Come See My Shop

After a restful few days in Saigon (HCMC) we made our way to the central coast of Vietnam to the historic French and Portuguese trading town of Hoi An.

We fell in love with this town and ended up there for four full days, skipping the near-by towns of Danang & Nha Trang. The city is small, accessible and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It reminded us of an asian Quebec City. The streets are small, pedestrian friendly and wind their way through various food and clothing markets, local shops, restaurants, cafes and galleries.

While in Hoi An, ML was able to sasiate her shopping addiction in the local stores and both ML and AB got some custom clothes made. In addition to all the cheap tailors, we took some time to buy a few paintings for home, considering how reasonable it was to get original paintings at $35-$90

Once we were shopped out we took our tour books advice to explore the local islands and craft villages accessible via water ferries from the dock. The islands were beautiful, filled with traditional housing arranged in simple villages, which were surrounded by large rice paddies fields where you watch the locals tend their paddies with their Water Buffaloes.

Finally, we took advantage of the local beach, Cao Doc, where we spent the day lounging sea side drinking $.50 beers and working on our tans. There are many things in Vietnam we will never understand and the following is no exception. While visiting the beach it was packed with locals and westerners alike. The westerners in board shorts and bikini's enjoying a beautiful 90 degree day however, the locals were fully clothed, and many adorned in helmets. We believe this is due to trying to stay as 'white' as possible to maintain social status, since the only tan Vietnamese are farmers. We also believe this is why all the hotel staff have long fingernails.

After our four days in Hoi An we took a 4 hour bus ride to the town of Hue with a quick stop at the Marble Mountains Temple, where they had some awesome temples carved into limestone caves. 

 

  

Hue's claim to fame includes the landing site for the American forces at China Beach and prior to war, as the seat of power for the largest ancient Vietnamese dynasty for over a thousand years. It's also received a heavy dose of French influence making it a beautiful city with long, flower lined boulevards and beautifully adorned temples.

 

 

 

 

Additionally, it was built as a culiinary tour de-force which we of course had to sample. It is here we grew in our appreciation of a local delicacy, Bahn Mi and Morning Glory stems steamed in fish sauce and fried with garlic. We also had the opportunity to meet one of Hue's most famous tourist ambassadors at Luc Thein. The proprietor is deaf and serves the local delicacy, Bhan Kohi (rice flour omelet with pork, string beans and shrimp) with the local beer, Huda, at sub-zero temperatures for mere pennies. His claim to fame lies in his endearing smile and his homemade bottle opener that he bequeaths to guests with the simple request they take photos of said bottle opener all overworld and send them back to Hue.

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, as beautiful as Hue presented itself, the constant harassment by hawkers, taxi drivers and pretty much everyone, was a little more than we could take after a few days. So on our final day, we watched movies, ate western food, ignored locals day, which turned out perfect. We will post more on this later once we leave Vietnam.

On a final note, AB learned an interesting lesson in Hue, if you want to go from being a tourist into a tour attraction yourself (for the locals) go for a run in an Asian city. He thought it would be a beautiful and perfect place to get some exercise, but he quickly became a spectacle with everyone taking pictures of him and laughing as he ran past. At one point, he even raced some bicyclists/pedicabs on the street.

For today's moment of Zen, here is a montage titled "The farmer who lost his cow, the American who thought this was funny and the fat German tourists who took pictures."