Lanterns, camera, action... Hoi An


Advertisement
Vietnam's flag
Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Quảng Nam » Hoi An
April 6th 2012
Published: April 17th 2012
Edit Blog Post

Cờ tướng and coffeeCờ tướng and coffeeCờ tướng and coffee

Roadside cafe about an hour south of Hue
Our adventure in Hoi An started early when our bus broke down about an hour south of Hue.

We waited out our rescue at a roadside cafe/local hangout where coffee and a game of cờ tướng (Vietnam) or xiangqi (China) were quickly introduced. Apparently this is popular game of strategy, something like Chinese chess. As strategy games are not really my thing I left it to 5 year old Sophie and our tour leader Tuan to go over the finer points while I headed in to the back room to try my hand at another unfamiliar game, Vietnamese pool, no pockets and only three balls...?

Once on the road again, we travelled along the coast and enjoyed occasional glimpses of a beautiful Vietnamese riviera. Not far from Danang we made a quick stop at the American named China Beach where soldiers were sent for time out during the Vietnam War. We arrived by mid afternoon and after a late lunch settled into our rooms while the kids took some time out of their own in the hotel pool.

Much later we took a walking tour of old Hoi An. Imagine a small riverside town where all the commercial action is on one side of the river. Now, there are four or five parallel streets intersected by three or four smaller streets and a central market with a dock situated on a large block taking up one corner of old Hoi An. The central markets are a veritable warren of tarp covered alley ways and the local shopkeepers are very keen to offer you just about any service, souvenir or even a snack (a popular Vietnamese pastime). The streets outside of the markets are hung with lanterns and lined with flowering trees. Wooden fronted shops housing restaurants and tailors abound as do the tourists, probably the most I've seen in one place in Vietnam so far. The streetscape effect overall is very pretty and almost old fashioned.

We spent three nights and two full days in Hoi An and Hannah spent a couple of hours of one of those days at a second orphanage where she and the other kids helped prepare lunch and interacted with some resident teenagers (apparently not as fun as the babies). I, on the other hand, spent a shameless half day being measured and fitted for a new wardrobe 😊 There is nothing that cannot be copied from a magazine, a photo, a sketch or even your own favourite piece of clothing. I was amazed at their skill, speed and completely positive response to every request regarding tailoring...shorter, rounder, looser, tighter, all of these things were met with nods and "Yes, no problem, we can do that." After three fittings and thirty-six hours everything was perfect 😊 when can you ever get that service at home?

Now! not everything worked out perfectly... Hannah and I had waited with eager anticipation to have shoes made, in fact, we'd have to say that this was our big plan when arriving in Hoi An. We had passed up very convincing copies in Hanoi of all of Hannah's favourite brands in favour of fitted shoes in hand picked colours in Hoi An. We got a recommendation for a reputable shoemaker and ordered six pairs of shoes. Two pair of leather work shoes for me, two pair of converse for Holly and two pair of vans for Hannah. It took half an hour to find photos of exactly what we wanted and half an hour to pick colours and be fitted and then instructions to come back
Mai, Hannah and MamaMai, Hannah and MamaMai, Hannah and Mama

We made sure went spent plenty of dong in their shop :)
in 8 hours...

As we were walking out a local asked us if we wanted pedicures for $2, Hannah and I looked at one another and said, "Why not?" As we were led into the central market the woman turned to us and said, "My name is Na, it means Lucky." Hannah looked at me and said, "Mum, that's the name of Mai's sister." (I should explain here that I had tried to make contact with Mai via email a couple of days before as she is the friend of another friend in Sydney, but I hadn't had a reply), I quickly asked, "Do you have sister, what is her name?". Lucky said, "Mai". I let her know that we were mutual friends of Jim from Sydney and suddenly there were hugs and squeals of delight all around. Another woman came up to me and stuck her mobile phone in my face and said, "This is Mai.". We spoke on the phone and she joined us for a lovely hour or two when we met almost the whole family!

So what about the shoes? They were bought to us at about 10 pm on our last night and other than my work shoes, which were exactly what I was expecting and beautiful, the kids shoes were passable handmade copies at best, and unfortunately not anything they would be seen dead in 😞

Advertisement



22nd April 2012

HUH?
Not sure what vans or converse shoes are. It all sounds very busy and quite delightful...very convenient to break down where you did. Hmmm. I'm being EXTREMELY busy lately myself, will let you know what I've been up to later. No news re the sale of Granddad's farm. :-(

Tot: 0.038s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0196s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1mb