Hoi An

Hoi An is a beautiful little city about 30 minutes south of Da Nang.  It has a lovely Old Town that has been very well maintained.  Because of this, it is a major tourist stop in Vietnam, and because of the small size of the town, the influence of tourism is felt everywhere.  Caryl started to refer to Hoi An as Disney Vietnamland, which is pretty accurate.  All the streets of the Old Town are lined with tourist shops, tailors offering to make dresses and suits, and lots and lots of restaurants.  The food in these restaurants is pretty good, though bland and not at all spicy, and also overpriced.  BUT, the location and view is worth it - I especially enjoyed eating on the second floor terraces overlooking the river (which is spotted with boats waiting to give hour long tours).  Hoi An is a city where every westerner can feel at home and have access to all the usual amenities and services that are needed while traveling - laundry on every corner, souvenirs, tour guides.  However, it lacks some of the authentic flavor of other Vietnamese cities we have visited, and it's probably not a very accurate reflection of the country.  Nevertheless, we stayed 4 nights here in a nice hotel, I had some shorts tailor made (for about $10), and we went on a tour of My Son, the ancient Cham Pa ruins (more on this in my next post).  So, we took full advantage of all the city had to offer.

We were also lucky to arrive during the full moon and therefore we had the opportunity to experience the full moon light festival - locals were selling lanterns (for $1) that tourists could float down the river.  The Old Town transformed into a carnival with food sellers, lights, and lots and lots of people.

Pictures 1-7: Full Moon Festival.
Picture 8: Japanese covered bridge that used to connect the Japanese and Chinese parts of town in the 16th century.
Picture 9: Inside the bridge are four statues - two dogs and two monkeys.  The bridge was started in the year of the monkey and finished in the year of the dog. 
Picture 10: Streets of Hoi An at night.
Picture 11: Cam Pho Temple.
Picture 12-22: The next day we took a ferry to Cam Nam island, a more authentic island where locals grow crops and make boats and wooden handicrafts.  We walked the length of the island and every time we passed a cow, it would moo at us and try to approach us.  They were very curious about us, as few people walk; everyone rides mopeds.  Unfortunately, we were not adventurous enough to venture out into the rice fields to pet the cows (though I really wanted to).  At one point, we saw some cows in a vegetable garden - soon afterwards, a woman ran into the garden with a spade chasing the cows out of her crops.  In picture 19 you can see one of the cows jumping over the ditch to get away from her.  We also passed a cemetery and a moped gas station (picture 16) on the way.
Picture 23: Back in Hoi An, a view of the river from our restaurant terrace.