Vietnam #4

Friday 17th April

After a gentler awakening and another nice breakfast, we checked out of the Indochine Hotel, waved goodbye to Hue, and took a Grab car to our next destination, Hoi An. The Little Riverside was to be my favourite hotel of the holiday. Quite small and backing onto the Thu Bon River, with incredibly friendly and helpful staff, it was perfect. Bikes were available to borrow on a first come, first served basis, but we were perfectly happy walking everywhere. Although the streets were better in terms of motorbikes than Hanoi, they were still quite crowded, especially in the old town, and walking seemed generally safer and less stressful.

Hotel entrance:

Our room:

View from our room overlooking the river:

View from our balcony, overlooking the outside restaurant area below:

Hoi An is a charming town, popular with tourists, and with over 800 preserved ancient buildings. It is also fond of a lantern or two! After enjoying our welcome drink and leaving our cases in the room, we walked along the river towpath, through the old town and to the central market.

The market was busy, but not as claustrophobic as the one in Hue. Getting a suit made in 24 hours seemed to be a popular thing to do. R wasn't in need of a new suit and, besides, our luggage was practically full at this point, so we gave it a miss. Looking for somewhere for lunch, we were stopped by 2 students on a motorbike. They were doing research for a college project about tourism and wanted to ask us a few questions. They were very friendly and we were glad to help. Continuing on our way, we arrived at Maazi, an Indian restaurant recommended on Happy Cow. The uttapam and masala dosa were delicious. R enjoyed a beer and I had a lemon and ginger drink. Both hit the spot nicely.

After a quick rest back at the hotel, we set off to do the recommended walk in the guide book. The best way to see the sights was to buy a tourist ticket. This allowed you to visit 5 places for a set fee. In reality, you actually get to visit far more as in many places no-one bothers to check the tickets. We saw the Pottery, Folk, and Traditional Medicine Museums.

Cycle rickshaws waiting for customers:

     Numerous lanterns for sale:

Quan Cong Temple - A Chinese style Buddhist Temple, built by immigrants to the city in the late 19th Century. It is dedicated to Quan Gong, a highly esteemed Chinese general.

Beyond the red metal gate, the garden contains a pond and fountain:

 Assembly Hall of the Cantonese Chinese:

Here we teased one of the guards who was telling someone off for wearing a hat inside the shrine. Hat wearing was one of a long list of prohibited actions on display ....... as was smoking, although the guard himself seemed to have ignored that particular form of disrespect! He looked a little sheepish and grinned when we laughingly pointed at the sign.

Entrance to the Japanese Covered Bridge:

Built in the late 16th Century in the former Japanese Quarter, statues of dogs and monkeys guard either end of the bridge. The dog and monkey Gods are believed to control Namazu in Japanese folklore - a giant, mythical catfish that causes earthquakes and tsunamis by thrashing its tail.

Bridge seen at night:

People taking a lantern lit boat ride. It was pretty but a little crowded for our taste:

Whilst admiring some simple paintings done on rice paper at one of the night market stalls, we chatted with the stall holder who informed us that her father and brother were the artists. They were very cheap and, after prolonged browsing, we chose one to bring home. It was rolled up and placed in a plastic tube for safe keeping. It is now in the process of being framed - as it is to go by our south facing front door, it needs UV resistant glass to protect it from fading.

Happy Cow led us to the Lanterns Cafe for dinner. I had their gluten free, plant nourish bowl, along with a turmeric latte, and R had noodles with vegetables and tofu ...... and a beer! :O) We also shared a scoop of chocolate ice-cream for dessert. Eavesdropping on our neighbours, R suddenly declared that the chap chattering away behind me was the spitting image of comedian Ricky Gervais. I surreptitiously sneaked a peak - he really was! He and his wife had apparently moved to Vietnam 2 years ago. He was holding forth on all their travelling adventures, barely pausing to draw breath for the duration of our meal. The poor couple on the receiving end had developed a slightly glazed expression!

Leaving 'Ricky' still going strong, we headed back to the hotel for a cup of tea, a bath and then reading in bed. 

Saturday April 18th

Breakfast by the river was wonderfully peaceful. We had been allowed to choose from a selection of vegan, gluten free options the day before, to add to any items on offer from the buffet. Along with our tofu and spring rolls, they had also made me a selection of cakes - the carrot cake was amazing, the chocolate chip muffin delicious, and the lemon slice only slightly worthy! I was very happy. As the river was quiet at that time in the morning, the fishermen were out in force. We looked on amazed as they actually got into the water to help pull the nets along, steering with one hand as the boat travelled backwards.

After breakfast, we walked along the river and through the market, looking rather horrified at the chickens squashed into tiny cages. The poor things watched as the others were killed one by one and plucked. Feeling slightly queasy, we gave them a wide berth. Apart from the chickens and fish, I loved the street market with its colourful selection of fruit and vegetables on display.

