Hoi An

Tuesday 17 April
Hoi An was just a half hour cab ride away from our hotel in My Khe Beach. The driver even put on a CD of love songs for us to listen to during the journey,all together now...aaaaahhhhh. Once we arrived he then drove us around for a further half an hour whilst we tried to find a hotel with rooms available and he didn't try to rip us off with the fare either (belive me that's a first). We ended up at Thanh Van hotel which even had a pool for our nine pounds a night and was just a couple of minutes walk from Hoi An's old town.

Hoi An is a really lovely riveside town that was left virtually undamaged from the War and so has retained it's beautiful 'Old Town'. The Old Town is a World Heritage Site and very pretty indeed with buildings that date back to 19th century. As with Hanoi, the French influence is apparent in the buildings, baguettes, pattiseries and coffee shops.

Us in Hoi An

Apparently there is a really lovely beach there too but we never actually made it to the beach. We spent ours days in Hoi An strolling around the Old Town and mooching through the markets.

The Old Town

The streets are literally filled with tailors where you can get absolutely anything made to measure. I now you may be surprised at this but I actually resisted the temptation to go clothes shopping. My backpack is heavy enough already thank you and it's fairly expensive to send stuff home. Anyway I'll be a superwaif by the time I get back so nothing I bought now would fit me then (what? A diet of beer and baguettes isn't slimming!?!). I didn't buy clothes but I did buy almost an entire dinner service in the market which I now have to lug around until I can send it home and I imagine it will be destoyed during transit - where's the logic in that!

We did manage to squeeze some culture into our time in Hoi An. On Friday 20 April we set off at the ungodly hour of 5.30am for our trip to My Son, the site of the Cham intellectual and religious centre.

The Cham people origionated from Java, Indonesia and occupied the central section of Vietnam from 2nd to 15th centuries. They were forced South when the Vietnamese migrated from the North and there are now just 110,000 in Ho Chi Minh City. Their religion, Hinduism, and Indian influence apparent in artwork came from commerical relationships that the Chams had with India.

Oh how funny and original we are!

The trip we had booked was the sunrise tour although as the sun was rising whilst we were waiting for the minibus to pick us up we realised that we would have had to leave at 4am to get there in time for sunrise. Never mind, the most important thing was that we would get there before the hordes arrived and would be able to enjoy the site and take our pictures unobstructed. It was perfect, other than our group of 7, there were only 4 other people there. Another good reason for visiting so early is the heat. By 8am it was very hot indeed so it would have been unbearable by midday.

It's unknown how the bricks were fixed together as no apparent mortar was used however it is thought that they may have used a sap from trees in the area to glue the bricks together. The carving was all carried out after the towers were constructed. Amazing aint it! Unfortunately the site was almost completely destroyed by bombs during the War and the craters are still very visible today.

The Cham language is now completely lost so the script seen here cannot be translated

Apparently if a man rubs the linga....well we'll let you work it out!

Our guide for the day was delightful, a real character and very informative. I wanted to adopt him by the end of the day!

Whenever we are out in Vietnam we are approached by hawkers selling sunglasses, postcards, books etc. Most are good natured and simply move on if you do not engage in a convesation. However, I was not prepared for the children in Hoi An though. We've already established that I think Asian children are exceptionally beautiful, so put a Vietnamese 8 year old in front of me selling something.....I'm a lost case......

Gav and I were out in a lovely riverside restaurant for dinner (not very backpackerish I know but dinner two nights ago was baguettes and peanut butter in our room so that balances it out a little) and were approached by a succession of cute little kids selling crap. Initially I was firm but could see that Gav was buckling, and so could they. Upon seeing Gav's weakness one little girl turned her back on me and with all the cuteness that is physically possible asked him "but why wont you buy". It was too much for me "Ah man, okay, okay I'll buy". Then the business woman emerges from the child and she is fleecing us for evey penny she can get. I now have a wooden whistle that cost more than dinner - fine. But no, that's not the end. She then runs off to tell her mate, or sister or whoever it was who in turn comes over to our table to ask "why wouldn't you buy from me but you bought from her" and then would not leave our table for a good 15 minutes whilst putting on the saddest face that is humanly possible. Oh no. Needless to say we will not be suckered like that again (actually that's a lie because we were the other night but I'll talk about that in the next entry). Anyway, a dodgy wooden whistle thing that was vastly overpaid for will be winging it's way to my Neice and Nephew in due course.

And so our time in Hoi An came to an end and on Saturday 21 April we left on 10 hour train journey to the beach resort of Nha Trang.

School's Out-School Children in Hoi An

Cardie's hair is getting bigger.......