepy town on the banks of Thu Bon River.

The main downtown section is an endless array of shops. Silk, silk and more silk combined with shoes and numerous art galleries. The shops got so out of hand, the government actually stepped in and has stopped the creation of new stores in Hoi An. THen again, they might have just run out of building space. One feels free to stroll the streets and simply look away. If one so desires, they can go and grab their souveniers freely without much pressure.

One of the rare non-yellow hued buildings was the old Japanese bridge. According to Chinese symbology, the bridge was started in the year of the monkey and finished in the year of the dog. These symbols are enemies so apparrently neither end of the bridge talks to the other. Seems like an unfortunate accident lurks in the future.

Hoi An just finished celebrating Hoi An legendary night. It takes place on the 15th day of the Lunar months. Everything is turned off as the city reverts to the days of yesteryear. Electricity is forgotten and people flock to the streets to celebrate. The River is filled with lighted candles as people make prayers to their various desires.

5 kilometers outside of Hoi An and you are at Cau Dai beach looking out on the South China Sea. Managed to sneak a little diving in off of Cham Island. The diving was so-so. Lots of large coral but the water temperatures kept the fish away. The island itself was beautiful and deserted. The call of monkeys came down from the hills to provide the crashing waves with some vocal accompaniment.

I finally managed to wander away from town for a bit and see the rice fields up close. This is definitely a job for Mike Rowe. Squatting in the heat of the sun, permanently hunched over picking the plants, repositioning the plants,attempting to fill in the missing gaps in the paddies and of course harvesting the plants later in the year. Once completed the cycle begins anew. The farmers were very gracious and showed me how they worked, even allowing me to replant a few rice stalks along the way.

There is a rather large foreign population in Hoi An as well. I imagine it will continue to grow as there appears to be some rather large beach resorts and golf complexes currently under construction. I had a strange encounter with an American who owned a bookshop there. He was interesting enough but he sounded exactly like Phillip Seymour Hoffman in any movie in which he played a creepy guy (pretty much all of them). It was rather unsettling.

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Photos

Cim Bucket
Chinese fortune telling with Kau Cim Sticks.

Japanese Covered Bridge
An unhappy bridge on both ends.

Bikes
Riding to the Rice Fields

Streets of Hoi An
U2's alternative track title

Comments

[Josh]

Fortune telling
I saw the fortune telling sticks, did you get any fortune telling done? Are the Rays going back to the Series?

[Tami]

silk and shoes
I think a shopping experience where there is silk all around is awesome. I hope you bought yourself something pretty to wear around your house when no one is looking. Mike Rowe would look mighty good all bent over a rice field.

[Tami]

silk and shoes
I think a shopping experience where there is silk all around is awesome. I hope you bought yourself something pretty to wear around your house when no one is looking. Mike Rowe would look mighty good all bent over a rice field.

[matt]

Earth Hour in Hoi An
I like their traditional Legendary Night. Maybe the Hoi An version of Earth Hour can add some charm to the pretentiousness of our modern version of the event.

[Kath]

The truth about Hoi An
There is really no such thing as an electricity-free legendary night. Hoi An is very likely serviced by the Potomac Electric Power Company in Washington, where its customers have received astronomical bills for the last two months. Mine -- at $333 for January and $467 for February -- are considered low. Tell those folks in Hoi An that they just have to pay Pepco like the rest of us.