Hoi An, the Sunshine Coast of Vietnam

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Still reading Ewan McGregors narrative of the Long Way Round, I have come to appreciate the desire he had on occasion to just jump back on the BMW bike and hit the open road. Our visit to Hue was an enjoyable experience, but Hue was not as we expected; the city was incredibly busy and dirty, the enjoyable aspect of Hue was the time spent at our lovely resort by the pool, incidentally developing a Sunkist tan in the process. Although cocktails by the pool does sound indulging, it isn’t the sort of stop we were planning on, and in that regard Hue disappointed. So when it came to hit the road, like Ewan on occasion himself, I was all too happy.

Today was an early departure, by 8.00am we had checked out of our hotel and were in private vehicle transfer to Hoi An, Vietnams Sunshine Coast. The scenery was simply spectacular, just when you thought the view couldn’t get any better; around the next bend was something new.

On the way to Hue from Da Nang all those days ago our vehicle transfer took us through the mountain via the 6km long underpass. Today, a guide travelling with us as well we took the more scenic route on what has been described by Top Gear as the ‘perfect ribbon of coastal road in the world’ over the mountain range and down the other side. Making a few stops along the way to soak up the scenery and take some photos. Our first stop was nicknamed ‘Clarkson’, in reference to the scene in the Top Gear Vietnam special where Jeremy pulls over to the side and describes the view before him has a metaphor for Vietnam. (

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Our guides name was Wiy, during his introduction he remarked, it is pronounced ‘wee’, but please, do not call me ‘wee-wee’. Wiy, like many Vietnamese was a rather short fellow, and like so many was constantly chip and smiling. His cap, a gift from a previous tour was a USA cap, with the Washington government crest smack bang in the middle and a US flag along the side which he wore proudly.
Wiy was a brilliant guide and good company during our trip to Hoi An. Obviously interested in the history of religion in the IndoChina region, we made a few stops along the way visiting various land sites and museums of religious significance. One of the museums we visited was dedicated to Buddhism – a bit left field I thought for a drive to Hoi An, but the incredible amount of artefacts this museum had sucked me right in; it was an archaeological gold mine. In some sense the museum transported you to a whole nother country, the statues being more what you would expect had you been visiting India, with the half elephant, half human goddess and the lion with the tail of a crocodile. It was fascinating stuff.

Probably just as interesting was discovering how Vietnam was forged. In all the tours we had done in Vietnam from the two times we had visited all of the tours touched on the Vietnamese struggle with resisting occupation, be it from the French, the Chinese or the United States of America during the Vietnam War (which the Vietnamese refer to as the American War of course), but not once had we learned about how Vietnam was conquered by the Vietnamese.

Wiy broke it down from the very beginning in his own broken English way, ‘The name Vietnam, is two words, Viet as in the Vietnamese people, and Nam as in to go South.’ Drawing out a pointing stick since he couldn’t reach high enough to point himself he slapped the pointer against a map of the world right at the Chinese boarder ‘you see, going south from China, this is Vietnam today’ circling what we know as modern day Vietnam. Interestingly it wasn’t always like this; Initially Vietnam was divided into three portions, almost evenly. The top most third was the initial Vietnam, the lowest third belonging to Cambodia, the middle third to a group called Java from the Indonesia region, and the story begins from there:

Once upon a time there was a Java prince which wanted to marry. In the interest of strengthening relations between Java’s Vietnamese neighbours he proposed to marry a princess from Vietnam. As a wedding gift the Java King gave up a small portion of Java’s land to the Vietnam kingdom. Not long after the prince and princess had children the prince (presumably now king and queen) still reasonably young died from unknown cause. Java religion at that period dictated that when the King dies, the queen must be killed to, her cremated remains buried alongside her king. Her father, the Vietnamese King hearing this sent a strike force in to rescue his daughter. The rescue was successful, but the new heir to the Java throne wanted the land back which was gifted to the Vietnam King for the wedding. A war broke out and the Vietnamese stood their ground. Knowing that it would cost too many resources to continue the war with Vietnam, the Java people pushed south taking on Cambodia instead. Their forces now significantly reduced with the sudden push south presented the Vietnamese with an opportunity to continue pushing south themselves and eventually the Vietnamese prevailed resulting in the Vietnam we geographically know today.

