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Published: January 18th 2009
Our guesthouse
This was a little lake right outside our patio. We ate a delicious breakfast in the garden every morning. Sigh.Well we are just concluding a wonderful 3 days in Hoi An. Hoi An is a beautiful riverside town about 5k from the beach. It has been raining pretty much the whole time, but it is warm. My laundry never dried. We stayed at a lovely little resort about 2k from town that is set in beautiful gardens. They offer a nice breakfast every morning, free bicycles, and lots of other perks. We walked to the beach one day, we walked all around town, and walked some more. We have done some major shopping here! Raymond bought 2 custom-made suits, and I bought 2 suits, a shirt and a skirt. Many of the girls in Vietnam have been telling Raymond how handsome he is (he says they equate big with handsome) and he looks great in his new suits!!!! It is a bit of an ordeal haggling all the time, but you can get some great deals! Hoi An is pretty much a tourist town. There are a million cafes to eat at. I think most of the town was build in the 19th century as a port town, and much of the historic architecture has been preserved. Yesterday we visited
Tran Altar
I am not sure if it is appropriate to take a picture of an altar, but I did. In all the houses, there is a room or area where people worship their ancestors. In each of these boxes, there is an autobiography. Now they use pictures instead. some of the old preserved homes as well as the a couple museums and the handicraft center. We went to the Tran house - Mr. Tran was a Chinese mandarin who had a Vietnamese wife. He built a vacation home in Hoi An with several different blends of architecture - Chinese, Japanese, and French. The architecture here is very cool - much of it is being restored by a Japanese group. We visited the Handicraft workshop, where they show people making by hand all sorts of crafts. They also had a cultural performance with music and dancing.
Today we did a day trip to My Son ruins. They were built continuously from the 4th-13th centuries. It is a religious settlement by the Cham people, who I think came from Indonesia. They were originally Hindu, so there are lots of Hindu relics everywhere. Apparently they switched to Buddhism later - I don't know the history on this, but I will have to look it up. It is apparently similar to Ankor Wot in Cambodia, but not as well preserved (or as big.) The bricks are not held together by mortar, and it is not known how they are adhered. The
Lantern shop
The silk lanterns are so beautiful - if I could transport them easily, I would buy the whole shop! theory is that it is a botanical sort of glue holds them together. Not only have they survived a really long time, but they also survived bombing during the American war. One of the temple groups was bombed because the Americans believed the Viet Cong were hiding there. According to the guide, the Americans were wrong, there were no soldiers there. Very sad. You can see the bomb craters right next to the temples - it is amazing the ones that didn't get bombed survived the earth shaking that must have occured. The irony contunues as it is such a beautiful and peaceful setting in the mountains with streams running through it, and all sorts of cool jungle plants. My botanist aka Raymond showed me this plant called "touch me not". It has a leaf like a small fern, about the size of your finger. When you touch it, it takes all the little leaves and pulls them into a stick so you can't touch the leaves anymore. It is really cool - I have a video. I am having trouble uploading it right now, but will try later.
Well I think it is about time to go catch
Building
Most of the buildings have a courtyard in the middle as shown here. the bus. We are taking a night bus to Mui Ne to relax on the beach for a few days before we fly back to Singapore. Hopefully it will not be raining there - it shouldn't be. Thanks to all of you who leave comments - it is so nice to hear from home when you are so far away. Love you all!
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Sandra Lehman
non-member comment
I am completely enjoying seeing your trip through the blog. Went on moonlight snowshoe hike when the moon was big. You would have liked it. Hellos to Raymond.