Hoi An is one of the main destinations on the Vietnam tourist trail, and so we were surprised to discover it is a small town of only 120,000 people or so. However, most of those people do seem to be involved in tourism. After riding in through quiet rice fields after several days in the country it was something of a shock to be met with touts and overpriced coffee again! On the road we often have hot meals for around 30,000 dong (85p) - however upon entering Hoi An, one fruit vendor tried to sell Jon a handful of bananas and lychees for 150,000 dong (£4.30) - and told him this was 'normal'! He bargained down to 40,000, still a bit much but she let him pose with her baskets so I suppose we'll let her off.
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| Hoi An - Quaint and efficiently designed to squeeze money out of tourists |
The main attraction is the UNESCO heritage listed 'old town', in which 16th-18th century shop houses and communal halls remain in startlingly good condition from the time Hoi An was an important port. It was home to whole communities of international traders, including from China and Japan, and the architecture (such as the famous Japanese covered bridge) reflects their influence.
This area has several museums and preserved houses to visit, and we also saw a brilliant traditional music and dance performance at a lantern workshop. At night it is lively and colourful; the streets are decorated with silk lanterns and filled with the smell of fresh doughnuts (so wonderful), and each full moon evening mopeds and fluorescent lights are banned and traditional folk games are played in the streets. All very much for the tourists, but beautiful nonetheless.
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| The Japanese covered bridge, old town alleyways, the river and Tan Ky old house |
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| Hoi An by night |
Hoi An is also world famous for high class tailoring, although with the rise in popularity it seems a lot of new businesses have got in on the act and now every other shop is a tailor or shoemaker's. We were frequently asked on the street to come to somebody's 'family business' - apparently they will take you to wherever pays the most commission!
In the end we decided to get something made, not a tailored remake of a catalogue item but something really custom, just for fun. We decided on shoes and after a lot of scribbling in cafés we came up with the following design:
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| If you can't tell... it's a penguin sliding on ice |
After a bit of tripadvisor research we took the bit of paper to Friendly Shoe shop, who indeed were very friendly and thought our design was hilarious. I didn't think they'd be able to do it, but they brought out material to choose from and measured my feet and said we could pick them up the day after tomorrow. This was the result!
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| Chuffed to bits! |
While in the town we spent a lot of time eating as there were just too many good cafes and restaurants to pass up. The local specialities are Cau Lau (thick, slightly chewy noodles with pork and fresh leaves) and White Rose (steamed dumplings folded like flowers). Both are lovely but my favourite is Mi Quang - noodles made yellow with tumeric and served in a little bit of chicken broth, with fresh herbs, peanuts and variously pork, prawns and boiled quail eggs. It is the best.
To try and get some of the food culture to take home we also went on a cooking course at Baby Mustard restaurant, which was a fantastic morning of fresh food. We started off with a market tour, where we picked up some mackerel, beef and chicken plus some vegetables for our chosen recipes. Next we picked the herbs we needed from the restaurant's extensive garden based in Tra Que village, famous for its herbs. Then we had a fun few hours cooking and eating three meals - well worth doing!
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| Cuisine |
Having decided that we needed another month to complete our cycle tour, we applied for a visa extension while we were in Hoi An. While we were waiting for our passports we had time to explore outside the town, and we had a good map of the little trails so we did some very sedate riding around the countryside, through Tra Que village, past the water coconut groves and to the lovely Anh Bang beach. We didn't go for a swim though because the waves were a fair bit more enthusiastic than back in Nha Trang or Mui Ne!
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| Ride about town |
Day 28 - Hoi An to Danang (48km of flatness)
With only a short ride planned to our next stop, Danang, we didn't go through our usual routine of a 6:30 start and breakfast 20km down the road. Instead we took our time, went to the post office to send the penguin shoes back home and had a decadent breakfast at the Cargo Club restaurant. As we later cycled off along the beach road, the sky had turned decidedly grey and started to spit - the first rain we'd seen in months! Fortunately we had planned for the eventuality, and stopped to get raincoats out and fasten ponchos over our bags.
By the time we reached the Marble Mountains, just outside Danang, it had brightened up again and we stopped to look around. There used to be just one mountain, but relentless quarrying for marble has left 5 peaks behind, one of which has a cavern filled with bizzare statues, tunnels and a stairway to the summit where there is a pagoda. The streets round about are packed full with statues small and large (and massive), depicting lions, Buddha and mythical beasts.
After a quick explore and a toilet break (slightly awkward as the lady demanded to know if we planned on No.1 or No.2 - the latter costing 3,000 dong extra), we pedaled on to the city, past a string of plush resorts on the beach side (they had staff outside cutting the grass - by hand) and a rather drab looking bit of waste ground on the other. Once in the city, we stopped for lunch and thought about attempting Hai Van pass that afternoon. On cue however, the clouds rolled back in, it started to rain hard and we decided to turn back towards town for the night. The seafront was deserted and eerie, but further in the roads were busy and cafes filled with people watching the English premier league on TV.
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| Breakfast, raincoats and the Marble Mountain |
Day 29 - Danang to Hue (96km with the Hai Van Pass)
We were glad we waited a day - the weather was ideal as we set off for the Hai Van Pass, the bit Mr Clarkson called 'one of the greatest coast roads in the world' in the Top Gear special. Although not our hardest climb, it was still tough at close to 500m elevation. It was quiet - most traffic now goes through a tunnel under the mountain - and had really marvelous views down to the sea and the railway line, which snakes along the edge of the land. At least they were marvelous until we reached the top, where we were suddenly enveloped in thick fog. There is an old American bunker up there, but as it was impossible to see we just had a victory coffee and headed down the other side.
The fog continued most of the way down the descent and it remained overcast from then on. We had read that the hills crossed by the Hai Van Pass do create cloudy, drizzly weather to the North but weren't expecting quite such a stark effect. It did make the lagoons and fishing villages along the way rather atmospheric. We had a further 70km to go after the descent, a long ride after a steep climb, so by the time we arrived in Hue we were well and truly knackered.
- Kath
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| Victory coffee - Hai Van Pass |
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Elevation map of the 145km from Hoi An to Hue |
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