The drive was long, but the little stops Wiy added were enjoyable and broke the trip up well. As we approached Da Nang, our half way point we noticed a great deal of flags on both sides of the road; to the left side the flags represented the Vietnamese, a red flag with a yellow star. To the right was the ‘Cold war chilling’ (in a awesome way) communism logo, the infamous hammer and stickle, largely paraded by the Red Army of the Soviet Union of Russia. Wiy explained that all of this was because of an upcoming government election for Vietnam, although the election was not for another few weeks Wiy seemed confident he could tell us who will be elected. Vietnam prides itself of no longer being a communist country, but from the sounds of it this is more a facade than anything else, with the government still controlling the outcome of the elections. To this end, like a tap to water, the Vietnamese government ‘turns off’ access to Facebook to aide in controlling public opinion, only releasing the tap when the election is over.( Though if you ask around almost everyone has a way or two around this system.)

As we left the city centre of Da Nang our driver was still cruising at a frustrating 40kph. Further along an old soviet era lorry pulled out in front of us bringing our speed down to 30kph. Our driver slowly teetering out towards the centre of the road looking for an opportunity to overtake, not feeling confident he pulled back in. As if challenging the drivers decision to stay behind the lorry Wiy starts talking to the driver in Vietnamese, shortly afterwards turning around to face us to explain the situation, ‘This speed limit is 40kph, the driver cannot over take at the moment without exceeding 40. If he gets caught speeding he will lose his license and his car.’ With 13 deaths a day, the Vietnamese take road safely very seriously. Sure enough as we turned the next bend two Vietnamese dressed as locals were sticking out from the bushes holding what appeared to be a portable speed camera. Now it makes sense why our transfers have been so anal about obeying the speed limit!

We arrived in Hoi An just after noon, Wiy, not having any plans for the rest of the day offered to continue being our guide for no extra charge for the remainder of the afternoon. Like so many Vietnamese we have met, he is hard working and very proud of his heritage, and knows that Vietnams future interests lay in the continual growth in tourism. Or at least that is the spiel that he gave to us, what we later found out is that Wiy gets commission from the restaurants and businesses he introduces us to. This didn’t matter to us as earlier on in the journey before he made his offer we were already asking him details for a good tailor and good places to eat.

Once we had checked in we met Wiy down stairs and began our Hoi An orientation tour, along with taking us to a good tailor and showing us some of his favourite restraints, Wiy wanted to continue the spiritual journey we started by taking us to a few of the local temples and places of worship in the city. With the entrance fee for the temples costing a mere $5 AUD and the fact Wiy had already proven to be a great asset we happily indulged his request and along route continued to learn more about the various religious practices in the region.

We parted company upon arrival at the tailor, but not before Wiy stuck his head in to say a quick hello to the staff who undoubtable knew him. Wiy promised us that these tailors were professional, understood English very well and would definitely take care of us, and he was right. The staff were very accommodating, in no way pushy and the whole experience to date has been great fun. After choosing the material I wanted, I then got sized up and finally selected a style for my smart black Cashmere suit. Michelle wasn’t far behind having selected her material she also ordered a Cashmere business suit with blouse.

That evening quite exhausted, we stopped at a quaint narrow little restaurant two doors down from a T-Junction. The frontage for this restaurant was probably no wider than the length of a sedan, the food we ordered, both going for a western dish, spaghetti bolognaise was somewhat a disappointment, but the atmosphere was electric. It was nothing special at all, just your ordinary street, and like the majority of them in Hoi An nice and quiet, with just a few locals and western tourists walking past. Across the road from where we sat was an art gallery. Sitting out on its Fresh facade in a deck chair an old man, obviously the proprietor, no longer interested in selling paintings for the day, like us, he was enjoying the casual passing of people, the odd bike, and the gentle cool breeze that made its way through the town from the beaches some distance away. What the restaurant lacked in food, it made up for in location and of course beer service – it was like being in Brussels all over again, enjoying a late night out with a great many beers in hand; the perfect way to bring to close such a long and eventful day.

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