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Published: July 11th 2007
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6th July
I arrive in Hoi An. Hoi An, a city of silk and cloth, where every second shop is a tailor laying out the latest clothing designs for your made to measure garments. Buy a tailor made fitted shirt for US$8 or a wool cashmere suit jacket for US$30, all made to measure and ready for your pleasure the very next day. Infomercial over, we headed to a cloth shop called Hong Hung where one of us had had things made before with relatively few problems. I stripped off for the intimate measuring and ordered a bikini, some shorts, and a cotton top. We then headed to a nice little restaurant by the river and ate the most fantastic lemongrass fish and crab in banana leaf. The fish was especially good.
7th July
Getting up early isn’t easy but nevertheless I woke up at 4:20am to be ready for a 5am bus to My Son. In the end I was glad for it because not only were there less tourists around at this time but the temperatures were also much cooler. I saw a whole load of Cham ruins though most of them had been destroyed by the
Americans during the war as this is where the Viet Cong were hiding at one point. They were similar to Angkor Wat in style but much smaller and perhaps less elaborate. The morning light was fantastic and the sky a perfect blue. The jungle walk between the ruins was beautiful, lizards would dash across the path in front of you and the most exotic, vibrant, and quite large butterflies float effortlessly by. The way was also dotted here and there with a nice little stream. When I got back at 10am, the other two I had traveled down to Hoi An with were still in bed so I dragged them out to breakfast proclaiming that I’d already had half my day. Later that morning we gathered our stuff together and headed by mototaxi to the beach! This beach was not disappointing. It stretched as far as the eye could see with white smooth sand lined with palm trees on the shore and dotted with sunbeds and palm leaf umbrellas. Plus it was practically empty and the weather was fantastic. The Vietnamese avoid the sun because white or pale skin is considered much more beautiful, mainly for women. They drive around
on motorbikes in the searing heat with full length gloves, a hat and face mask revealing little more than a slit to see through. In Hoi An especially but also in Hue, I think I’ve now lost count of the number of people who’ve pointed out my skin or compared my arm to theirs. My pale skin is what the women here strive for, completely the opposite in UK where I was once even asked if I was ill I was so pale! It’s a refreshing change to hear ‘beautiful’ rather than ‘you’re far too pale, use a sunbed’. I also couldn’t help but build a sandcastle at the beach, as is a great British tradition. I also had a swim in the South China Sea (and I didn’t see any big scary sea creatures). It was a really pleasant weekend and I picked up my clothes on the Sunday. I also bought a lantern and made a note to buy some wood carvings the next time I was in Hoi An. It was in fact this carving shop where I met a lovely girl, probably a few years older than me, who introduced me to the Ancestors because of
my interest in her family run carving shop. In Vietnam, honouring the deceased is very important. Each house or family has what looks like a shrine to offer gifts and incense (the smoke from incense draws the spirit to the altar) and there’s usually a picture of them as well. We have aptly named this ‘Meet the Ancestors’. Anyway, this girls ‘Meet the Ancestors’ was the biggest I’ve seen yet. It covered two alcoves and had pictures dating back to at least 1850 or something all of which had worked in this same shop carving wood. The most recent picture was, rather tragically, her sister who had died in a motorcycle accident aged just 24. The Vietnamese also believe that by burning something they are sending it over the afterlife and to their ancestors. I think it’s been a special Ancestors celebration week, I’m not sure, but in the evenings as you walk along you see people on the roadsides burning photocopied money, clothes, food, and other oddities to send to their Ancestors in the afterlife.
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