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Hoi An (+Photos)

Posted on August 17, 2007

Ah, Hoi An. UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site. Beautiful Chinese and Japanese influenced architecture. Narrow streets absent the buzz of motorbike engines and irritating horns, (at least for a couple of hours a day.) It’s been a great place to calm down after hectic Hanoi. Alas, we leave tomorrow for Saigon which is supposedly like Hanoi, but louder, more stressful and much less charming.

Hoi An is an enchanting town, easy to lose yourself in for a week. (Although that might have something to do with the government changing the street names and the locals not bothering to update the maps or their business listings.) And that’s precisely what we’ve done. We’ve spent a week here, lazing around, eating at street kitchens as much as possible, enjoying the odd ‘European’ meal, and sampling the local nightlife. We’ve also spent an inordinate amount of time at our new friend B’Lan’s tailor shop having various garments custom made.

We stayed at two different hotels, one more boutique / charming and the other more all-mod-cons / with pool. I’m starting to really prefer the latter. Charming seems to connote poor service considering the price. At the ‘charming’ place we ordered Pho Bo (beef noodle soup, a traditional Vietnamese breakfast dish) for breakfast one morning - you had to put your order in the night before - and after waiting half an hour the next morning after arriving for breakfast we were presented with two bowls of ramen, the shape of the dried noodles still evident in the bowl. The newer place has a buffet breakfast, and whilst they would likely fail any food inspection in the U.S. they have real bacon and an omelet station!

Yesterday we rented some bicycles, which took a little time since we were insisting on functional brakes, and then rode the ferry over to Cam Kim (Cam means island, Kim means beast.) We rode around for a couple of hours, during which time I lost about 12 liters of sweat. Cam Kim is quite agricultural and much less built up than the mainland. As we rode around we heard the call of ‘hello’ every few meters or so. Kids, farm workers, grown ups, they all wanted to say hello, and giggled when we yelled hello back. Caitlin worked out that they were calling us ‘hellos’ too, since many of them would precede their hollering with a quick discussion amongst themselves peppered with the word hello. It was nice to feel so welcome, and as hard as they tried they failed to capture us for their circus sideshow. (See the 100 kilo man and his wife, over six feet tall, white as salt, hear them shout hello back at you, only 2,000 dong!) And it was great to be in the country rather than in town where they refer to us as ‘hello, buy something.’

So, Hoi An. It’s been around since the 1600s and has a large Chinese population who came here as traders. It also has a close relationship with Japan, and the European influence is clearly visible. The guys who run the bar we’ve been frequenting are from Latin America, which is great for us because they know how to make a decent Mojito (with real Cuban rum!) It’s also teeming with tourists of all nationalities. We’ve met and heard more Americans here than anywhere else on our trip, (including two couples from San Francisco, one of them living at 30th & Church, 5 blocks from our old place.) Lots of Aussies, and many Euros. It’s definitely the kind of place we feel we need to come back to (when I need a new suit!)

Or, check out the flickr slideshow (full screen baby!)

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