After our Halong Bay adventure we began our journey to Hội An by taking a bus, boat bus, motorcycle and then two more buses. Exhausted by the 34 hour journey we stepped into our $13 a night beautiful hotel with a pool. Hội An has become a travelers destination as it is a quaint town with cheap accommodations, really good food and is a mecca for clothes. It is funny because the little town with $13 a night rooms is just about 45 minutes away from Da Nang with 5 star Hiltons and Greg Norman golf courses, and Hội An is exceedingly more charming. We were a bit worried because often these charming towns become "Disney-fied" by the excessive tourism, but Hội An retains its charm and local flavor despite a high number of tourists and expats.
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Our initial itinerary for Vietnam got somewhat derailed by the unrest in Bangkok. Because we decided to fly to Kuala Lumpur instead of getting visas in Bangkok, we ended up having to fly to Hanoi instead of our original plan to take the bus from Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). As a result, Hội An is as far south as we traveled in Vietnam. The sleeper bus we took south was interesting and restless enough to persuade us to spring for the train on the way back north.
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Hội An's old town is basically just three main streets parallel to the river. There is a boardwalk area on one of the islands in the river as well, but it seemed more touristy and we didn't spend much time there. The old town is dominated by French colonial buildings often framed by beautiful flowers and lanterns.
As with much of Vietnam, the streets are clogged with motorbikes, but old town is certainly less crowded than many places. Still you need to be on your toes! We spent the majority of our time just walking the streets and trying the various street foods that are unique to Hội An. Interestingly (and debatable) is that two of the most famous local dishes -- White Rose dumplings and cáo láo -- are said to get their unique qualities due to the water used that comes from a single well in Hoi An and the ash from a particular tree. Additionally, the White Rose dumplings recipe is a secret, held by one family in Hội An who supplies all the restaurants in town. White Rose dumplings do have a very light, soft rice paper that surrounds a shrimp filing and a garlic rice wine vinegar dipping sauce. The White Rose has become our favorite Vietnamese dish so far. Fresh shrimp and nice light rice paper? Hard not to love.
The cáo láo is a noodle dish with sliced pork and fried dough on top (and a load of mint and other veggies). The cáo láo had an almost gingery broth and in my opinion (likely to get flak about it from hardcore phở fans....) better than any phở I have had! Also, all these dishes are typically a dollar on the street where you sit on tiny plastic stools with other Vietnamese. Jim and I both agreed that the street vendors are generally a step above their restaurant counterparts selling the same dish.
One morning I got up early to check out the local market to see the fishing boats come in. I got up at 5am, jumped out of bed and headed quickly to the fish market as the boats come in early. At 5 am the sun was already rising and the town was quiet and serene. However, the serenity was soon over as I got to the fish market. The market is slight chaos as small boats with one lady and baskets of fish compete for space to unload while slightly bigger ships with 6-7 fisherman are frantically unloading their catch as well. Even while the unloading is happening, others are yelling and bargaining for the best deals on the purchases before the fish can even get off the boat. I tried as best I could to just stay out of the way as there was barely enough room to walk around. It was hard to stay out of the way, but through the hustle and bustle I could kind of stay in the background, take pictures and witness the craziness.
We also took the opportunity to pick up some new clothes. Hội An is famous for its custom made clothing sold at amazingly low prices. We stopped into a tailor shop called Thiên Thi after a few days of the tailor's brother recognizing us on the street and chatting with us to get us to visit his shop. Most of the people trying to sell us stuff asked where we were from, but his response to us saying we were from the United States was definitely the funniest. He said jovially, "Oh USA!! Before we were bang bang (making guns with his fingers) and now we're Yay! (making a hugging motion)." His persistence paid off and I bought a few custom made skirts.
Though located inland a bit on the river, Hội An is close to the beach as well, and we rented some bikes and headed out the four kilometers for a day at the beach. It was nice just to cool off a bit as temperatures were regularly in the upper 90s with lots of humidity.
After Hội An we took a quick bus ride back north to Huế. We decided to stop in Huế on the way north instead of on the way south in order to be there for the big annual Festival. The festival has traditional Vietnamese dances and concerts as well as some international acts. The Citadel, which is the former Imperial Palace, is extravagantly decorated with lights and traditional paper lanterns.
We were only in Huế for a couple of days but we did go explore the Citadel, a walled-in section of the city that is somewhat reminiscent of Cartagena, Colombia. We spent most of our time in the Citadel exploring the Imperial Palace. Contrary to Hội An, Huế has seen its fair share of war and unfortunately much of it had been destroyed by bombings, but it is slowly being rebuilt and restored.
As always, we tried the local specialties... bánh nậm has shrimp (and sometimes a little pork too) in a rice like roll that is steamed in a banana leaf. Using a banana leaf to seal in food and steam it has become my new obsession as it creates interesting, delicious and pretty healthy food. Anyone know where one can find banana leaves in Boulder?? Finally, another fantastic food idea is the nem lụi cháy. Tofu or meat on a lemongrass stalk with veggies. You wrap it in rice paper and dip it in peanut sauce. (Peanut sauce can make anything taste good though!)
Finally we headed back to Ha Noi on the overnight train. The train was much nicer than the bus as we had our own bed. We did share the small berth that had 6 beds with 3 kids and 3 adults (besides ourselves). It sounds crowded, but the family was lovely and the young kids were practicing their English they learned in school with us.
Really, it was a pretty easy and relaxing trip through Vietnam, and Jim and I were laughing that this post might be a little boring as everything went pretty dang perfectly! Easy travel is of course great, but does not give a funny story afterwords. That is the pleasant thing about Vietnam, the beautiful people, amazing food and gorgeous landscapes.
