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We left Hue for the four hour drive over the Hai Van pass to Hoi An. I was still feeling tired and tight chested and was hoping the antibiotics would make me feel better soon. Our driver spoke very good English and Jerry enjoyed talking to him as we left Hue. Halfway to Hoi An we stopped at one of two large inland lagoons. One was used for pearl farming, an enterprise originally established by the Japanese, and now run solely by Vietnamese families growing cultured pearls for export to Japan. The other large lagoon was used for shrimp farming.
The road was lined with eucalyptus tree plantations, a present after the war from the Australian Government, and today there are thriving home based small stills in the area producing eucalyptus oil and associated products. The roadside was lined with dozens of stalls selling bottles of the yellow oil. There was also a large Christian graveyard - our driver said that five percent of the population is Christian, predominantly Catholic.
We stopped for coffee on top of the pass. The Hai Van pass is a 21 kilometres length of twisting curves which now thankfully sees less traffic since the
Hai Van tunnel (6.8 Kim's long) was completed in 2005. Today only tourist transport and many fuel tankers use the pass. We passed many foreigners driving motorbikes and our driver made some comment about how many accidents involving tourists and motorbikes occur in the area. We've certainly seen a lot of minor injuries from them since arriving here.
We passed through Da Nang city, with a brief stop at China Beach. We did the same trip a few years ago and were totally shocked at our much development has taken place on the beaches since then. The beach is lined with 5* resorts and high rise hotels from Danang almost to Hoi An. Any land that was bare had development signs on it.
We arrived in Hoi An early afternoon and we were dropped at our hotel, just on the edge of the ancient town. The Cozy Hoi An Villas was lovely and fabulous value for the price we paid. Later that afternoon after a swim in the small but lovely pool at the hotel we walked into the old town. Hoi An today is a well preserved old port town full of architecture which is a mix
of eras and styles from wooden Chinese shophouses and temples to colorful French colonial buildings, ornate Vietnamese tube houses and the iconic Japanese Covered Bridge. There are over 1100 historic buildings and they are the reason the town was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1999 and has been a mecca for tourists ever since. You are supposed to pay an entrance fee to get into the area but it was a couple of days before we were actually asked to pay anything. I think there were just too many tourists to police it properly. The place was crazy busy, packed with families from Australia and the US, and many French and German couples. Plus dozens of tour buses of Chinese tourists. We had a couple of drinks on the waterfront before taking pity on one of the rowers on the traditional boats and paying her to take us for a half hour paddle as the sun went down. It was surprisingly peaceful and the old lady was charming - at least she didn't try and upsell! We had a quick meal afterwards and escaped the chaos by spending the evening at the hotel.
It was busy
the next day as well but did, thankfully, become quieter before we left. I guess that is the problem of travelling in school holiday time. One morning I got up very early and spent a few hours wandering the streets virtually alone. It was very pleasant - the only other people were a bridal couple and their wedding photographers taking photos before the tourists arrived. The food markets at one end of the old town were very busy though with local people shopping. I love markets as they are full of colour and life and a great way to observe ordinary people.
Once the tour buses arrived and all the shops were open it was actually hard to really appreciate the streetscape properly. The town today is renowned for it's tailors and leather shops. You can get anything made or a favourite item of clothing copied within 24 hours. Of course the quality varies and I'm sure many people have regretted their purchases upon returning home. We didn't partake of their services but I did notice that the range of fabrics offered now was so much more varied than last time we were here.
We ended up spending
a lot of the daytime enjoying the ambience of our pretty hotel and just venturing out to explore and enjoy the cafes and bars late in the afternoon after it was cooler and a lot of the tour buses had left. One morning we caught a taxi to Duy Hai island to explore the fishing village there. The island has been connected to the mainland for the last twelve months by an enormous bridge. The taxi dropped us at the end of the bridge and we walked a couple of kilometres along the river to the small fishing village. The river was dotted with traditional drop fishing nets, small circular bamboo coracle boats plus dozens of larger fishing vessels. There were many tiny paper boats - we had noticed them on the river in Hue as well and after asking a local girl found that they are used in a good luck ceremony to celebrate buying a new boat. We spent an enjoyable hour or so wandering the village before taking a boat back along the river to Hoi An. An expensive but enjoyable trip and probably the only way we could have got back to Hoi An other than
walking to the bridge and hoping an available taxi passed. We saw forests of Nipa palms (small coconut tree palms which grow only in water) lining the rivers edge.
That evening we ventured out of the ancient town into the surrounding streets in search of a tiny cafe famous for selling supposedly the best Banh Mi in Vietnam. Banh Mi is a baguette full of pate, barbecued pork, picked vegetables, herbs and chilli sauce. We eventually found it just as they sold their last roll! We went back the next night and they were very tasty... We enjoyed walking the streets away from the riverfront as they were so much quieter. After we had been asked to pay for an entry ticket we revisited some of the historic houses we had visited on a previous trip here. Your entrance ticket entitles you to visit five of the sites free of charge. However they were so busy you were literally rushed through them so we didn't bother seeing the last couple.
Hoi An is lovely after dark as the streets are strung with glowing silk lanterns and the river is covered in tiny floating paper candles, placed in the
water by tourists for luck. Once the lanterns would have only been red but today they are a multitude of vibrant colours and patterns. As I was feeling so much better I celebrated my last evening by having a massage. Jerry sat happily at a riverside cafe enjoying a few draught beers until I joined him. We were only in Hoi An for four nights but we're pleased to leave the crowds behind when we left. Thankfully our hotel was a sanctuary of peace so we had somewhere calm to relax when the streets became too hot and busy. Next stop was a one night in Da Nang, where we planned on seeing the Dragon Bridge breathe fire.
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