10/12: Hoi An's Old Town Sights & Evening by River

Leaving Sai Gon this morning and on to the UNESCO World Heritage city of Hoi An, located in central Vietnam, for the next few days. We'll be spending about 10 days in this part of Vietnam so we can visit three cities in very close proximity to each other: Hoi An, Da Nang and Hue. Flying into Da Nang (DAD is its airport code!) first but we're being picked up at the airport and going to Hoi An, the southernmost of the three cities before making our way north from there. 

Photos from Beauty Guesthouse & our alley in Sai Gon: 

Our view while having breakfast at the guesthouse: as you may recall it shares premises
with the travel agency, art gallery and studio.

Restaurant in the alley where we stayed.

En route to Da Nang:

It seemed to take forever to fly out of  the city as it's so sprawling.

Beginning to think I should not be trusted with a camera on the plane as it's just an excuse to take more photos! I think it was the blue sky that did it for me as we hadn't seen much of that lately.

Photos from Hoang Trinh Guesthouse in Hoi An:

We have never experienced such welcoming and heartfelt service as we did from the moment we stepped foot into the Hoang Trinh Guesthouse in Hoi An to the time we had to say goodbye a few days later. Above was our welcoming treat! Each afternoon we returned from our forays into town and the countryside, one of the charming staff members greeted us with lovely fresh fruit or tropical juice to revive us.

This temple was right across the street from us.

Our room: As they say looks can be deceiving. We absolutely loved our stay at the hotel except for the overwhelming smell of mothballs in our incredibly small room which was cluttered beyond belief with plastic doodads, ancient stuffed animals, and just 'stuff' everywhere.

We had to spend at least 20 minutes removing as much as we could in order to find any room for our dufflebags, backpacks, toiletries, etc. If it hadn't been for the most gracious and wonderful staff, we would have hightailed it out of there so fast as 4 nights was a long time there. We hadn't come though to the ultimately charming city of Hoi An to stay in the room so off we went to explore.

Our guesthouse was only a 10 minute walk from Hoi An's Old Town which is where we headed right away. The guidebooks say Hoi An is a cultural highlight of any tour to Vietnam. It was the country's most important port and trading post, particularly of ceramics with China, from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Today the quaint Old Town's 844 structures are protected as historical landmarks and the influence of Chinese and Japanese traders who passed through or settled can still be felt.

 As soon as we entered the pedestrianized Old Town area, we each bought a ticket allowing us entry to any 5 of its sights, i.e. 'old houses,' Chinese assembly halls and museums. After walking through the narrow streets comprised of lovely historic buildings, craft shops, restaurants, galleries and souvenir shops, our first impressions were not that positive which seems almost treasonous to say given the hype that is Hoi An.

We had both read a lot about Hoi An before coming but we were still surprised and deflated, I guess, when it seemed like we were visiting Colonial Williamsburg or Upper Canada Village for example and every place of interest was just an excuse to sell items to each and every tourist passing through its doors. Guess we're getting a bit jaded from all our travels and still have difficulty differentiating hype and reality in travel guides. Steven and I joked we should write our own travel guides, to give people the real skinny on places. 

Photos from the Old House of Phung Hung:

This was our first stop requiring a ticket to enter; it was constructed in 1780. We were strongly encouraged to buy the beautiful hand embroidered tablecloths and napkins sold here. When I asked if we could come return another time to buy, I was told that would be no problem; all we had to say was we'd been there previously. Sort of negated the necessity of having to buy the set of tickets I thought!

The house has weathered many floods as has all of Hoi An. In 1964, during a particularly bad deluge, the third floor served as a refuge for other town families. The trapdoor is used for rapidly  moving furniture to safety.

The family temple and the 3 gods: happiness, long life and prosperity.

View of one of the main streets from the Phung Hung house; at nighttime, this street was packed to the gills with pedestrians, cyclists weaving in and around them and one passenger pedicabs.

You can get a sense of the nonstop haze and cloudy skies we've had for so long.

Photos from our stroll through Old Town:

Original rice paper paintings for sale.

Photos of Japanese Covered Bridge and Temple:

No one is sure who built the bridge in the early 1600s but it is usually attributed to Hoi An's Japanese community. There was a dog flanking one end and a monkey at the other, both of whom are considered to be sacred animals to the Japanese. That is possibly because most Japanese emperors were born in either the year of the monkey or the dog. We didn't 'waste' a ticket on seeing the tiny temple.

The temple's ticket collector at the bridge.

Detail from the sign in the above photo!

Photos from the Assembly Hall of the Cantonese Chinese Congregation:

This place was definitely worth a ticket!

We had never seen this shape of incense burner before; each had been tagged with a donor's name.

Steven happened to notice a small path leading to the fantastic courtyard in the back. Too bad that there were no signs indicating what lay behind the building as so many tourists must miss it otherwise.

Photos from The Museum of Trade Ceramics:

Located in a traditional house, the museum describes the origins of Hoi An as a trade port and displays its most prominent trade items. In the 17th C., a Japanese town, a Chinese town and a Dutch trading port were all built in Hoi An but the town's role decreased in 19th C.

Vietnamese ceramics have about a 2000 year old history; the earliest proof was a blue flower fragment found in Japan.

The gorgeous hand painted scarves were 200 VND each, about $9.

It was commonplace to see these gray streaks on stone facades of buildings everywhere -
 sign of water damage, we thought.

Steven had decided not to join me visiting the museum.

Saw these signs at the beginning and end of the 2 streets demarcating the
protected areas of Old Town. 

Photos from the Central Market:

Cho means market in Vietnamese - we had learned that in Sai Gon.

The sunsets have been very early and very quick in this part of Asia, at about 5:30.

Photos of Ho An at night:

We were the first to admit or acknowledge that Hoi An became quite magical at night.

Small lanterns being sold at the riverfront to float down the river - quite a pretty sight.

We could have taken an evening boat ride in one of these
very low slung boats down the Perfume River.

Photos from the narrow bridge:

Hoi An is very well known for its large number of tailors where clothing, especially silk,
can be custom made in a short period of time.

Photos from our walk back to the hotel:

We stopped to listen to the music and watch what was going on at this temple.

Once out of Old Town Hoi An, we had to be very careful of the 'overhead' wires -
they were in reality only head high.

Likewise we had to pay attention to where we walked as
some merchants burned their day's rubbish in the streets.

Posted on 10/21 from Hue, Vietnam.