Hoi An

Vietnam is a long thin country with alot of coastline. What makes Vietnam's coastline so beautiful is that it is surrounded by mountains. Which also makes the driving here so scenic - as anyone who watches Top Gear knows. Unfortunately photos do not do the place justice. I had a long drive (13hours) to reach my next stop of Hoi An. The drive was at night too, so all I saw was blinding street lights.

Hoi An is an old historic port town that now has Unesco status to try and preserve it. As you may have guessed, what with it being an ex port, not only is it 3km away from the beach but it sits on the banks of a might river. A number of small villagers live on islands in the river. The silting up of the port 100 years ago stopped the town from developing so now thousands of tourists flock here to take in the historical vibe. It is the most touristy place I have been in Vietnam and prices certainly reflect that. I have been managing to stay in small guesthouses for the most part - but prices in Hoi An are double those elsewhere, so I had no other choice but a dorm bed. There is normally a choice of hostels - the party one (catering for 18 - 25year olds) and the other one - the one I normally go for. Except in Hoi An there was no other one, there was only the one hostel. And whilst it was a lovely building, well maintained, lovely staff, very clean, there was no escaping that half of its guests were totally obnoxious and you really wouldn't want to be sharing a dorm room with them. Luckily for two out of my three nights there, I had good room mates. The third night is another story...

I spent a couple of very pleasant days cycling around the city and out to the beach. Cycling around the river islands, I passed through paddy fields and people fishing, children chasing water buffalo - it was a completely different way of life - even more surreal when you realise these people are only 10 minutes away from package holiday central. I didn't linger on the beach, having arrived from another beach destination, but I did paddle along the shoreline. As well as the buildings, people come to Hoi An to eat and to get clothes made. Every second building is a clothes shop touting for business. Whilst a surprising number of backpackers did go and have a suit / dress / coat made, I had no desire for either a suit or a winter coat. the coats looked lovely but they were not waterproof - not much good for Yorkshire winters (or summers for that!) I did however have a desire to taste some of the local food.

I had a couple of local delicacies, fried wontons with vegetable toppings, caramelized fish baked in a clay pot, a thin rice pancake stuffed with spring onions and herbs. I also had the best fish and chips dish ever (even beats Cape Town). Fresh basa fillets coated in breadcrumbs, herbs, lemongrass together with chips and a lime mayonnaise. Simply wondrous. When I wasn’t eating I was mainly watching the world go by. Hoi An has old links to Japan, the bridge I am standing in front off is one of Hoi Ans most visited sites – the old covered Japanese Bridge. In fact whilst I was there, there was an Hoi An Japanese cultural festival going on. There were stages set up where Japanese bands were performing, I saw a number of Samurai demonstrations and women dressed in traditional Japanese clothing. There was alot of Japanese tourists and a fair number of Japanese film crews! There were also demonstrations of Hoi An culture and I was able to walk around an embroidery school and watch a chap carve figures out of bamboo root. It wasn’t quiet though, the festival had tripled the usual large amounts of visitors so trying to visit the old houses was out of the question.

Instead I took a trip out of Hoi An to the site of My Son (pronounced Me Sun). This was once the world’s major site for ancient Cham temples. I say once because the Americans managed to bomb the majority out of existence – they only stopped when a notable professor wrote to Nixon demanding they stop the bombing – surprisingly they did! These Cham temples are very similar to the Khmer temples at Angkor but not quite as ornate. Mr Dung (pronounced Young) our guide was really funny, he wasn’t that upset with the Americans for bombing all the temples but he was furious with the French, who after “discovering” the temples in the late 1800’s had come back and removed all the heads from the statues. They are all now in the Louvre. Everytime we passed a statue, he pointed to the (replica) head and shouted “real one in France!” I spent a very enjoyable morning at My Son, the only downside being that humidity reached 100%. This was not pleasant. Even the locals were suffering. My Dung was walking around saying “too hot, too hot”

Time is very quickly running out in Vietnam. I am having to seriously reassess my options. Even though I have only been spending 3 nights in one place it looks as if I will not be able to fit in all the sights I wanted to see. I am moving on to the next city of Hue (pronounced Way) and here I will have to make some final decisions.