Hue to Hoi An

When we arrived in Hue the rain was coming down heavily and other than taking a stroll we didn‘t really went out much for the first day. For the next day we booked the „DMZ tour“ (the Demilitairylized zone) which took us around the 17th latitude (Ben Hai River to be exact) which divided North and South Vietnam for a period. A militairy-free zone was installed up to 5 km from the border in each direction. Unfortunately the American-Vietnam war violated the DMZ heavily and warfare and bombing accured all around between the mid-sixties to begin of the seventies, until the North Vietnamese Army claimed the region to be theirs. We had a look at several outposts of the US Army, Khe Sanh for example, which was heavily bombarded for a week and we visited some „Vietcong“ tunnels – actually it was villagers who seeked shelter there. It was all very small but as a small person you could stand upright and walk through to the exit at the seaside. Wind and rain were still quite ruff though. Additionally, we saw where the infamous Ho-Chi-Minh trail was, but today it is a normal road.
The next morning we got up early again to take a tour of the temples and royal tombs of old Emperor capital Hue. We went by Dragon boat to a typical traditional garden house (where a family lives). In front of the house was a small wall and a pond which were against spirits who wanted to enter the house. We were told that spirits can only go straight forward and are not able to hop over a wall. Also they have no shadow and therefore cannot go over water or face mirrors and so it‘s impossible for them to enter the house. The house contained a Buddhist altar and was made of fine carved dark wood.
Next we went to the Tien Mu pagoda (where I had been on my trip 2 years ago). There is a small pagoda tower that greets you at the entrance and then a garden with a temple. Monks live here and one of them drove his car to Saigon during the wartime and set fire to himself. The photo of him burning (with the car in the back ground) went around the world. The car is preserved in this temple complex.
After we went on by boat to another small temple, which we skipped. But next to us a procession of yellow and orange dressed monks went up the stairs to offer something at the temple. Now we switched the boat for an old bus and drove through the shrub-clashed surroundings to several tombs of former Vietnamese Emperors. First was Minh Mang tomb, which was a bit broken down in places but very beautifully situated next to ponds and gardens. The guide told us that this site has been looked for for 10 years! Building took another couple of years and then the Emperor died (in time). To make sure that no grave robbers could demolish his actual grave, the men who buried him were killed afterwards to make sure that nobody knew where it exactly was.
Next was Khai Dinh tomb, situated on a hill, so we had to walk a lot of steps to get to the top building. This Emperor made sure that verybody could see his grave. The whole decoration of the building was fantastic. Old broken China was used to create new images of dragons and birds and flowers everywhere.
After this we skipped the next one, Tu Duc tomb, because it was under construction and instead had a sugar cane drink and a coffee in front. When returning to town, Tina made a detour to the Citadel which I had already seen two years ago and I went eating with an English couple to Hanh Cafe, where we tasted several dishes, one of them being a spring roll we had to roll for ourselves. Delicious!
Next day we took a 4-hour-bus to Hoi An and had both a chat with two elderly French men of 70 and 80 years who could only speak French and who took a 3-months-tour through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. I asked them what their family thought and Momo answered: “They think we’re crazy.“ I liked that!
We were picked up at the muddy bus station by our host and his co-worker with scooters. So big backpack up front between the driver‘s legs, me behind with my small backpack. Very much fun! We stayed at Tue Tam homestay, so the family lives there and we have an extra room (excellent and very modern by local standards). So we walked a little to town and through the city center, had a drink or two and walked back, enjoying the very quiet streets and the possibility to watch people sitting in their homes, having the scooters inside next to the TV and keeping all doors and windows open even though it is a bit chilly.


