Hoi
An is a town about 40 minutes drive from Da Nang, our port. It is on the Thu Bon river which silted up at one stage. The silting caused the little
town to be ‘lost’ for 100 years and so the buildings were preserved. The
architecture is beautiful and what the people have done with it gives it a
really lovely character.
It is filled with myriad shops, selling everything from clothes to lacquer boxes, chop sticks to magnets, there are also fresh fruit and vegetables. There are loads of souvenir shops and many selling lanterns. The lanterns are what the town is famous for. At night they light the strings of lanterns and place floating candles on the river. It must be spectacular because even by day it is charming.
We wandered the streets for hours, looking at the wares and taking in the beauty. It is pretty busy but less crowded with cars and motorbikes than other places we have been, as motor vehicles are supposedly not allowed in. However we did see a great deal of the ubiquitous motorbikes. It was said it would be full of push bikes however those I saw were mostly stationary by the side of the road.
The town is really camera candy with moment after moment of amazing scenery. It also has, as I have said, character. I would definitely return to this place if I am back in Vietnam.
We happened upon mum, Bruce and Ro and Russell in a coffee shop and they directed us to a silk shop which showed the process of obtaining the silk. I enjoyed this place, it showed the silk worms, from tiny dots to larger caterpillars, the cocoons they build and finally the moths they become. They even had live moths.
The rest of the process was also set out for us from pulling off the silk to weaving machines and women embroidering elegant pictures many quite photographic. I was so glad that Ro got to see this as it was exactly like the XQ embroidery place which Ro missed seeing on their last tour. She had been so disappointed and now to see her so happy and in possession of a piece of fabric like mum’s was a relief.
In a tailor shop outside of the old town we purchased dresses. I can’t believe it, we waited only an hour and the proprietress resized them for me. So beautiful, I’m so excited. She was such a lovely lady, kind and gentle and complementary of Eric as a lovely husband coming into the shop and encouraging me to try on more and more dresses! (Astute business woman.) The trouble was the styles really suited me and a number had the right colours too. So we purchased four. How we’ll get them home I have no idea.
Eric also purchased a top but not from the tailor. It is so difficult to get off the rack stuff for Eric as his arms and torso are too long for anything and if the length is right, it is too baggy.
The trip there are back took us through some rice fields where we saw oxen and people attending to the plants. We also passed the marble mountains. These provide five different sorts of marble which are used by the locals to create statues for sale. These take many forms however the most notable are those depicting the female Buddha (an image of her stands some 60 odd metres high in the hills nearby). Some of the statues stood what looked like two storeys high. Apparently you can have them shipped home. While some were lovely, others did look grotesque. We passed shop after shop of them. Obviously there is demand......
Also on the roads were resorts. The taxi passed so many of them along the seaside and the port guide on the ship said a new high rise hotel goes up every time they come into port. The taxi driver was incredulous towards the Chinese who are developing much of this place. He went on to say he hates the Chinese and feels they will own Vietnam in 10 years. He acknowledged the lack of laws in Vietnam to maintain sovereignty. He even said that if the Chinese break the law they face no consequences and are just shipped home. The Chinese like Vietnam because they grow heaps of opium here according to the taxi driver.
It is filled with myriad shops, selling everything from clothes to lacquer boxes, chop sticks to magnets, there are also fresh fruit and vegetables. There are loads of souvenir shops and many selling lanterns. The lanterns are what the town is famous for. At night they light the strings of lanterns and place floating candles on the river. It must be spectacular because even by day it is charming.
We wandered the streets for hours, looking at the wares and taking in the beauty. It is pretty busy but less crowded with cars and motorbikes than other places we have been, as motor vehicles are supposedly not allowed in. However we did see a great deal of the ubiquitous motorbikes. It was said it would be full of push bikes however those I saw were mostly stationary by the side of the road.
The town is really camera candy with moment after moment of amazing scenery. It also has, as I have said, character. I would definitely return to this place if I am back in Vietnam.
We happened upon mum, Bruce and Ro and Russell in a coffee shop and they directed us to a silk shop which showed the process of obtaining the silk. I enjoyed this place, it showed the silk worms, from tiny dots to larger caterpillars, the cocoons they build and finally the moths they become. They even had live moths.
The rest of the process was also set out for us from pulling off the silk to weaving machines and women embroidering elegant pictures many quite photographic. I was so glad that Ro got to see this as it was exactly like the XQ embroidery place which Ro missed seeing on their last tour. She had been so disappointed and now to see her so happy and in possession of a piece of fabric like mum’s was a relief.
In a tailor shop outside of the old town we purchased dresses. I can’t believe it, we waited only an hour and the proprietress resized them for me. So beautiful, I’m so excited. She was such a lovely lady, kind and gentle and complementary of Eric as a lovely husband coming into the shop and encouraging me to try on more and more dresses! (Astute business woman.) The trouble was the styles really suited me and a number had the right colours too. So we purchased four. How we’ll get them home I have no idea.
Eric also purchased a top but not from the tailor. It is so difficult to get off the rack stuff for Eric as his arms and torso are too long for anything and if the length is right, it is too baggy.
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| Sporting our purchases |
The trip there are back took us through some rice fields where we saw oxen and people attending to the plants. We also passed the marble mountains. These provide five different sorts of marble which are used by the locals to create statues for sale. These take many forms however the most notable are those depicting the female Buddha (an image of her stands some 60 odd metres high in the hills nearby). Some of the statues stood what looked like two storeys high. Apparently you can have them shipped home. While some were lovely, others did look grotesque. We passed shop after shop of them. Obviously there is demand......
Also on the roads were resorts. The taxi passed so many of them along the seaside and the port guide on the ship said a new high rise hotel goes up every time they come into port. The taxi driver was incredulous towards the Chinese who are developing much of this place. He went on to say he hates the Chinese and feels they will own Vietnam in 10 years. He acknowledged the lack of laws in Vietnam to maintain sovereignty. He even said that if the Chinese break the law they face no consequences and are just shipped home. The Chinese like Vietnam because they grow heaps of opium here according to the taxi driver.
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