Jun 2009

We stroll down the quaint streets of the old centre where yellow concrete buildings with little french shutters prevail, interspersed between wild west wooden buildings of Vietnamese and Chinese design. The Hoi An Old Town is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site - well preserved and exuding rustic charm. Not to mention tailor shops aplenty. The riverside resto's that run along the Thu Bon River are deliciously diverse and incredibly cheap. Locals call out to entice us onto their long tail boats, into their shops, their resto's...

But we soldier on into the riverside market where locals are buying their fresh produce and seafood, and tourists are stuck at the souvenir stalls 'please buy something', 'just have a look'. All the attention is quite overwhelming so we duck into a quaint riverside restaurant called 'friendships' (which conveniently also appears to have the cheapest beer). The 'fresh draught beer' goes down a treat, especially at 50c NZ per 500ml glass! Being the cheapest beer EVER, it's easy to overindulge... And before we know it, it's come to dinner time so we order a 3 course set menu for $3 NZ with all the Hoi An specialities: 1. White Rose - shrimp encased in rice paper, steamed and seasoned 2. Fried Wonton's (Banh Xeo) - covered with sauteed sweet 'n sour veges and prawns, and 3. Cau Lau - doughy flat noodles with croutons, bean sprouts, fresh herbs and BBQ pork slices. A delicious feast indeed! To top it off, every meal comes with a free caramel creme dessert. Needless to say, Friendships has won us over!

In the days to come we get to know the staff rather well and even have our own table out front with pristine river views where we wile away the day watching people, but primarily drinking beer. School girls in traditional Ao Yai dress pile onto the ferries with their bicycles, vendors selling pork buns, peanuts and drinks, while we work our way down the menu. But we get stuck on the best sweet 'n' sour duck ever! In fact, sweet 'n' sour finds its way into most of our meals in different incarnations. So occasionally we branch out to the other waterfront 'al fresco' eateries where we get delish Mi Quang. A fusion of flavours made up of doughy flat noodles with herbs, veges, quail eggs, pork, peanuts, and dried shrimp. This place is truly foody heaven!

Founded as a foreign colony it soon became a major international trading port (during the 17th to 19th century), until the river silted up. So today Hoi An remains a tourist town, albeit a charming one! We purchase a 'Hoi An Old Town' ticket (75,000d each) which enables us access to a choice of heritage attractions. We pick the best of the bunch, starting with a visit to the Japanese covered bridge. Constructed in the 1590's by the Japanese community of Hoi An to provide a link with the Chinese quarters across the stream.

Proceeding to the Museum of Trading Ceramics which showcases excavated ceramics from over 2200 years ago. The Assembly Hall of the Fujian Chinese Congregation, now transformed into a temple to worship the deity from Fujian Province; the stunning gilded chamber teems with history and symbolism, decorated with dragons, paintings, and statues among delicate flower gardens and courtyards. Inside, large incense coils burn overhead. Quite seductive and serene.

Nearby a traditional cultural performance kicks off at the handcraft workshop. Listening to local acoustics and song, we watch dramatic dancing depicting daily village life. At the back of this 200 year old Chinese Trading House, artisans produce silk paintings, lanterns and wooden carvings - including a buddha with over 1000 hands (a six month effort!).

Tan Ky House was built early 19th Century by Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese. Their different styles exhibited in their creation. Every wet season (Nov-Dec) the three generations who reside here have to move all the furniture upstairs to escape the flooding. Watermarks on the walls are testament to last years 2m high flooding! In fact, the whole town has to adapt to this periodical flooding. The streets filled with boats while everyone lives on the first floor during the monsoon - a real water world. More museums and temples follow... time to reward ourselves for lasting all day without beer... with more beer.

Hoi An by night is an enchanting place. The lanterns glow bright and fill the shops, the trees, yes even giant lanterns in the river - luminous giant fish, ox, turtle, lotus flower. The lanterns must cast a spell over us for we are drawn to a truly decadent french-style patisserie like moths to a lantern, where we give in to temptation and devour chocolate cheesecake, truffle cake, and tiramisu. Heavenly! The spell has been cast and, against our will, we are drawn back every night without fail. Luckily these are seriously magical desserts!

