Hoi An to Ha Noi

Confusing names at a glance.

Hoi An, the smaller beach town, was nothing short of beautiful. It was again a new side of Vietnam to see, this time a much more rural and agricultural place that was nevertheless experiencing lots of expansion due to tourism.

Unreachable by train, we took a bouncing bus ride from the Da Nang train station. The bus drivers were clearly paid by the journey, because at every stop the passengers would be literally dragged through the doors by an attendant as the bus kept moving. It was also a courier service, as bags of rice or concrete got thrown on with an exchange of money and shouted instructions to deliver the goods to a waiting party at the bus station. The bus driver had two horns, one mild and one blaring, and both were used in liberal measures during the hour-long journey.

In Hoi An, we stayed at a lovely B&B whose host, Thợ, was more gracious and hospitable than I could have believed possible. He was a classical guitarist who played in restaurants and hotels, and he shared several excellent songs with us. Once he even invited us to sing and play at a folk song night in a cafe. Our music was pretty different from the Vietnamese songs, but I'm told it went over well with the crowd.

The Hoi An that people really come to see is the preserved historic old town, kept in good condition with the high-priced ticket sales. I thought the lights and the street performers and the statues came together really well in a very cool spectacle. It had a polished, touristy vibe, but that didn't detract from the feeling.

Development is frozen in the historic center, so the hotels and B&Bs are more on the outskirts. Auberon and I walked around and around, from lodging to beach to rice paddy to old town and back, one day reaching a pedometer count of 26 miles.

Our host procured us a private car from his endless list of acquaintances (I think the driver was a friend of his wife's brother) and we took a drive up to the mountain ruins of Mỹ Sơn. This was the site of temples built centuries ago by the Champa kingdom, which once controlled much of what is now central and southern Vietnam. They practiced Islam and Hinduism, and designed their temple complexes to follow geometric patterns, which can still be seen today. The temples made it through the sands of time and some have been very well restored through the work of international conservationists. It was unfortunately very hot and humid in the forest, so we didn't have too much energy to explore every remaining site.

An afternoon, a night, and a morning spent on the train brought us to Vietnam's capital city of Hanoi, where we stayed in an apartment thanks to the generosity of a friend of Auberon's and her housemates. But that's another post.