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Published: February 10th 2008
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After Nha Trang, Toby and I spent a very pleasant 3 days in Hoi An - a picturesque town halfway up the Vietnam coast. Hoi An managed to avoid much of the wartime bombings, and consequently it boasts a world heritage listed Old Town amongst its many charms. From the moment we checked into our hotel in Hoi An we felt relaxed and welcome. The people were generally very friendly and only too keen to help us with directions and the like. We also attempted to learn a smattering of Vietnamese whilst in Hoi An, and we found that even just saying 'Thank you' in the local language will get a smile in return.
There were again a lot of western tourists around, but this didn't seem to have the same negative affect as it did in Nha Trang. Yes, there were still touts, but not as many and not as aggressive. Hoi An has an impressive array of restaurants considering its small size, and many are French influenced - as with other parts of Vietnam. The vast majority of these eateries have tables that spill out onto the streets, and we often spent a couple of hours each day
just 'people watching' and having a cheap beer or two.
We also spent a lot of time wandering around the streets, and taking in the sights of the Old Town area; and we visited the local market place, to see if we could get any bargains. As it turns out, we did pick up a couple of DVDs for a dollar each and some tiger balm.
On our second day in Hoi An, we visited a place called 'My Son' - a Hindu temple site, home to a collection of ancient (world heritage listed) Cham temples. As in Nha Trang, these have stood for over a thousand years, and are in remarkably good condition. The area was bombed during the Vietnam war by the Americans, which destroyed several of the temples. To be fair though, the Viet Cong were using the site as a base of operations. The Cham architecture is quite unlike modern Vietnamese architecture and appears more Indian than Asian in style.
Since being in Vietnam, I have discovered that I like to travel by rail. The trains here may be a few years old, and they may travel extremely slowly at times, but travelling this
way offers us an opportunity to actually see the country we have come to see - at a leisurely pace. There is some truly stunning scenery in Vietnam; rice paddies as far as the eye can see, mountains backdropping beautiful beaches, quaint and rugged towns.... strangely, there are also a lot of tombstones in the rice paddies. I'm not sure what the cultural significance of this is, but it's odd to think that the rice you're eating may have been fertilized by a human corpse.
Anyway... to sit aboard a (relatively) comfortable train, just watching the world pass-by is far more appealing to me than flying, or, catching one of Vietnam's many buses.
The latter we unfortunately had to experience to go from Nha Trang to Hoi An.....and it was a frequently terrifying experience for me; Combine a kamikaze bus driver with unlit, narrow, single lane highways at night, and an old bus whose suspension has seen better days....and you may see my point.
Our most memorable train journey yet though, would have to be the one we took from Hoi An into north Vietnam.
When we arrived in Hoi An, the 'Tet' festival was about to begin.
This is a week long celebration which marks the start of a new lunar year. Its dates coincide with Chinese new year, and the festival has been described as 'birthdays, Christmas and new year all rolled into one'. From all corners of the country, people will return home to be with their families. The towns and cities are decorated with brightly coloured lanterns and banners, and the locals do their spring cleaning. It's a very festive time of year, and we were very lucky to be able to witness this ourselves.
The Tet New Years Eve is the most lively night during the whole week-long celebrations, and we had actually booked to be on a train that night. We hadn't planned it this way, but it was the only train we could get out of Hoi An for a few days.
So, there we were, just me and Toby, in our 4 berth sleeper cabin on the train. When the clock struck midnight on new years eve, our train pulled into the nearest station, which just happened to be one over looking a coastal town, and from our bunks, we watched the night sky light up with a cascade
A Phallic Relic
Yes, it really is what it looks like. These statues were used as symbols of fertility at My Son of fireworks. There was a lot of 'whooping' and shouting of “Happy New Year” from the Vietnamese who were on the train......and in the background, playing over the train's loudspeakers was none other than Abba's “Happy New Year”.
Quite why they chose the Swedish supergroup to ring in the new year is anyone's guess. But we were treated to an Abba musical feast for the next hour (with Happy New Year played on repeat half a dozen times, along with 'Dancing Queen')........until eventually, the train drifted out of the station, on its merry way.
After a 15 hour journey, we arrived in Vietnam's capital city, Hanoi - which is where we are now. More to come from here in later blogs......but for now we say to you all (in our best Vietnamese):
"chúc mừng năm mới" (Happy New Year)
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Just love the new you Em xx