To get to the Ancient Champa Kingdom (another UNESCO World Heritage Site) 'My Son', we resort to a bus tour. Our young guide 'Spider' elaborates on the plan, for we are 'Spider Team' now. He proceeds to spoon feed us in an amusingly American reality TV-accented broken English, where every sentence is preceded with a 'back in the old days...', and aptly ends his oration with a 'and now it's broken'. Then just in case we didn't grasp his wise words he'd repeat himself in similar fashion. Still, everyone clings to his every word, following a narrative straight out of 'are you smarter than a 5th grader' - funny that. Time for action; a convoy of old seventies US army jeeps (with over 750.000km on the clock) take us to the actual ruins - which resides in stunning jungle.

We break free from our web and explore the different temple groups at our leisure. Since My Son was used solely for praying (during the late 4-13th century), most of the temples were dedicated to the Cham Kings associated with Hindu divinities, particularly Shiva; founder and protector of Champa's dynasties. Unfortunately not to be. The Viet Cong too, used it as a fall out base, with a resulting unparalleled destruction from above. Numerous bomb craters signed off by the Americans remain today. Hence the 'broken' part. Restoration is ongoing for the remaining 20 odd brick ruin-like structures. The site is truly dilapidated and if it weren't for the museum in Danang, it would be hard to grasp the context of this site. Still, the Cham people today remain a substantial ethnic minority in Vietnam with over ~100,000 people.

Back in Hoi An we enjoy sweet strong coffees across the river, a ritual turned daily. Persistent children try to sell us crappy trinkets but by now we've mastered the art of disinterest and they quickly move on to the softies next to us - a couple of Ozzies. We'd heard that frozen yogurt is a local specialty here so we place the order. Two packaged shop-bought refrigerated yogurts come out. Hey at least they could have put it in a bowl to pretend it was real!

Regardless, nicely fueled by caffeine we embark on a mission to the 500 odd tailor shops with the intention of ordering suits and the like. And over the next few days we become true fashion experts on fabric, prices, quality, workmanship, lapels, seams, single breasted, double breasted.. and begin by ordering tailor made woolen jackets with satin/silk lining. Good fun going in for fittings and being treated like royalty over something so cheap. In the end we relinquish the suits; more trouble than they're worth we reckon. The ties however are a safe(r) bet. For just $3 USD you get a sweet silk tie here. Looks tight until you start to pay attention to workmanship, and start discarding one after another for being plain filthy, off the mark, or just plain crooked. One of the ties even truly veers off to the left. How did they manage that we wonder? Sizing up the various ties our Vietnamese lady proudly exclaims 'much cheaper than home'. True enough, but we have a little process back home called quality control so we don't have to sift through hundreds off bogus ties. The lady then pokes fun at Guido for the rather substantial tear in his shirt. 'New shirt, Sir?' bearing a wide and sarcastic smile. Guido kindly defers, he's already wearing a Vietnam quality number 1 shirt. Mmm, perhaps we've been here too long.

Time to explore beyond our usual haunts. We hire bicycles and push on through towards Cua Dai Beach (Hoi An's end of China Beach). We pass pretty rivers, rice paddies, more tailor shops, and end up between the palms on the beach. Chatting to local women who try to sell us oreo's, chopsticks, tiger balm, and pretty much everything! Covered in long cotton pants, long sleeves and gloves they must be sweating up a storm. Back to Hoi An where we finally venture over the bridge to circle Cam Nam Island. Not much there but it's good to look at the old town from a different perspective. Well, surely we deserved our daily dose of 'Friendship' now so we enjoy our roasted peanuts and beer while looking back over the river.

Our last night is when the monthly Full Moon Lantern Festival takes place. Motorbikes are banned from the old town which duly comes alive with even more lanterns than usual, cultural performances, games etc. People emerge from the shadows en masse, and children run around selling floating candle-lit lanterns to set free on the river. A great time had absorbing the heavenly Hoi An.

Standing under the highway bypass with our backpacks at our feet we're looking for our next elusive clue. We are somewhere near the periphery of Danang, but as of yet we have no idea exactly where 'here' is. The print quality of our bootleg map is utterly atrocious and the city that looms in the distance seems to bear no obvious landmarks. A slew of motodrivers hover in front of us, eyeing us up cautiously. While yelling at the top of our lungs to surpass the noise of traffic overhead, uncertain negotiations for a ride into town are begun.

