It's our second to last day in Hoi An so it's a bit bittersweet as we head into town for another look around at this beautiful place. On our one mile walk we pass food vendor after food vendor. There seems to be one on every corner selling a variety of delights. We've been told that the locals eat constantly and they must to keep all these small businesses solvent. Though looking at them, it doesn't seem possible. They even have snacks to eat in the five minutes it takes to get served their main snack or meal. Craziness but the food is so tasty who can blame them.
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| Beef Noodle Soup anyone? |
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| Or maybe noodles? |
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| More noodles? |
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| Ken strikes a pose |
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| Donuts |
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| Juice |
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| Maybe some fresh fruit? |
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| Still hungry? |
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| Roasted corn |
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| Hand crab? |
Vietnamese drive-by
The market on the way to town is closed so we can see that there is a fairly large temple behind the market that we go to check out. The temples are almost as numerous as the food vendors and they boast a range of statues, paintings and other beautiful artwork. One thing they all have in common is the smell of incense burning. There are numerous places to put the burning incense scattered around the temples and pagodas and also the large cones which identify the ancestors by name and the year of their passing donated by their families. As Tet is a celebration of family and ancestors, there are usually a number of locals in the temples praying for their families and their futures. The locals are very gracious with all the tourists who sometimes forget they are in holy places.
When we arrive in town, we explore the winding streets of old town discovering new and old treasures. The Japanese bridge, one of the more prominent symbols of Hoi An, was built in 1593 by the prosperous Japanese trading community, housed on the west side of town, to link to the Chinese community farther to the east. The two dogs flanking one end of the bridge and two monkeys the other were considered sacred animals to the ancient Japanese as most emperors were born in the year of the dog or the monkey by the Asian zodiac. Ken and I are also both dogs so perhaps we are royalty here. The bridge also boasts a small temple which we visited.
We were hoping to see some of the ancient homes that have belonged to local families for many generations but they are all closed for the Tet holiday. No worries, the town itself is an attraction. It's winding streets and alleys are made up of lovely historical buildings buzzing with open-air craft shops, cafés, art galleries, restaurants and shops selling all manner of souvenirs and silk. Everywhere you hear the roar of motorcycle engines and the cacophony of horns telling people to get out of their way. On our way, we found a beautiful garden with rare and fabulous plants and lots of seating for folks to enjoy a minute of respite.
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| Shopping Hoi An Style |
We stopped at the Hai Cafe, the courtyard restaurant where we had dinner last night, for a drink and then continued our explorations and retail therapy. Still haven't found the perfect lanterns but I'm persistent some might say stubborn; lol.
We decided to head to the other side of the river for lunch. Ken opted for a "ferry" ride across the river and I opted for the bridge not wanting to fall into the less than pristine waters of the river. We found a spot, that neither of us can remember the name of, which in and of itself is an indication of our experience. The joint was understaffed and the food left something to be desired - 'nuff said. The location, however, was lovely so we enjoyed a bit of people watching.
Funny thing here, being in a bar or restaurant is no protection from the street vendors. In fact, I think they see you as sitting ducks. We had barely sat down when we were approached by the first entrepreneur. Her wares were of no interest so after repeated and politely saying no, she left. Very soon the next lady arrived. She had both a better sales pitch and more interesting wares. Soon enough the "skinny Buddha" (aka Ken) had bought three leather bracelets after haggling over the price. Back to me with a pitch for some Tiger Balm. With some help from Ken, I was the proud owner of more ointment than I know what to do with. After she left, the first vendor returned complaining that we weren't being fair as she asked first. Lol. We had a second look at her wares and confirmed the original decision that she had nothing we wanted so she went away mad. Not too much longer a a woman selling peanuts, ginger and coconut was after us to buy some food. Not sure it makes sense for restaurants to allow vendors to sell food to their customers but they don't seem to care. So, after considerable haggling Ken was the proud owner of some freshly roasted salted peanuts.
We headed back across the river for some more retail therapy and sightseeing. I bought some stuff I didn't need but Ken was less lucky (or more discerning?!) and came home empty handed. We stopped for a latte for Ken and water for me plus a decadent chocolate mousse cake as Ken hadn't eaten his lunch. After that we headed back to the hotel to rest a bit before dinner.
Our plan was to go to Son Hoian restaurant recommended highly by Neville. We had reservations for 7:30 and arrived in the lobby of our hotel at 7:00 thinking it would be a bit slow to get a cab. It's a bit out of town and we really didn't know where so we couldn't walk there. An Indian family that were less organized arrived just after us; they had a 7:00 reservation!! The hotel ordered two cabs and asked if the family could go first when the first cab arrived after 15-20 minutes. Like typical Canadians, we said okay and then waited an additional 30 minutes for "our" cab. The driver said that he knew where the restaurant was when were gave him the card so we were off.
Sitting in the backseat, I could see that the dash was lit up like a Christmas tree; all the warning lights we red! The car had 428,000 km on it and the young driver was grinding the gears. I was hoping it would stay together until we got there. After fifteen minutes of honking and grinding, we pulled up in front of a hotel? Not the right place and not the street identified on the card. He tried a bit more driving but it was pretty obvious he didn't know how to take us to our destination so we asked him to take us back to town. He didn't really understand what we were asking but eventually we saw the lights of Hoi An town. Yeah!
Plan B was the Cargo restaurant recommended by some folks staying at the hotel down by the river. When we arrived there, we were told that since the market was closed that they could only offer drinks not food. We continued down the street and found the Rice Drum Cafe. Folks around us were muttering about the service so we ordered quarts of Tiger beer and hunkered down for the wait. I guess we must have arrived at the perfect time or maybe the Buddha across the street sent us some good vibes because we had great service, our food arrived fairly quickly and we were both served at the same time. Food was great, beer was cold, company was good; all in all a lovely evening despite the bad start.
Beach day tomorrow so back to the hotel to crash.
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