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Published: November 30th 2008
Not to be confused with Hanoi (we keep misspeaking), we spent a few days in Hoi An, Bill and Linh joining us for the first day. We arrived by air to Danang, then Bill found us a car to Hoi An, around 40 minutes away. In the Hanoi airport, we met two Danish travellers who were unfortunate in that they seemed to bump into just about every bad experience you can have in Vietnam. We said we might split a car with them from Danang, as they were also headed to Hoi An. Our car didn't have room, though, so they opted for the bus instead. We later found them in the streets of Hoi An and asked them how the bus was. Of course, it had broken down and it took them around 4 hours to get there. Poor fellas, good thing we didn't stick with them.
Something we can't believe we hadn't seen suddenly happened as soon as we got out of our car -- a motorbike accident. We weren't involved, fortunately, but the poor fellow that was thrown from his bike looked like he was in some pain when he finally got up. Fortunately, at least they
Waterfront Tour
The next day, the water receded and everything was back to normal.both walked away from it, which we didn't expect from the noise.
We checked into our nicest hotel yet -- pool, ac, soft beds (that's a big deal to us!), breakfast, internet, friendly staff, big balcony, clean, two marble sprial staircases... all for $20 (each night)!! Talk about luxury. We walked around a bit and took in the new town, showing restraint by not going into one of the 400 tailors, all willing to measure you up and make you a new wardrobe in a matter of hours. Hoi An used to be major harbour with large chinese and japanese settlements, with some portugese and dutch traders as well. All that history makes for some interesting architecture, which they are slowly starting to preserve. We tried some local cuisine, selecting a large but rather empty restaurant. Soon, our very presence attracted many more customers. Bill thought we should charge a small fee. We had taken the night train the evening before, so it was a pretty early night.
The next day, we decided we'd better get fitted for the (unbeknownst to Rob) many, many clothes we would buy. There was a flurry of tape measures, coaxing, fabric selection
Typical Tour Guides
Check out those rice hats and attention from the army of small vietnamese girls working at the store. They had a strange way of complimenting us... sometimes it was pretty straightforward, but one time when Rob was trying a shirt on, one of the girls pulled at a bit of his chest hair and exclaimed simply "monkey." It was pretty funny. For Jen, while measuring the bust, the girl said "small, just like Vietnamese." Jen did not buy a second shirt at that store 😊 Once the buying started, it just didn't stop. (It really wasn't THAT bad folk!
sure most of our readers would understand). Seriously, though, the deals were unbelieveable... Rob got a suit and half-dozen shirts, Jen got a suit, skirts, dresses, jackets... that's all I can remember for now. Once the decisions were made - scheduling fittings next prevailed. 11 am at this store, 12 noon at that store....4 pm....you get the idea! It was kind of fun, and impressive to see the items simply materialize.
That afternoon, we decided to see an ancient ruin site, My Son, that was built by the Cham people starting 1700 years ago. The Lonely Planet guide said the site would be pretty Driving to My Son
The flooded roads made the driver, who took meticulous care of his car, very nervous. We were afraid he would turn back on us. busy in the morning, as that's when busloads of tourists are dropped off, so we hired a car mid-afternoon and had the place to ourselves. We tried to hire a guide, but it turned out he was too lazy to meet us, or we said something offensive. Either way, it was okay, as the LP had enough detail and the bulk of the ruins were destroyed by american bombing. Several temples do still stand and you can get right inside. The Cham people were influenced by Hinduism, so the art was largely Indian looking (Shiva, various phalli, etc).
That night, we threw in the towel and admitted that we were craving something western. We'll admit -- we had a hamburger, and it worse yet, we enjoyed it. It was actually pretty good -- bacon, cheese, even fries. We spent the remainder of the evening with Bill and Linh, listening to Elvis, drinking beer and playing billiards. Turns out Linh's not just good at fishing, she's an excellent pool shark too.
The next morning, Bill and Linh left pretty early, and we had a chance to explore Hoi An a little more thoroughly. There's lots of artisans, architecture to Cham Temple
I bet you were expecting a picture of a phallus. see, and people trying to sell peanuts. The river had flooded some of the town, so we took a boat ride to see the waterfront. It was rowed by an older lady, whose daughter jumped on at the last second to try to sell us more stuff. We learned that kids with no money are educated until they turn 11, then it's off to work with them. That explains why whenever we try to use an internet cafe, it's packed with kids playing video games.
The next morning, we clamored onto the back of some motorbikes and got a ride to the beach. It's not really beach season here, so it was pretty deserted and fairly windy. Nonetheless, Jen went for a swim in the large-looking waves. She just can't help herself. Don't worry, she didn't wash out to sea. It was our only excursion to the beach (we were going to go to the beach town of Nha Trang, but the forecast called for rain and we're running out of time); brief, but enjoyable. We left Hoi An with heavy packs and a vow not to buy anymore clothes. Saigon was our destination, we'll tell you more about that later!
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