Hoi An - Vietnam

Hoi An

We got on the over night bus to Hoi An at around 6:30pm and after about an hour an a half of driving around it was filled up with westerners and mucho Vietnamese. There were lots of people trying to do the sit on the outside seat and put their bag on the inside seat, thus taking up the two seats and having more space to themselves. PIGS! Alas this doesn’t work in Vietnam, every seat possible is sold in advance and sometimes they even add a little plastic chair or two down the middle. So little by little peoples bag seats were begrudgingly removed and given to Vietnamese. EXCEPT for one big American pig. Wearing his Yale cap and t-shirt and a copy of Newsweek in his hand, he tried to look big and busy and not give away his seat. A Vietnamese guy wanted his wife to sit on the outside seat beside him. The Yank realised this guy was gonna ask him to move over so he says “No, look she’s sat down the back and she’s not movin, OK”. Ignorant bastard. Anyway he got his comeuppance when the bus drivers took turns sitting in beside him every few hours and a French guy in front demanded his right to put his seat back all the way into the yanks lap.. ahh sweet justice.

Anyway, the journey was uneventful bar some cool fork lightning, doggy bathroom stops and some near crashes. We awoke to an amazing sunrise over the rice paddies and villages on the way to Hoi An. After much pissing about with the bus driver stopping at all his friends hotels a couple of km from town, we found a nice place pretty central with a pool and free internet.

We caught some much needed Z’s and headed out to explore the town. The town was really cool. It was Vietnam’s important international seaport town from the 16th century to the late 19th century with merchants from both Asia and Europe trading all sorts of goods from spices to gold. Located on the bank of Thu Bon River 30 km south of Danang, Hoi An is a quiet riverside town dotted with temples, shrines and Chinese style tile-roofed wooden houses on long narrow roads. It's JAM-PACKED with tailors. You can walk into any shop on the street with a copy of GQ or a woman’s mag, point at a dress or suit and have it made exactly as it looks in the mag and to fit you perfectly within 24 hours. All for about 20 dollars or maybe a lil more.

The first thing on our list of things to do was as usual – EAT! So we went to a nice place by the market for some delish spring rolls and fantastic iced coffee with sweet milk. After much friendly harassment by a trinket seller called “Ciao“, we bought some coffee from her and she dragged us to her market stall to show us more trinkets. We promised we would return and buy some stuff the following day. She gave Lisa a fan for free, we bidded ciao ciao and off we went home.

We spent the next day walking about exploring, eating nice food on upper balconies over looking the small streets. Twas v nice. The third day we decided to do a tour to My Son, a World Heritage site, 40 km southwest of Hoi An. Located in a lush valley, My Son was a capital and religious centre of Cham people, now remaining with red brick towers and sanctuaries. My Son is considered to be in the same league as some of Southeast Asia's greatest archaeological sites, including Angkor in Cambodia, Bagan in Myanmar, Ayutthaya in Thailand and Borobudur in Indonesia. These towers and sanctuaries were built from the 7 to 13 centuries. It wasn’t nearly as spectacular as Angkor, mainly because the US bombed the shite out of it during the war and because I was feeling rather sorry for myself. It was about a million degrees out with sunshine and my sunburn was SOOOOOO ICHY! But I was really glad we went on the trip.

We also spent a day on the beach nearby which was very beautiful but FULL of people trying to sell you stuff. We gave in a few times for Lychees and for some more beads hehe. So with our tour, day at the beach and some boozing done we headed onwards on our happy tour open bus ticket to Hue.

James