For all the attractions that Hoi An and the surrounding area had to offer, I had plenty of time to explore them as the Tet holiday left all modes of transportation booked solid. The first flight I could find out of Hoi An left two days later than I’d planned, leaving me five days to thoroughly check them out. Plus, after four months of traveling with the same limited wardrobe, I was in the market for some new clothes anyway.
To get to Hoi An, you fly into Da Nang which is about 25 miles north. It makes for an interesting introduction as you pass the remnants of the massive former U.S. Air Force and Army bases, including the famous China Beach, that still occupy their long-deserted parcels thirty some years after the Vietnam War(American War to the Vietnamese) ended. It’s a quick reminder that traveling freely around the stunningly beautiful country is still a somewhat new opportunity having just opened it‘s borders to foreigners just over a decade ago. It’s a realization that was not lost on me as I thought about my father’s own ‘visit’ to this same country some forty years ago under much different circumstances. A quick reminder that the ability to take a trip such as the one I'm doing is indeed a privilege.
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| From Hoi An '07 |
But, once you get to Hoi An, memories of more troubled times fade away. Hoi An could be mistaken for a large village as much as it could for a town. Riding a bike from one end to the other takes all of ten minutes and walking maybe twenty-five. But, it exudes a certain relaxed charm that makes it instantly likeable and seems even a bit bigger than it’s diminutive borders might indicate. It’s a town that seems a piece of classic Southeast Asia seems pulled right from the pages of a National Geographic issue. It's picturesque dirt and cobblestone streets are lined with yellow-hued, low slung store fronts and restaurants. The south end of town is bordered by a river which provides waterfront dining on each side, although the north side seems more geared towards tourists while the south is more for locals.
While the multitude of stores offering tailor-made clothing services (about one out of every two stores) could pass for Vietnam’s version of rampant commercialism, Hoi An is devoid of anything except locally owned businesses including its hotels which makes for a refreshing departure from other destinations - not that rampant commercialism and familiar brands are unwelcome on other occassions. Interspersed with the clothing stores are a number of proprietors offering hand made, high quality art and craft work. The numerous small art galleries showcase impressive work done by local artists in vivid colors and textures sometimes using subjects native to Vietnam and sometimes more abstract, but always eye-catching. They hold more than their own against anything else I’ve seen around the world, at least in terms of art that normal people can actually afford.
What a lot of people come to Hoi An for, however, is the tailor made clothing. In just twenty-four hours you can have a complete wardrobe full of multiple suits, pants, shirts, or anything else you can dream up all for about the cost of any one of those items at a decent retail store in the U.S. You get to pick the fabrics, designs, colors, how many pockets, zips or buttons, flare or straight-leg and just about anything else you can think of to make your custom-made clothes unique.
It’s typically best to walk in with ideas ripped from the latest magazines or off the internet, but I managed to walk in sans visual aids and a near nonexistent ability to speak fashionese and the staff still figured out what it was that I was looking to get made. By the next afternoon my clothes were ready for an initial fitting after which a couple adjustments were made and two hours later I walked out the door with a new shirt and pants that fit just right for all of thirty bucks. Had I had more room in my already over packed bag, I would’ve opted to have a couple of custom-tailored suits made for all of about eighty dollars each. If you ever find yourself in Vietnam and near Hoi An, it’s well worth spending a couple days to revamp your wardrobe.
The nearby Cu Cai beach does it’s best to attract visitors for reasons that rather inspire shedding clothes versus donning a wardrobe of new ones. Cu Cai is just a couple miles outside of Hoi An and its an attractive ride even just getting out to the beach. That trip is usually made via pedal bike or motorbike along a road that meanders along a river lined with rice fields and coconut trees. The beach itself is refreshingly still mostly undiscovered and untainted, as it seems to have yet avoided making it onto most traveler’s must-see lists although it seems to be increasingly popular with domestic visitors. But, it’s pleasant sandy beach fronting the South China Sea and a small forest of palm trees as its background seem to make it ripe for one day being mentioned in the same breath as Phuket or Bali. Regardless of Cu Cai’s potential future it was great to find this hidden gem before most of the rest of the world and spend the better part of a day walking its unspoiled beaches.
For my last day in Hoi An, I decided to put away the present day luxuries of tailor made clothing and basking in the sun and actually take in some history. About an hour’s bus ride southwest of Hoi An is a modest site of ancient temple ruins, called My Son. The temples were built centuries ago by the Cham people who once inhabited the area. It’s one of Vietnam’s UNESCO World Heritage Site’s that houses a series of small, connected temple complexes that were lost for hundreds of years, covered over by dense forest after the Cham people died out.
But, the ruins were finally re-discovered and remain preserved mostly in the state in which they were found although much of the brush that covered the temples has been removed. The temples are built entirely of bricks fashioned from the ground on which they stand and bonded together with a natural tree resin that the Cham people discovered and used frequently centuries before mortar or cement fulfilled the same role. They are not the most remarkable set of ruins I’ve ever laid eyes on, but they do make for interesting exploring.
Adding to the interest is the fact that they served as a hiding place for Viet Cong during the Vietnam War and two of the complexes were mostly destroyed by American bombing campaigns done to flush out the VC from the area. Although, the American Army evidently had no idea at the time that the temples existed and have since paid a sizeable sum to fund the restoration of the remaining complexes.
The nice part of the basic nature of the temples is that you are allowed to walk into any of them and see them as they were centuries ago untouched by restoration efforts for the most part. Inside are sacrificial alters, stone carvings honoring the various Cham gods and other carvings depicting sacred scenes and animals. Almost as interesting is the setting in which the temples are set - an overgrown forest of dense, leafy trees and ivy-like underbrush surrounded by similarly covered mountains nearby. It very much fit the picture of Vietnam I had in my head from every movie, magazine or other image I’ve seen about the country’s landscape in my lifetime.
So, after touching up my tan, refreshing my wardrobe a bit and checking out an interesting bit of history, I finally took my leave of the pleasant town of Hoi An and headed south to Saigon. But, my five days were time well spent as Hoi An let me immerse myself in a more natural slice of life in Vietnam’s rural countryside to see how most of the millions of Vietnamese citizens live daily life. It’s certainly one of the most naturally beautiful areas of the world I’ve found. One day maybe everyone else will discover this little slice of quintessential Vietnam and Southeast Asia. But, for now I’ll try to keep it my little secret.
HOI AN PHOTO ALBUM (click photo):
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| Hoi An '07 |
MY SON PHOTO ALBUM (click photo):
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| My Son '07 |
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