We had a great time in Hoi An. A particular highlight was the wonderful Airbnb we stayed at; it was located on the river, and we were living in a very traditional community. The owner, Mrs. Theung, and her multigenerational family live next-door. On the river, directly across the street, they ran a wonderful restaurant in an Orchid Garden. The setting was beautiful, and the food was amazing. Alastair and I found a regular walking route that took us through the local neighbourhood to the beach and along the beach, we did our loop almost every morning while the kids focused on school. Rice Patties and farmers’ fields intermingled with residential blocks.
We enjoyed visiting the old city of Hoi An a few occasions wandering the narrow lane ways filled with tourist and different shops catering to tourist. There is a huge tailor market in Hoi An and many foreigners get clothes made. Sophie was thrilled to have a new bikini made specially for her. As we are travelling with our backpacks, the rest of us were limited and did not indulge in having clothes made, maybe this would have been different at the end of our trip. Old town Hoi An has been declared a UNESCO world heritage site; while visiting you purchase a ticket that goes towards the cost of maintaining the town. This ticket allows you to visit 5 of the 25 sites that have all been declared important for cultural or heritage sights. These includes temples, art galleries, museums, and community halls for the different foreign countries that established important trading posts here.
One day, Sophie and I took Vietnamese lantern making class, this was great fun. We enjoyed meeting other tourist, but the local instructor made the class! He was very humorous and told us a lot about life as a young adult in Vietnam. He explained how he and siblings had started the business and the importance of the Vietnamese Lantern as as a symbol of hope, spiritual illumination and luck or prosperity. On another night, we visited the Hoi An Memories, a musical theatre. It takes place on an island in the harbour, joined to the city by a majestic bridge. It is an incredible show incorporating over 100 dancers, an amazing light show and amazing sets with many moveable parts. The stage is part water, as well as bridges, ramps and boats. There is a movable life size Elephant and parts of the stage shoot fire; we were surprised at how much heat we could feel high up in the stands.
On another day we took a day trip to My Son, ancient Champa temple ruins. On our way to the ruins we stopped at a local rice farm where they produced rice paper. It was lovely to see the farm animals including the pet piglets and rabbits. Sophie got to try her hand at making rice paper and we learned about the traditional process of de-husking and grinding the rice versus the “modern process” that involves an electric de-husking and griding machine. It was difficult to get a sense how often rice paper is still made in the traditional way and how much is produced in factories.
The famous My Son ruins were built between 4th and 13th century, Hindu Shiva. At its height up to 70 temples, now 5 areas with a few temple structures remaining. Years of war, weather and time have all contributed to decline. Although much of Hoi An was spared from the bombing during the Vietnam war, this historical site was targets as the Americans believed some of the Champa towers where hideouts of the Viet Cong. Sadly the reality was that this was considered sacred places, and the Viet Cong did not spend time there. These days many countries with strong Hindu ties are working collaboratively to restore and preserve this sight.
On another day we enjoyed doing Coconut Grove bamboo boat ride. Again, this was a community that was clearly benefiting a lot from tourism and many members of the community were involved in hosting the throngs of tourists. We enjoyed the display of the traditional fishermen net throwing, boat spinning and crab fishing. We had a few enjoyable visits to the local beach, Cua Dai.
