Touring Vietnam: Transition stage: Hue to Hoi An

Today was about getting to Hoi An and settling in.

An early start to get onto our four-hour bus ride from Hue to Hoi An. While Tham described the scenery for the tour to be very beautiful, it took a bit of a while before the beauty showed up. Most of the first hour or more was driving along a pretty good highway (by Vietnamese standards) lined on either side by homes and businesses or paddy fields. I have some photos but they look just like the photos I've taken earlier of the same sort of thing. It's clearly "classic" Vietnam.


Paddy fields, including water buffalo	Mountainous landscape near Lang Co

The fishing village at Lang Co (from the mountainside)	Back along the beach at Lang Co; Site of many holiday resorts

The big bridge that you can (just) see in the landscape photo and the fishing village photo is the main highway through here to Da Nang and Hoi An and it runs directly into a six-kilometre tunnel under the mountain range. The government built it to make passage easier for trucks and other transport than the winding, narrow pass road that we take as a tourist scenic drive.

At the top of the pass, there are bunkers (observation posts) built by the French in the 1800s, and it's a tourist rest stop too. Mandatory tourist stop with really sweeping views up and down the coast. I know the photos are very hazy, but that's just the way it is here. Even on a relatively clear day like today (as you can see in the bunker shots), it's always hazy/smoggy/overcast over any distance.


Observation posts, built by the French, re-purposed by the Americans, and now "preserved" by the government for tourists

Coastal view North, over Lang Co	Coastal view South, towards Da Nang

In the blurry distance, Da Nang

This photo just doesn't work, I know, but it's the best I could manage. The point of including it: Da Nang is a modern, high-rise city (in its centre), apparently because the Chinese love the place and have invested heavily in it and visit as tourists in huge numbers. We were certainly seeing lots of Chinese tours on the way in and were to see many of them in Hoi An too.

The bus wound down the hill the last 30 kilometres into Da Nang and then trundled straight on to the old town of Hoi An.

We eventually arrive at our hotel, right in the heart of the old city. It's another really nice place. Intrepid really know how to pick hotels!


The Hotel Thuy Duong 2	The interior courtyard and pool

An example of the local architecture

After a brief opportunity to settle into our rooms, change, etc. the group met up again for an orientation walk and lunch. Walking through Hoi An is just like walking through the old quarter of Hanoi, though on a smaller scale. The streets are thronged with traffic that makes its own rules, the sidewalks are covered in street stalls, eating establishments, or parked scooters, and the noise is constant and raucous. However, the buildings are smaller, being no more than two storeys tall by government edict, and the streets are festooned with lanterns, again by government decree, so it's a relatively pleasant place to wander around.

We have a lovely lunch at a restaurant recommended by Tham and I have the speciality Shrimp and Pork "White Rose" - which is a prawn and pork dumpling done in a particular kind of rice paper. It was very nice with delicate flavours. I shared my meal with Andrea (the Swiss group member) who ordered the wontons, which I'd also been eyeing off. The wontons were served as open lily pads that had a corn and tomato spicy salsa on top. They were also very nice; a completely different flavour profile.

The Japanese Bridge, covered and housing a shrine

After lunch, we visited the "Japanese Bridge". According to Tham, it was built in the 17th century when the Chinese and Japanese were present in the city, to bridge their two encampments (at least, I think that's what she said; it was pretty noisy on the street corner where she told us this stuff).

Then we walked along the busy streets past like a million small shops. I spotted some interesting clothing options that I will go back to investigate, Hoi An being renowned for its tailoring. We also passed a store called "Husbands' Day Care" - basically a coffee shop/bar where shopping-weary husbands can be abandoned while the women are out shopping. Not an entirely stupid idea, I suspect, and one that might even be worth thinking about in shopping malls back home!

We eventually came to a Chinese temple that Tham wanted to show us. It's a community centre built on an old pagoda and home to a mother god. It's a spectacular example of ornate Chinese temple making though perhaps not as surprising having seen a few temples and pagodas already.


The main temple gate; normally, the centre gate is closed to stop demons. Men go through the right-hand gate and women, the left-hand gate	Interior of the temple's middle section, where the community gathers

The shrine where offerings are left for the mother god	A dragon over a fish pond. Remember the story about a carp climbing a waterfall to become a dragon from Hua Lo? Same idea here, but not carp and more waterfalls