Today we went into town to explore the centre of Hoi An. In some
ways it’s a bad day to visit because as it’s Tet it means that most
places are closed. On the other hand it gives us a rare chance to
get unobscured views of the buildings of the town, one of the main
heritage reasons for coming here.
Once an important trading port for the Dutch, Portuguese,
Chinese and Japanese among others Hoi An today is now a UNESCO
tourist site, sorry a UNESCO World Heritage Centre that just happens
to be packed full of tourists. We decided to have a cyclo tour of
the town before then ambling back around at a more leisurely place.
Hoi An is an odd mixture of cultural influences. The design
and style of the front of many of the buildings would be equally at
home in a small Mediterranean village. Some of the shops and houses
still have strong French influences in the signs they have outside
but there is equally a very strong Chinese influence. This is seen
in the style of the doors, many of which are wooden slatted and
Chinese lanterns and tiles abound. The roofs of many of the
buildings are made from semi-circular tiles linked together almost
forming a wave pattern running across the roof.
Good luck messages are painted vertically in red and yellow on
either side of the door frames and other symbols are carved onto
doors and printed into the roof tiles. Most doorways have small
holders either side for incense sticks. If not, there is usually a
little niche between one building and the next just large enough to
hold a stick or two.
It makes for a very pretty town and with a little imagination
you can still imagine this as a bustling harbour town of yester
year. To be here listening to so many different languages and to see
the exotic goods being loaded onto ships sailing to different parts
of the world must have made for interesting times. Now though large
black patches of damp are climbing up most of the buildings and the
original yellow paint, which must be blinding in bright sunshine, is
flaking away and in need of a fresh coat.
At the river the water level had dropped noticeably overnight.
The pavements had already dried out and the river front cafes had
escaped another soaking. Even the fishermen seem to get a break for
Tet and their blue boats were lined up along the river almost
looking as if they were on parade. We ambled through the covered
Japanese bridge, with its decorative tiled roof and Stef fell sucker
to a lady in traditional dress with a conical hat who agreed to him
taking her photo but then charged him for the privilege. A little
old chap pulled the same trick later in the day.
We stopped at a café for a drink and to try the local Tet
speciality, banh chung. It is a sticky rice cake with bean
paste and pork in the middle. There is quite a complicated process
to making it, mainly because it has to be steamed for ten hours.
Whilst I was glad we had tried it I don’t think either of us would
seek it out again.
From here we started our amble back through town stopping to
visit the Tan Ky house. It has been handed down through seven
generations and the current occupant opens it up to visitors. It is
a beautifully restored house with heavy dark wooden furniture
engraved with mother of pearl designs.
As we were making our way back to the shuttle we bumped into
some familiar faces, Vivien and Jason who were on our boat trip in
Halong Bay. They off down to the beach to enjoy the sun and sea and
although it was also our next stop we didn’t see them again. The
beach was evidence that a major holiday was taking place because it
was pretty full of local people. There is a stretch of beach which
is lined with restaurants and simple shelters where people can come
and cook their own food. Here whole families had de-camped from town
for the day and large groups of young people were milling around.
On
the beach at Hoi An
Stef has mused several times on the sociability of the Asian
culture. People here seem to gain comfort and reassurance from being
in large groups all huddle together. Whether it is just a habit that
has formed from high density accommodation is hard to say but it is
almost as if they are afraid of solitude and space. Another, to us,
strange habit is that when they go for a swim in the sea they go
fully clothed. With the heat, wet clothes dry out pretty quickly so
maybe it is us that are the strange ones changing into different
clothes for a swim!
Walking up and down the beach there was a steady stream of
local ladies plying a variety of wares. If you wanted to you could
have bought anything from pineapples, snacks, Tiger Balm (an Asian
cure all), jewellery and other trinkets through to getting a
massage, a manicure or a pedicure. They were persistent but friendly
with it and when they finally accepted that we weren’t going to buy
they always parted with “you know my name, you remember me and if
you want to buy you buy from me”.
As we were concentrating on having a hard afternoon of doing
not a lot on the beach a couple of Swedish guys from our hotel
provided a great source of entertainment. They had hired a
windsurfing board for an hour or so and were having great difficulty
getting up and staying up. I’m not sure who laughed the most at
them, us, their wives or the chaps running the surfing school. Every
time they managed to stand up, they were just getting their balance
when a wave came along and knocked them off again. They had great
perseverance and were getting better by the end of their session.
After the beach we had another dip in the pool and again met a
family we had been chatting to on the hotel shuttle earlier. They
are from Australia although the wife is German. They have just moved
to Hanoi where they husband has taken a four year contract with the
embassy. Work for him and school for the kids starts next week so
they have decided to break in their entry to Vietnam with a trip to
Hoi An. You could sense a real mix of feelings coming through from
them. On the one hand I felt they missed home already but on the
other they were also looking forward to the adventure that faces
them.
We recommended to them the place we had eaten at yesterday and
as we went in search of a new place for dinner we saw them in there.
I only hope they had as good a meal as we had. We carried on round
the road and a little further up into the beach village and went to
My Dong. The food here was probably even better than the one by the
hotel but it also looked a little more hygienic and the people
running it were very friendly. It made for another relaxed and
lovely evening.
