Dan's Travel Log: Vietnam | Hoi An

May 12, 2005

Vietnam | Hoi An | 16-19 March 2005

From Hue, my southward Vietnamese wanderings led me straight to Hoi An, fortunately a relatively short bus trip. Hoi An has become known for being a tailor-city, every other shop filled with copious amounts of cloth, the sellers using every ounce of salespersonship to get you into their store to buy their custom made clothes. Being in Hoi An I ‘had’ to get some clothes made for myself. I got some casual pants and a trendy evening shirt made for about $17 – definitely not the cheapest place, but they seemed to have good quality products. I was also tempted into buying a cashmere (or something) suit, which, after a lot of ‘I don’t need a suit’ got it from $70 to $30. Unfortunately the ‘I don’t need a suit’ worked too well on me, and I realised I didn’t need to spend $30 on something I didn’t need! (Hey, $30 is two day’s budget for me!) The work on the clothes was quick and relatively painless. The fit and the quality a little lacking, however. I’ve had mixed reports about the quality of Hoi An clothing – both good and bad. You still generally get what you pay for – eg. If you go for a $25 suit, and you pick it from a book, don’t expect to get any more than the run-of-the-mill style. Not that its bad, but I spoke to a guy who had that happen – they churn out the same suit style en-mass.

Hoi An has become an historic town with private and public buildings preserved and prepared for tourists to visit. Situated on the river, the old part of town does have a ‘ye olde’ atmosphere, making wandering both relaxing and pleasant. Being a riverside town, like many others, there is a significant focus on seafood. The main market is right on the edge of the river and I was fortunate to watch the arrival of a fishing longboat back from a successful trip. Upon nearing the market, busy hands were fighting to get theirs on one of the crates of fresh produce – hustling and bustling – it seemed almost like “First in, best dressed” in that whoever got the crate got the sale!

In the market I first encountered the most well-known speciality of Hoi An. I was meandering around the food section of the market, reasonably hungry, saw some interesting looking noodles and sat down. I pointed at the food and the seller was away – noodles, lettuce, pork, various sauces, crouton-looking things, etc… This ended up in a pork-noodle-salad mixture which was quite liquid at the bottom. This is Cau Lao. This tastes INCREDIBLE. The mixture of textures – noodles, crouton-things (broken up from a large round pappadam thing made from rice), meat and lettuce, dunked in delicious juice… mmmm… Apparently what ‘makes’ Cau Lao is the noodles – water from some very specific spring is used to create a very off-white colour (don’t think about it), enhancing the noodles’ flavour. Whats more, Cau Lao can be found at most restaurants and is the cheapest thing on any menu (5-8000 vnd)! Other delicacies to be tried at Hoi An are the boiled prawn wonton-like dumplings – called White Rose as well as friend wontons.

I stayed at Thien Thanh Hotel – by far the best value I found in all of south east Asia. $7 a night (for one double bed) bought me 5 star luxury – opulent bathroom (including bath), soft towels, minibar, cable tv, even flower petals on the freshly made bed!!! This is clearly a high-standard hotel city, with great bargains during low-season. I definitely enjoyed staying here :)

Again I met up for some drinks with the guys I had seen in Halong Bay and Hue. After the bar closed at midnight, we were rounded up and put on a minibus to the Full Moon Bar – a few kilometres out of town. The entertaining continued on for a few more hours before it became a bit too quiet and we were too sleepy. The two other guys got on a moto-taxi, the last one in sight, while I was almost stranded… Almost, I say. I saw 2 bikes with some locals (who had been drinking and playing pool inside) sitting, ready to ride. I politely introduced myself and asked if they were heading into town. Yes. Great, could I get a lift? Sure thing. One bike had two people on it already, so I sat on the bike with only one rider. Upon sitting down, the rider turned and told me to sit on the other bike – the ‘other’ girl wanted me to sit behind her – fine by me! We took a western couple that seemed as stranded as I would have been and off we went. Upon getting into town the western couple left and the rest of us went for late-night pho :) I became friends with this little local group, who used to work at a family restaurant together (that had just closed down – thus plenty of free time).

The rest of my time in Hoi An was entirely devoted to hanging out with this cadre of really cool locals – I got the full local Vietnamese experience – a family luncheon with soups, fried chicken, baguettes and beer (and a whole bunch of mostly non-english speaking, very friendly Vietnamese); the Vietnamese café experience (sitting around for literally hours drinking iced coffee); Hanging out on the beach, eating seafood rice-soup, cracking into mussels; attempting one or two of the teeny-tiny little shell-worms (picked out using a device that looks like a large toothpick); Drinking and playing pool in the evening! – I had an awesome time with the guys, I had an experience that you cant ‘order’ and got in touch with the local side of Vietnam. I didn’t go into any more historic buildings or do any other touristy things – and I’m definitely not disappointed!

The ‘localising’ time I spent meant that the only relevant photo I took was a quick snap of the beach – the rest of them are just play photos, taken by some of the other guys messing around.

Posted by Dan at May 12, 2005 06:21 AM

Comments

Very interesting! Possibly my favorite town too, though we had an obviously different experience to you. You were really in touch with the people, and you are right any missed historical glimpses can wait until your next visit.

Hey Dan, your writing style has been changing since you began this web! Have you noticed? I like it. use of words like 'Cadre'caught my eye, but the writing style is also more engaging. Well done!

Posted by: lozza at May 12, 2005 06:37 PM