We bought some coffee from this lovely lady to bring home for R, the girls and our house-sitting neighbours:

Still having some life in our tourist ticket, our next port of call was Quang Trieu Assembly Hall:

Built in 1885, the Assembly Hall is dedicated to Cantonese immigrants. It has a temple dedicated to the Chinese God of War, Quan Cong.

Prayers are written on pieces of card and attached to the bottom of incense spirals. These burn for 30 days, after which the monks burn the cards and the prayers and wishes are supposed to come true:

The touch of interest at the necks of the lions is to celebrate the lunar new year:

Also included in our tourist ticket, was entrance to the Hoi An Traditional Performance House. We headed off, past the Japanese Covered Bridge again, for the 10.30 show.

The lady at the entrance checked our tickets and her little girl made us laugh by calling us grandfather and grandmother. Well, she made me laugh, R not so much! We were told to choose a wooden stick from a selection in a pot. This lucky dip was for a sort of bingo game at the end of the show. My 'Giay'  meant 'shoe', and R's 'bong' translated as cotton. We had to use Google translate to discover this, our Vietnamese being limited to 'Xin chao' (hello) and 'Cam on' (thank you)!

The show was a mixture of traditional singing and dancing. We were slightly confused when, in mid song, one of the traditional opera singers decided to do what appeared to be a bit of breakdancing! What with that, and the fact that one of a line of dancers had an expression on her face like a bored fish, when the others were grinning manically, it was quite entertaining! Finally, during a musical version of bingo, a lady in the audience won a prize when a picture pulled out matched her wooden paddle. We emerged into the sunshine, slightly bemused by the whole thing.

Quan Thang Old House was an 18th century merchant's residence. A combination of architectural styles, it floods most years and a trap door is used to pull the furniture upstairs to keep it safe and dry. There was a bit of a hard sell for the embroidered napkins and clothing etc on display, which we politely declined. 

Trap door:

After pausing briefly at the Lantern Cafe for fries, mango smoothie and beer, we headed back along the river to a sign that we had noticed on the way into town that morning - 'The Lantern Lady, lantern making workshops on demand'!

After perusing a large selection of fabrics on display and deciding which shape and size of lantern we wanted to make, we sat at a table overlooking the river and set to. We had opted for matching, medium sized balloon lanterns, with a view to hanging them from the garden pergola that we haven't built yet!  The technique was decidedly fiddly, especially given that a strong breeze had picked up and the bits of fabric were flapping everywhere. The teacher had a very bad cough, which didn't help matters as we tried, in vain, to avoid the aerosol of viruses heading our way.

It turned out that I was much better at the fabric manipulation and gluing, and R came into his own when it came to trimming said fabric along the seams. Some of my edges looked as if they had been done with pinking shears! The finished products collapsed up for easy transport home. Given that Hoi An seemed to be the lantern capital of Vietnam, our bamboo and silk souvenirs are a lovely reminder. Or at least they will be, once we have built that pergola!

R being helped with the fabric gluing:

Our friendly lantern expert:

My finished lantern:

Both end products on display:

After the workshop, we decided to take a small trip on a traditional, circular coconut boat, made of bamboo. A larger boat took us from the bridge near the market, to a quiet inlet of the river about 10 minutes away:

Our captain:

Here we got into one of the circular boats like the ones in the photo below. Our guide then paddled us up the quiet inlet, using a circular, sculling motion. Pausing to weave us a couple of keepsakes from coconut palm leaves - I had a ring, and R a grasshopper - he then asked if we wanted to be whirled round in the boat. Standing up and making a rocking action, he spun the boat wildly in circles like a fairground ride. It was quite fun but I was relieved when he stopped! R had a go at paddling and with both of them sculling, we moved along quite quickly. I sat back like Katharine Hepburn in the African Queen, only slightly dismayed by the piles of rubbish along the river banks. After returning to the bigger boat, we were transported back to the bridge where we started, and then walked from there back to our hotel.

Back at the hotel, we popped up to the roof area to check out the swimming pool. I would have had another swim except it seemed to be full of women bobbing about chatting, and I would have been embarrassed ploughing up and down between them. That, and we were nearing the end of our holiday and my costume would probably have stayed wet for the duration.

We returned to our room where we had a cup of tea on our balcony. Then I knitted whilst R checked us in online for our domestic flight to Ho Chi Minh City the following day.

Dinner was back at the Lantern Cafe - my GF Plant nourish bowl was very nice but being the only vegan, gluten free option available, it was a bit samey. R had an aubergine and tofu curry with lemongrass and ginger. We shared the obligatory ice-cream for dessert and sat by the window, people watching. I played a game, trying to get as many babies and small children as I could to smile and wave at me as they passed.

On the way back to the hotel, we popped into a nice shop selling Vietnamese goods made from recycled materials. Here, we bought our neighbour a small, padded pouch for either her phone or her glasses/sunglasses. Then, it was back to our room to pack, ready for our early start the next day.

That's all for the moment. Vietnam Part 5 (the end is in sight!) will follow shortly.

Toodle pip for now. x