Hoi An is a splendid old place! Old is apt, cos people have been coming an going from Hoi An since sliced bread. The Champa people utilised the river and sea for transport, building up the biggest trading port of the 1st century. That's a long time ago. Apparently the orient spice trade was controlled from this port, bringing together traders from China, India, and even as far away as Egypt. So with all that trading going on, Hoi An (known as lots of different names over the centuries) became an affluent town. And lots of that money was utilised to make every nook and corner stunningly delightful! Romantics beware, Hoi An is the very definition of charm. It's got the feel of Venice about it.
The past 2.5 weeks have been almost foreigner-less for us, but as soon as we hit Hoi An, there were falang (foreigners) everywhere. We've been getting used to the fascinated stares and curious head turns, but here in Hoi An, the 120 000ish locals are balanced out with bus loads of antipodeans and French, there's tons of French everywhere.
The portside Ancient town consists of little shops selling trinkets, tons of too-small clothes, leather items, Vietnamese lanterns, more tailor made clothes, shoes, bags and jewelry. If you're lucky you'll be accosted by a lady wearing a tan floppy hat and light blue denim jacket and jeans ... she'll ask you a thousand questions, then ask you to come to her tailoring shop for a brand spanking new costume! When you politely say no thank you, she'll keep asking till you feel rudeness rising up inside you. Sensing you're about to give her a swift backhand, she'll pop up on her very high 1960's bike and ride graciously away. It'll all happen again a few hours later, and when you say 'no thanks again, and you talked to me this morning' she'll say 'no that was my sister!' I was adamantly incredulous, but in fact there are two ladies, dressed similarly (they work at a tailors after all) ... and they both tried again to sell us a new costume later that night. We still said no. No thank you. Deja vous.
We were pestered a few times actually, mostly about taking motorbike tours (funnily!), or at night time about buying candled-good-luck-lanterns that you set afloat down the river. We've already got all the luck we ever needed, so we bought donuts instead.
Hoi An is famous for lanterns, and they're mighty fine all lit up at night. The Ancient town streets are festooned with strings of fabulously coloured lanterns. The rest of the town just has neon signs like the normal non-ancient world we all live in.
Trying to capture the sunrise on the old buildings, Blandy woke up with the birds and arrived with an hour to spare, so wandered the local markets. Being the only foreigner, the locals interacted so differently than in the touristy area. They were slightly shy, until a low bow of the head and a big grin helped them feel at ease, and then usually there was a nod and grin back.
One smiley old cheeky nana called Chîn sat with her compadre Nga behind a massive haul of bananas. They had six different kinds of bananas at their little market stand, and a strange bunch of green podded things, on a tufty frond that looked like it came off some sort of palm-ish type tree. A cheery 'hello!' from the old nana started an hour long discussion and so many laughs!
Cheeky Chîn was 85 years old, asked if I was pregnant, I said no I am only pudgy, she had a laugh and asked if I had any babies. When I replied no, she beckoned me to sit down next to her mate Nga, who was movie-star-handsome, smiley and 60ish... and Chîn lifted Nga's hand, and made him hold mine! What a hoot! Relishing the hilariousness of the moment and wanting to capture it, pulling out our iPad meant we had a session of photo taking, with all the neighbouring stall-holders coming to laugh and giggle with us. A 40ish year old guy called Bobo came over from his shoe shop across the street and started chatting in English. What a happy way to start the day, and it was still early enough to catch the sunrise!
Cheeky old Chîn pulled out a much-handled square tin. And another little tin. And another little container. Being a curious lass I leant in a bit closer. Chîn ceremoniously plucked, mixed, wrapped and stuffed a strange concoction in her mouth. Bobo explained how cheeky old Chîn made her beetlenut paste. She offered me some, and asked for Bobo to translate, he just said 'she wants you to have some but don't cos it makes your head crazy and you don't need that.' Bobo said that the whole bunch of beetlenut frond would sell for 25 000 dong (about $1.50NZ). Which means that the red-mouth and crazy head inducing experience is pretty accessible. Bobo said only the old people are into it.
It's kind of hard to see but Nga has a left arm that's a bit different. Probably a deformity caused by exposure to Agent Orange, we've read that there are second and third generation deformities from that terrible weapon, children today are still being born with a visible aftermath of the war in their bodies.
Here's Bobo below. Dunno which type of animal he has in his hand. But it could be any type of creature, and someone would eat it. I winced and grimaced just looking at the thing, and slightly spewed in my mouth. Bobo thought it was hilarious!
Back to nicer things ... here's one of the early morning photos I like the best.
On the way home, I heard tons of little voices and excited mayhem. A lady with her three year old saw me looking through the gate to this kindergarten, and said 'This is my daughter's school, would you like to come and see?' Course! Mate ... life here is SO different. 10 classrooms in the kindergarten, 30 kids per class, 1 morning teacher, 1 afternoon teacher, kids do 7:30am till 4:30pm, with one sleep. No thanks! Tiny playground space, and no toys in the classrooms (just teacher-made life-like resources such as animals and household items, to instruct the kids with). They didn't care one little bit if I took photos of the kids (being from NZ, I almost didn't ask, presuming that the answer would be 'not on your life!') Funnily, the teacher got all the kids to do the peace sign, and say hello!
Have eaten some mini (and maxi!) feasts. Pop in to Minh Heîn for a mean vegetarian feed, the White Rose dish is exceptional (and tricky to describe!)
Another exceptional gastronomical treat to prioritise in Hoi An is the passionfruit tart at Dingo Deli. Flamin yum! So much so, that in 24 hours we'd been there three times! Michelle is the Aussie co-owner, full of smiles, helpful with travel ideas and great for a chat. We should ask about getting those tarts shipped around the world ... they're worth their weight in platinum!
'Loled' so much about the pregnant comment! Cheeky Chin!!
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