The next morning we got two free bikes from our landlord and cycled to his sister’s tailor shop. I was a bit sceptical, whether this shop was the best choice (out of 500 in Hoi An), but it was and it was also recommended by trip advisor. Tina had made typical Vietnamese trousers (although not of silk) and a silky top, Chinese style – both very nice looking. I wanted two copies: my beige skirt, which colour I had never really liked, but the cut was special, so I had it remade in dark blue. And my Arabian style trousers now came in petrol blue. Both made for a total of 75$ and I am quite happy! I could have made lots of more clothes, but with the long journey ahead it would be foolish to carry them around. We had to came back twice for a refitting, but they we actually very fast: in the first evening everything was almost finshed. While Tina had them take her measures I spotted two people in front of the shop: Clio and Calum from our dragon boat tour in Hue. Hoi An is actually quite small but it was still luck to run into them like that. So we had a spontanious and fun lunch together and in the evening we met at the old Japanese bridge, walked a little around and had dinner at the Green Lanterns, with a nice view over the lampion-lit river. In between Tina and I rode the bikes to a beach a few km out of town. It was cool passing the rice paddies, seeing cows standing in the fields and just enjoy cycling. We were overtaken by lots of scooters, which make the cyclists feel a bit jealous.. When we came to the beach there was a man shouting at us to park our bikes at his parking lot and of course pay for it. No way. Thanks a lot, but we don’t pay for parking a bike and not at all to somebody who shouts. So we got back 200m and parked them at a tiny bakery hut, had some cake and coffee and then walked to the beach. It was so stormy that we couldn’t enjoy sitting there much. But it was fascinating to watch the waves though. Now we had to be quite quick to not forget the fitting and be in time at the Japanese bridge. After dinner Tina and I bought some red tiger balm on the night market, had a look at a lot of kitsch that is being sold for the tourists (figurines of Vietnamesegirls carrying a water jug, coconut bowls and of course as it is typical for Hoi An: lampions of every size and colour.
The next morning we had a cooking class with the wife of our host, Yung. We went to the local market where you clearly could see the difference to the city center market where tourists are harrassed with „wanna buy, wanna buy“. We took a few photos and could ask some questions, e.g. Yung explained what kinds of fruits and vegetables there were. There are a lot that we in Europe have never even heard of… I also bought some dry ginger candys with her help. Then we went home and started cooking. Tina and I did our best to chop and rasp the vegetables into small pieces, while Yung cut thorugh the rice paper, started boiling oil and preparke rice pancakes. When the vegetable filling (today was the start of a traditional Buddhist week, so no meat!) was ready, we did our best to roll the filling into rice paper, so that it looked like spring rolls in every possible form and size… Then they were put into the hot oil and fried. Meanwhile the rice pancakes were also ready and we had a delicious meal. Outside there was a heavy rain shower, so we got into our room and took a welcome nap. In the afternoon we went into town again and saw a traditonal house, about 300 years old with traditional Chinese and Vietnamese architecture. Then we saw the two most beautiful temples in town. Hoi An had formerly been the biggest trading harbour in South Vietnam, so different nations had set up assembly halls, temples etc. After visiting we booked a bus ticket „open tour“ from Hoi An (via Nha Trang and Mui Ne) to Saigon from a lady in town. When we told our host he was quite pissed about it, because he would have liked to sell us tickets himself.That of course we didn’t know, he could have mentioned it, so I just thought, let him be. His wife kept being perfectly nice though. The next morning the rain was coming down heavily. We checked out, left our luggage as the bus to Nha Trang was picking us up at 5 pm, and cycled once more to town wearing our fantastic rain coats from Hue. We took a look at the famous Papaya shop who make funny Vietnamese style tshirts and postcards, went to the cafe „Reaching Out“, where deaf and mute young people work. They had lovely tea, coffee and cookies and beautiful chinaware. We enjoyed staying there very much. Afterwards we payed their craft center a visit and I was tempted to buy a cup with a neat metal firefly around it, but when I saw the price of 25$ I was not so tempted anymore. Finally we went to the market to buy some snacks for our trip and visited the cultural center to watch some traditional Vietnamese dancing and music. At 5 pm we were picked up by Xe Om (scooter, sitting behind the driver) and were carried to the bus station to get onto our night bus to Nha Trang, which would take over 12 hours… The night was long and I didn’t sleep much. I knew that the drivers all go to fast, overtake anyone anywhere, but I didn’t reckon that almost ALL of the roads were being renewed (=bad street conditon), so that the bus was rocking up and down and left and right like mad!




Hue:

Hoi An: