Hoi An- People, Places and Things

Hoi An is another town situated on a river. Very different than our last stop, Hoi An centers around a market and the trading of goods. The town is built of centuries old merchant houses that were spared during the past couple of wars. The owners live in the upstairs and run shops and restaurants down below. They are quite amazing, really.

It seems Hoi An has been "discovered" by tourists, and may soon loose it's individual identity. We noticed new construction that had come up even since our guide book was published.

However, we have been able to enjoy the lovely charms Hoi An has to offer, just a few blocks outside of the main area of town. We decided to summarize it with people, places and things.

Enjoy.

People

The best part of Hoi An was the people. It is such a strong community. Everyone seemed to know each other, and seemed to help each other out. They are sort a fun, relaxed group of folks- the kind of people you hope to always have in your life.

They walk their lost grandparents home....

This lovely, toothless women was generous enough to sell us some overpriced fruit at the beach.

They give friends rides on their bikes...

They hang with their girlfriends...

They're not afraid to kick up their feet once in awhile...

The women work very hard in Vietnam. The men...

Again with the men...

This over-worked woman has fallen asleep in her own produce stall.

Generally, friendly people all around.

They even wear crazy outfits in public sometimes.

The little kids are in fact, the cutest.

Places

Hoi An is a small town that seems to have become recently over-run with tourists. It is still a charming place, 4km from a beautiful beach on the South China Sea, and has a very friendly vibe.

This basket that Stacie is standing next to Cau Dai beach is actually a "boat" that local fishermen use when setting their nets just off shore.


On the way to the beach we passed local women working in beautiful green rice paddies.

Just a few metres out of town there are rice paddies. Here the local rice farmers work on a field that they are preparing to plant.

Hoi An at night. The architecture is amazing and quite old. This town of merchant houses was spared in both the French and American wars. The narrow streets close down to cars and motorbikes at night, when the tourists, locals and children wander the friendly streets.

A typical intersection in Hoi An, with bikes, carts and "modern" machinery.

Mass transit in Hoi An. Town life traditionally centers around the river.

Some shrimping structures we saw on the drive between Hue and Hoi An, with the Marble Mountains in the background.

Things

Hoi An is a city of things. It is a booming shopping town for tourists, and has a lively traditional market for the locals.

Including amazing street food...

Lessons on how to make Southern Vietnamese street food...

Every kind of nick-nack, pottery or laquer bowl that you'd ever want...

Local produce, fish, dry goods, dried fish, housewares, fish...

And everyone transports everything on motorbikes...

You need silk or cloth? Hoi An has an enormous cloth market and enough ties and silk sashes for the entire western world...

Sweet day on the Perfume River

Today did an all-day tour up the Perfume River, which runs through Hue. The boat was rickety, noisy and fantastic. We loved every minute of it. As always, click on any picture to enlarge it.

The city life focuses on the river, and the main market can be accessed by boat or by land.

The Perfume River runs right through the middle of Hue, and just a few Kilometers upriver you get into the foothills and farmland. 75% of the population of Vietnam is rural and involved in agriculture. This country is so beautiful- very mountainous and very green.
This tour (which cost all of $5), was really great. We spent the day cruising up the river, stopping at historical sites and walking around the grouds of some amzing temples.

The sites we visited were sprawling, walled complexes, much like the Citadel in Hue but set back in the forests and rural areas. They were basically huge, beautiful parks with amazing landscape architecture, complete with rolling hills, and lakes. The pictures don't really do them justice, as it was the grounds and layout we found to be so appealing.

Here's a glimpse of daily life in rural Vietnam. Lots of little homes and farms were along the banks. We went about 15km up the river, and all along the banks were people tilling thier land, working along the water- making a life for themselves.

There were hundreds of these traditional boats on the river. Similar boats were loaded up with sand that they were dredging from the river and selling for construction. Some of the boats were so loaded down with piles of gravel or sand, it was hard believe they were still floating.

Here is a shot of the park-like grounds of a tomb complex. It is hard to capture the full beauty of these sites, as they were huge and layed out with perfect Feng Shui.