$50.000 dong (~USD $3.5)?! Surely nothing should cost that much. For that kind of money we expect to be carried into town on a gilded throne. Whiffs of an unpleasant odour smell much like a scam. Now what? Neither of us budge on prices. Now this is very much like being dealt an unknown hand of cards. Town may be a few minutes away, but then again it might not be. We decide to call their bluff and walk into town - a bad idea from the outset it turns out.

Several kilometers and two hours later, soaked in perspiration and with our wet shirts clinging to our backs we soldier on under the ever vigilant watch of a scorching hot sun, until eventually we cave in. The city remains as far away as ever much like a desert mirage. In retrospect we should have known - after all it is still the fourth largest city in Vietnam. At least the motodrivers followed us through in a typical donkey and carrot stick approach, and for 30.000 dong (minus the 3km we covered on foot) we soon breeze through the innards of Danang central.

City central is buzzing with motorbikes, lively bars & shops, and classy restaurants. A seedy legacy still lingers from the sixties when Danang made its living from a thriving and profitable entertainment industry serving the nearby American army base (you want some boom boom?). Still it has cleaned up its ways to some respect and the flashy bars and resto's look impressive with lots of great goat places offering their version of Thit de (so been there). And there are many other affordable meals to be had - some delectable such as braised swan, some not so (like sea cucumber). Being shoe stringed we opt for a local hole-in-the-wall eatery serving mouth watering pork meatball sandwiches and, even better, cold hamburgers for only 10.000 dong. For now being late afternoon, it remains a waiting game until tomorrow.

Early the next morning we charter a motorbike and going through the gears we soon honk our way into a mad dash of traffic, heading past China Beach towards the mighty marble mountains. Five craggy marble peaks each soar into the sky ahead of us. According to Vietnamese folklore, they each represent a natural element; Tho Son (earth), Moc Son (wood), Kim Son (metal), Hoa Son (fire), and the most famous of all Thuy Son (water). Highly celebrated and richly decorated with ornate pagoda's, passageways and assorted Confucian shrines you'd be forgiven for thinking such a popular place would be well signposted.

Instead we're lost in the the maze of back alleyways that is Non Nuoc - a well known marble carving village that surrounds the rocky crags. Too many polished happy Buddha's here. Ironically most marble for these statues is actually imported from China these days, the very reason we still have something to look at today - spot the fridge on the motorbike in front of us:

As it turns out we find the other four lesser elements first. Bravely contending with the leftovers of Vietnamese pilgrimage we follow the mounds of garbage checkpoints and foul pee smelling cave trails that lead the way. Not quite as polished as the marble they produce but we do have the place to ourselves. Last but not least we track down Thuy Son, and what a spectacular sight to behold. Steep flights of stairways lead to a reclusive Buddhist sanctuary, well tended gardens, and several cathedral like caves within a hidden valley nestled on top - granting supreme sweeping vista's over life below.

Leaving the mountains behind we drive back towards Monkey mountain along a mostly empty beachfront - China Beach. Perhaps mostly familiar with the GI's who were sent here on their R&R or the namesake eighties television series. Not much remains. The crescent shaped beach lies desolate, its anchored fishing fleet rocked by occasional surf waves while the proverbial tumbleweeds roll down the sand. Being lunchtime on the beach we give the aptly named "Phuc My 2" resto a miss and instead hit up a baguette slash mystery meat street stall.

Before moving on to Hoi An however, we do seek out the "Museum of Cham sculpture". Founded by the Ecole Francaise 'd Extreme Orient back in 1915, it houses an exotic otherworldly collection of sandstone carvings amongst which are funky carved linga's (the mighty fertility penis), garuda's (man eagle demons), ganesha's (the elephant kid, remover of obstacles) and famous Hindu deities Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu. The place is truly entertaining since the curators have put a great deal of effort into incorporating the exhibits into walls, nooks and corners - pretty cool! To jazz it up a bit we play a game of "who can imitate the wackiest divine moves". What else to do in a museum?