Hoi An

The night train was really great. I got a berth in one of the "four berth soft sleepers" and would have to say it was pretty comfortable. In the berths below were two Dutch people who I chatted to for a while, and in the berth opposite mine was a really nice Vietnamese guy who gave us these bamboo leaf parcels, which turned out to have fermented pork inside. It was pretty tasty stuff - and that's coming from a part-time vege :-)

Hoi An has no station, so you have to go to Danang, further north, and then work back to Hoi An.

The quickest way (but not necessarily the cheapest) is by Taxi, and I was able to split the cost with the Dutch couple, and another two girls from The Netherlands who were also wanting to get to Hoi An. So it turned out to be reasonably cheap.

We arrived at Hoi An at about 5:30 am - and everything was closed. Things start a bit later in Hoi An than the other parts of Vietnam I've seen - which suits me :-)

I went to the place I was thinking of staying at, and waited 30 minutes for them to open. They were really friendly, and the room was great - which was a relief after the Nha Trang hotel incident.

I dropped my stuff off, and then went to find some food. As I'm walking down the street it starts to rain - SE Asia style:



By the time I'd eaten - it had stopped.

I really liked Hoi An. It's got a nice relaxed feel to it. Yes - it's all geared up for tourists - but still - it's a really nice place to look around, and is pretty small and easy to get around.

There's basically two streets down by the river where all of the things to see are - so I decided to do the Planet walking tour, as it went passed everything I wanted to see.

It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and has some incredibly well preserved buildings from the 15th to 19th Century. It was a center for trade in pottery at one time, so was frequented by people from all over the world. It wasn't bombed that much during the American War, so things are pretty much as they were.

One great thing, is that the local government gives grants to people in the town who want to preserve one of the buildings, so it's on going preservation is assured.

One other thing - some of the streets are designated as pedestrian and "primitive vehicles" only - so you can enjoy the view without getting run over :-)



Some pics of Hoi An:

The market:



French Colonial buildings:



Looking towards the covered "Japanese Bridge":



At night - the town is lit up with lanterns:



The Japanese Bridge at night:



An ancient shrine:



One of the streets:



One of the many "meeting halls". A cross between a temple and a town hall - each of the communities that settled here has their own hall:



Check out the size of this cockroach - you could make a meal out of that :-)



I really enjoyed Hoi An. The people at the hotel were really friendly, and of the two days I was there, I chatted to them a lot. One day, I was there for over an hour, talking away with them.

Great restaurants - nice buildings to look around - a nice relaxing town. It should be twinned with Haworth :-)