A buddist monk and a communist government official making friendly conversation outside a temple - Vietnam is a land of contrasts.

A couple of men fishing below a temple.

We are soon to be heading out of Hue, and onto Hoi An. We have really loved it here, and feel our next stop will have a hard time living up to this one.

Hue Cool

We've arrived in Hue (pronounced whay), which has recently been given World Heritage Site status by Unesco and with good reason. The city, much smaller than Hanoi, was the capital of Vietnam before the French came in the late 1800's. A river runs right through it, separating the old citadel (about 6 sq miles) which is walled and moated, from the newer city.

We had to cross this bridge to get over to the old citadel to do some exploring. The only reasonable way is by bike, so Stacie mustered up the courage and we rode together in traffic for the first time. Even though things are mellower here in Hue, they still drive Vietnam-style. (she needed a massage later to ease the tension that developed on the road- life is tough)

This is the entry gate after crossing the bridge that welcomes you to the old part of town, which is beautiful, full of gardens and feels very local.

We started out riding around the outside of the walled citadel, and here, Justin is trying to figure out how we get inside. You can see the moat to his left.

After valet parking our bikes (that's how they do it here) and paying a couple of dollars to get in, we were well rewarded. The Imperial City is a walled compound inside the larger Citadel. We wandered around for a few hours, and you could easily find corners of the site without anyone else around. It felt very authentic, and they've done a really good job of keepin' it real.

The citadel is massive, we spent hours walking all over the grounds- in and out of the many structures.



In many cases the only thing left standing of some of the buildings were these arch ways. There were dozens of them In the background what you see is the restoration of one of the buildings.

This man is mixing cement and laying bricks in the preservation/ restoration efforts. Every thing here is done by hand as labor is cheaper than machines.

We've said it before, but we're really loving the food here. Hue has its own unique take on Vietnamese quisine. Less French food, and bit spicier than the north. Yummmm!

Saturday Night Fever!

You absolutely have to experience a Saturday night in Hanoi to beleive it, but we'll try our best to describe. As always, click the pictures for a larger view.

First, we had one of the best meals we've ever had. We ate at this joint called Bobby Chinn's, and it compared very well against the best restaurants in Seattle or New York. Here's a shot of the swank interior.

After dinner things were fairly quiet on the town as we walked along Hoan Kiem Lake, where we snapped this pic of the ancient Pagoda out on the little island in the lake. Ahhh, serenity...

After that we headed to see the much-recommended water puppets. I (Justin) was skeptical, but what the hey, it was only 40,000 Dong (about $2.50) per person. Well, don't beleive everything you read in guidebooks - it sucked... big time. Think 3rd graders playing in a pool with dolls.

As we left the theater, relieved it was finally over, we wandered out into the streets and saw what looked like a parade of motorbikes. Like Macy's day parade but on bikes. Eventually we realized all the riders were kids- packing the streets with thier crazy driving and hilarious teen antics. We had to cross through quite a bit of this to get back to our hotel, but we were in such awe, it took us a long time to get home. As it turns out, on Saturday night the local kids hop on their motorbikes or bicycles and cruise around the lake. Round and round and round. But there's thousands of them - and they drive, well, like Vietnamese - and they probably average 14 years old. I guess its their version of hangin' at the mall.

This 4 lane road has a divider in the middle, not that it really does anything.

We had fun just watching the chaos and snapping pics. Here's our attempt to share the expereience. Just walking home this night will turn out to be a highlight of the trip - not to mention afterglow from a killer meal.

Bring the fam along for the fun!

Toddlers welcome, too (look close).

No need to look where you're going.

One way streets are just a guideline, really.

I (uh, Justin, not so much Stacie) appreciate a good wheelie. Do it in the middle of traffic - Hanoi traffic - and I'm fully impressed. These next 2 shots are for you, the Highlife Crew.




And now boys and girls, the educational part of our show!

A video on how to cross traffic in Hanoi.

This works, too.

We're now off to Hue. We LOVED Hanoi, but a slower pace and less buzzing and beeping will be really nice.