Hoi An... our new favorite town

Hoi An was the first port in Vietnam and was widely used for trading up and down the coast up until the Europeans came and the Cham king decreed that he didn't want them there and moved the port to Danang.  Unfortunately for him, all the traders moved to Danang and Hoi An lost its relevance.  Fortunately for us, that means that it is mostly the way it was back then and is relatively well preserved so has become a world heritage site.

I'm not really too sure what it is about the place that grabs me, but I just like how laid back it is and how you can bike around even late at night.  I know the girls love it because of the non-stop shops selling every kind of silk and craft.  Tailors abound here and they are all selling very reasonably priced dresses and suits made from the finest wools and silks.  Jen got a few sun dresses and some copies of some shorts that she had but that were wearing out.  I ended up getting two new suits.  They made both in a day!

Most days we'd grab some bikes from the hotel and head out into the town for a look around, stopping when ever we felt like it for a beer or a pop (they sell small bottles of draught (cold!) beer for 4000 dong (about $0.20) - pop was 4 times that so that was all the excuse I needed to give up my self imposed beer diet for our stay in Hoi An.  I rationalized that I was wearing it off by biking anyway! :-)  The beer is just sooo good!


We also got more adventurous with the dinning and found a nice little spot on the roof of a restaurant right on the river.  They had a menu item called Hoi An Set Menu that had 6 different dishes for $6 that was one of the best meals I've ever had - which was good since we had it 4 different times!  The first course was a dish they call White Rose which is really like a Shrimp Wonton in the shape of a flower.  Very tasty.  Second was a fried wonton with shrimp, pineaple, vegetables and some sort of sweet and sour sauce.  This was to die for.  Next up was the best spring rolls Jen has ever had (and she loves spring rolls).  Then it was some sort of a white flaky fish on a banana leaf with a sauce of vegetables, green onions and God knows what else... again, I don't really like fish, but this was amazingly good.  A final dinner course of sticky rice and then a banana pancake with chocolate sause for desert.  Jen and I were very spoiled by this... the kids stuck to their pizza's which were also quite good.

One night we had dinner at one of the original backpacker hangouts (Triet's) that boast Hoi An's best burgers for Shawn... we all had them (except for Miss Pastaholic who had Spagetti Carbonara) and I must say that they were probably the best burgers we've ever had anywhere.  This left us in a real quandry on our last night as we really couldn't make up our minds between the Hoi An specialties and the best burgers....  we voted for Hoi An.

Now that's what I call a beer!  (for $0.25 no less!)

 We also took the bikes out to a local pottery village and watched them make all sorts of pottery.  They even let the kids try their hands at it.

She's not kicking Rachel, she's spinning the pottery table with her foot... she does this all day long.  

Yup, that's the Notre Dam and the Coliseum.

The Arc D'Trimumph

He did this from a 3D paper puzzle

The leaning tower of Piza

Lady Liberty(s)

Yup, the Sydney Opera House (not yet completed)

Starting a pot... from those tubes of clay made by the kicker lady who's just out of the picture carrying a finished pot to the drying area

The kicker lady is multitasking!  (They always seem to be the older ladies doing that while the young ones do the shaping)

It's starting to look like a real pot now

And she adds it to the collection

We weren't out of place on our bikes!

It's an easy place to bike around

I loved the gas stations for motorbikes you'd find everywhere

Downtown Hoi An

We'd eat dinner right across the river

A camp for college students... they were having some sort of a group dance competition - great school spirit

The Japanese Bridge

So friendly for bikes and walking

Rush hour on the river

Please sir, buy some peanuts....  

The Japanese Bridge at night

Up close

A somewhat drab street comes alive at night!

One day, the kids were travelled out so Jen and I left them by the pool and we took the bikes and went out to the coast (about 3kms) and drove along to a couple of the local beaches (on that stretch of beach called China Beach).  It was stunning to see 25+ miles of clean white sand and nice waves.  After our ride through the countryside (looking at beautiful rice paddies and lotus blossoms in bloom) we were ready for a swim and raced down the water.... Whoa!!! It was bloody cold!  I guess we've gotten spoiled by the 90 degree waters around Thailand, Cambodia and southern Vietnam.  This was about 75 degrees (same as our lake on a decent day) and we found it freezing!  It didn't stop us though and we played around in the waves for a few hours before heading back and scooping up the kids for more biking around town.

China beach

And it still goes for another 10 miles to the south!

Of course, the next day I took the camera in and finally got those damn spots removed (it was a broken cable within the camera... only affected at high zooms).  Cost me $50 and I was very glad to pay it.  I know back home, they'd tell me to throw the camera away and start over again as it was beyond economic repair.  I love this little camera that takes better pictures than most big SLR's as it has a 16 times optical zoom and fits in my shirt pocket!

The lifeguard's boat to come get you!  Frankly, I think you'd drown before he managed to row in circles to come within 5 kms of you.

More of those woven boats... these ones at least have a BIT of a boat shape so should be somewhat directional

Getting the nets ready once again

Lotus blossoms

A rare shot of three ladies on bikes where one of them wasn't talking on a cell phone!  About half of them ride around with those masks.  Note the slipper socks on the third one (they have a big toe)

Plastic Bag "Scarecrows" in the rice paddies.

We wanted to get back the next day but had tours and appointments with travel agents and tailors so left it for Sunday.  Unfortunately, a cold front came in and the temperatures dropped from high 80's and 90's to low 70's at best.  After spending the last 10 months in Summer- and most of that near the equator, we found this very cold and none of us was up for the beach.  This was very unfortunate as we weren't to get back as the day after was cold too.  We're heading north up to Hue and Halong Bay/Hanoi now so suspect we've seen the last of the warm weather.

Hue is a wonderful little town, and we would love to come back with more time later.  Its almost worth coming here if you want to replace your wardrobe (or get a wedding party outfitted!).  It looks a little dingy by day, but at night with the silk and paper lanterns, the moderate temperatures, everyone out walking (even wedding parties in their fine silk costumes) and the place turns magical.   We were sad to leave it this am and would have stayed a few more days had we been able to - next time!