Arrived in Hoi An at 6:30am quite tired and grumpy. The bus dropped us outside a hotel on the town's fringe and we were immediately offered a rom for $15US a night. We decided to look closer to the central area following advice from both KLonely PLanet, Trip Advisorand other travellers. More than half the places were full so we wandered around in a daze and quite scruffy (nd probably smelly) trying to find someone who would take us in for a good price. As we couldn't find anything under $20, we trekked back out to where we had been dropped but when we arrived we were told you can only have 3 people in a room and therefore we had to take 2 room at $30! Then we trakked back into town and picked a firly ordinary place we'd found earlier that didn't have internet and we'd left hoping to find this inclusion. At $15, the room was Ok though a bit dark and smelly. After 3 hours of trying to find the perfect bargain accomodation we just took it so we could have a shower and a rest. Later we realised we were on the tail of one the main shopping streets and fairly close to the market area with cheap eats so we were happy although all of us even grumpier than we had been when we arrived! Everyone , except Asher, succombed to a slumber. Later in the day we explored the area and continued walking into the night. The area is quaint with large stone footpaths and areas where no cars are allowed through - you still have to watch out for the 2 wheelers hooning through. At certain times of the day the motorbikes are not permitted to use some streets - we couldn't work out why but were grateful for it. The buildings are a great mixture and melding of its past with influences from the Chinese, Japanese and French. There are many faded yellow cement rendered terrace homes and shops which are probably like many in Europe. The people are friendly although the shop/stall keepers are jumpy in desperation to get a sale - I don't know how well they'd do with so much competition. There must be over 200 tailors alone- now add to that all the other industries - potters, weavers, jewellers, artists and so forth. There seem to be streets and streets of vendors - mainy selling the same goods (quite often dusty from sitting there for a long time). There are also many copies from store to store - some better than ohers - it would seem like a shoppers' paradise but I think it becomes a bit of a headache very quickly with so much choice and then you feel the need to haggle back and forth between shops. Despite the headache I have shopped - AT LAST! There's a lot of silk here so I've picked up a few scarves, quite a few ear-rings and necklaces (ranging from $2.50 for basic jewelry to $12 for handmade sterling silver and jade Vietnamese ear-rings) as well as ordering 3 items of clothing, 2 paintings from an Art Gallery ($160 AUD - splurge!!!!) and a few gifts for family etc. I didn't manage all this on the first day but over the 4 days here so I'll elaborate later. At lunch time we went to a strip of casual restaurants along the river at the market end - cheaper than the Japnese Bridge end with its more upmarket venues for tourists - often charging 3 or 4 times the price for a comparabe meal. We chose Cordon Bleu as the menu had meals for $1-2. We decided to try the local specialities and had the following: Chicken and spinach rice paper rolls (with dipping sauce of course), Cau Lau (the local noodle dish - hokkien style- with soy, pork strips and salad - yum yum) and White Rose ( rice paper folded into flowers served with a prawn and pork mixture and a delicious sauce. With 3 fruit shakes and 2 locally brewed, reservative-free, delivered daily beer we spent $7.50AUD. For dinner we went ot alittle family run eatery which was very quuiet and ordered some different meals: eggplant claypot with rice (beautiully cooked with vegies, oonion and local flavours), Cantonese Rice with plenty of veg(kids choice) and rice pancakes which are we rice paper rolls filled with salad and omelette - fairly good. Walking around the streets at nice was refreshing and beautiful - all the well known streets are lit with strings of lanterns criss-crossing the road. Paul and Fran - I'd seen a phot of the town in '94 nd I think you'd see some changes (apart from the tourist crowds) as a lot of buildings have been restored authentically and the waterfrnt is no longer lined with degraded French Architecture. It's charming but hectic with people.
