Hoi an, a very attractive tourist trap
We arrived in Hoi An earlier than expected after a very enjoyable bus journey, during which we hardly ever felt like we were about to die and enjoyed some lovely views as we climbed through a mountain pass into the next valley. Our hotel in Hue had booked us a room at an associated hotel in Hoi an, and this turned out to be very nice so we were off to a good start.Hoi an is a peculiar place in that it is quite un-Vietnamese. It is very small, connected by a dirt track to the larger town of Danang on the coast. Like Hue, the old town is a World Heritage Site, but here there were no crumbling ruins. Instead the whole of the centre along the river has been restored and preserved to create a giant tourist trap. Restaurants and bars are clearly designed with tourists in mind (although still very cheap by Western standards), and the lack of locals living in the centre meant that the streets were almost totally pedestrianised - only the occasional motorbike.
The main tourist attractions, which we covered in the first morning, include a Japanese Covered Bridge, several traditional old town houses, several temples and a pagoda. We opted to visit those that were free on the basis that all the houses and temples looked pretty much the same.
The main source of income from tourists is through tailor-made clothing. As a result the visit was somewhat torturous for me - every day we walked past hundreds of flattering, fashionable clothes in my size, with women dying to sell them to me, but unfortunately our budget doesn't stretch to shopping. We learned from another tourist that you could get a tailor-made suit for $20, which explained the number of people who appeared to be there only to shop.
Despite the small size of the town, we still found we were rarely bored, partly due to the street kids who seemed determined to entertain us. Every time we sat down on a bench one or more would come up and offer to let us photograph them - however as we knew this would be followed by a demand for 'coin', we refused. They rarely seemed put off though and would hang around trying out their English on us and messing about. One group of boys thought it was hilarious to wipe orange poster paint on our faces. Another 13 year old girl was fascinated by Chris's freckles and turned out to be racist, sticking her tongue out at a passing black man and saying 'black skin nasty', which didn't do much to endear her to us!
Another highlight was tasting the local specialities, which turned out to be delicious. We followed the Lonely Planet's guidance to the best local restaurant in town, where we tried 'white rose' (fresh shrimp wrapped in rice paper in a spicy sauce), crispy fried wonton and 'cau lao', doughy flat noodles mixed with croutons, bean sprouts and pork in a soup with chilli sauce. We enjoyed it so much we went there again the next night - as you can see we are both now quite used to Asian food!
We only stayed for two nights, but as the town was so small we arranged a day trip for the second day. This took us to the Cham ruins at My Son, a collection of temples and other buildings built between the 4th and 13th century BC. Due to the remote mountain location of the temples and the disappearance of the Cham people from the area, the ruins were forgotten about until the French discovered them in 1901. Sadly, the Viet Cong fighters opted to use them as a hiding place during the Vietnam war, with the result that the Americans bombed the area heavily - of the 70 temples that the French discovered, only 3 remain standing. Despite this I was in architectural heaven finding lost column capitals and spectacular pieces of sculpture among the ruins, and I very much enjoyed the trip. It also gave us the opportunity to get closer to the Vietnamese jungle, although not too close - we were warned not to leave the paths as there are still unexploded landmines in the area. Coupled with the sporadic downpours, we were able to sympathise with anyone who had had to fight in the jungle.
We returned from our tour with enough time to eat and by provisions for our next leg - a 24 hour bus journey to Saigon which neither of us were looking forward to. More on that to come!
Emily
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