September 30, Hoi An, Vietnam
Arriving in Hoi An in the morning, we got breakfast and then did a walking tour of Old Town. In the afternoon, we returned to Old Town for dinner and to wander around a bit.
After our overnight train arrived very early in Da Nang, we got onto a bus to get to Hoi An. It was too early to check in, so we dropped off our bags and then took a cab to the Old Town part of the city.
The first order of business was to have some breakfast. Bao led us down some alleys to a café, and we proceeded to place our orders. We had poached eggs on avocado toast and French toast, and Melody got an iced coconut coffee. By the time we finished breakfast, it was starting to warm up, so we went on a walk around Old Town before it got too hot.
One of our first stops was a monument to a Polish architect, Kazimierz “Kazik” Kwaitkowsky since he helped to preserve historical and archaeological sites in Vietnam such as Hoi An. We then walked into the Assembly Hall of the Cantonese Chinese Congregation. While we were there, a worker was touching up one of the murals, which is why everything still has such bright colors.
We next walked to the Japanese Covered Bridge. It was built in the early 1600s but it’s not known who built it. On one end are two sculptures of dogs, and on the other end, are two sculptures of monkeys. We stepped into the small temple in the middle of the bridge, too.
The next stop was one of several Old Houses in the area. The house guide said the house was built to withstand floods. The wooden posts are on marble blocks, and there is a trap door on the second floor which could be used to move things up when the water is approaching. The shuttered doors were interesting, too. There are vertical slats to let air in, and a panel that can slide up to cover them (you put a peg below the panel but through the slats so the panel won’t fall). In addition, the panel can be easily removed if desired. The people in the house also do fine embroidery, and they had many items for sale (the house guide made sure to tell us the price of everything).
Another stop was a store that did eyeglasses, and the proprietors stressed how quickly they could make glasses and how inexpensive they were.
The last stop on the walking tour was a store that did custom men’s and women’s tailoring. They also stressed how quickly they could make things, and that they had a body scanner to take initial measurements.
Melody and I wandered around a bit and found an ice cream store for a snack. We took a quick look at the river, then went back to wait with Bao for other people so we could share a taxi back to the hotel.
It was late enough for us to check in to the hotel, so we each got our rooms and showered. We also collected our laundry and took it to the front desk.
Later in the afternoon, most of us shared another taxi ride back to Old Town and then went our separate ways. Melody and I walked to the edge of Old Town to have com ga, which is chicken and rice. After we were done, we found a street vendor who sold mango cake, which has no mango and isn’t a cake. It’s kind of like mochi, but tastes like normal rice, not the sweet rice we normally make mochi with. The filling was chopped peanuts with some sort of sauce.
We then walked through the central market, which was quiet, but there were still plenty of vendors who kept trying to offer menus to us.
One nice thing about walking through Old Town in the afternoon instead of earlier in the day is motorbikes are not allowed in the core of Old Town after mid-afternoon. However, there are many more tourists, with more street vendors. Especially when sunset was getting close, there were many people offering boat rides.
Ready to be done for the day, we decided to walk back to the hotel, where we relaxed for the rest of the night.