14/3/10
Everyone needed a good sleep in so we waited for everyone to wake before heading out for breakfast. Because we can easily get a breakfats for around 70 cents each and fresh juice or shake for the same we are eating out every morning - skipping lunch and having an enjoyable dinner. It's nice to have a break from the buns with peanut butter. As well as various egg dishes this morning we ordered a banana pancake and cut into quarters it was a still a hearty feed to us all and delicious - it was so crispy on the edges that it was nearly batter-like but with a fluffy pancake centres and whole slices of banana - I could eat this daily - breakfasts back home are going to seem dull. We purchased an "Ld Town, Hoi An" ticket book ( Adults $5 and children free ) which lets you pick 5 places (out of 15) restricted by categories. You can chose one home, museum, Chinese assembly hall, Temple and Cukltural Centre. Today we got to the Tan Ky house which had a typical standrd layout for 200-300 years ago when Hoi An was a trading town. They were very large hoes wityh an entrance and room for visitors, then a courtyard to keep the huose cool and well ventilated and then onto the family areas and the bathroom and kitchen out the back. Everything is made with timber with some specific woodworking techniques to the area - special joinery as well as beam structures to represent hands and crabs.All the timber is thickly coated in black japan and with the furniture is rich and oddly cooling! UPstairs are more room with balconies overlooking the lower courtyard as well as openings to pully up furniture and other goods in times of flood - which are still yearly between September and November. It's hard to imagine that every year everyone here has to move all their shop merchandise and homely goods to protect them from the 1-2metre water rise. There have been years when it has been even higher. We had a guide around the houise who was friendly and quite informative. We went to the Craft factory where we saw embroiderers at work, mat makers (jute and straw), weavers and the silk cocoons. There was also a tailor there that I probably should have returned to as they were a decent price and looked very professional. Again there was a guide to show us around and the kids bought one present here which I can't say what it is. All of the workers were talented especially the women doing embroidery. They used photographs to do large workd that, when completed, looked like photos - would have loved to show yu how amazing they were - especially the one's of elderly faces, but they did cost around $300+ We took retreat in the upmarket end at the Carg Club to enjoy some French sweets and coffee - I just ordered the local filtered cafe as their cappucinnos were over $4 and that just seems too much here even for a treat - and I do love their coffe - strong and smooth with no bitterness - I hope we can take some home. The cakes- Adrian and I shared an apple tart and a mango cheesecake while Asher had a chocolate brownie and Nim chose to have ice-cream. We had a seat upstairs overlooking the waterfront streets and river - it was very relaxing. After visiting the Japanese Bridge (another historical site) we wasted more time rummaging through shops without purchasing much - although this is when I bought some carved wooden ear-rings and 3 coconut/wooden necklaces for $10 - Happy! Meanwhile Adrian sat on the shopfronts' steps and ended up talking to a variety of Vietnamese tourists who come here on weekends from Hanoi among other places. By the end of the day you could see the numbers dwindling as many people left town - don't believe it became quiet though. For dinner we went to another establishment along Bach Dang on the river, market end (highly recomend this strip of eateries) and scoffed with delight: duck soup, wonton soup, cau lau agin and fried wontons - more like pappadums with a sweet bean and tomato salsa perched on top and sprinkled with coriander - to die for! Dinner cost 80000d ($5!) and we added another 20000 in drinks. The local beer is 30c for a small glass (though not too small) and 50c for a large! Not being a beer drinker, I'm paying double that for water ad a lot more for a shake, juice or $1 for a wine - have had a couple of times and always order the local Da Lat varieties which I've enjoyed despite reading some bad reviews on them. After dinner we caught the cultural show with another of our tickets - there was only 4 other Westerners in there and a large crowd of Vietnamese Tourists (in a tour group who left half way through). The show was highly professional and entertaining and apart from the drummer (belting it out like he was in The Beatles) all very traditional. There was a variety of music, dance, songs and martial arts - everyone thoroughly enjyed it and felt like buying the ticket book was worth it just for this! Follwoing the shw we were shown around the lantern making section, woodcarvings etc. To ed after a busy but funfilled day. One final comment I keep forgetting to mention - the music here blows us away - here are some examples:
1. on our trip with Hung in Da Lat he was playing an MP3 filled with the best range of music including jazz classics in Vietnamese, Puff The Magic Dragon in English, a bit of The Beatles as well as Lionel Ritchie!
2. On a trip Adrian did with Asher (you'll hear about tomorrow) - an isolated huse on the beach had Elvis blaring through the shuttered windows.
3. On the streets corners are speakers (which may have been used in the past for political gain) whuich play cool jazz, classical piano as well as Vietnamese Pop - it's lovely hearing music as you walk the streets!
4. At Vinpearl Island there were speakers everywhere also playing hits frm Eurovision and the like - making for a jolly mood amongst all!
Chow for now - off to check my tailor made items - just 3 casual pieces that were cheap and not brilliant but am happy withem so far - hopefull they'll all be perfect so we can move on!
love Terri - hope you're all well! XXX
