Vietnam seems to offer a pretty amazing bus system called “Open Tours” for budget style travelers. We have been lurking between budget and mid range our whole trip but given a chance to save money and travel in comfort, we are the first to sign up. We had heard about the sleeper buses which, just as it sounds, provides overnight travel in comfortable air conditioned busses loaded with separate births for each person to stretch out in. Climbing aboard the initial impression was very futuristic. We met our newly adopted child, Paul Stagg from Australia, in Dalat and she joined us for our sleeper bus trip up to Hoi An. She is a mere 27 yrs young and incredibly patient to hang with us much older folk and much younger folk. As a group of five, we were given the back upper shelf of berths where we could enjoy the full effect of our crazy driver and every pot hole he hit by smashing up towards the ceiling. Janet ended up with the berth sans foot box so with every brake, she felt like she was going to catapult down the aisle and out the front window. Fortunately we had had another bus ride and a couple of days to get to know Paula a bit before we were crammed side by side in the sleeper bus. It was actually a pretty uneventful trip, just lots of fuel for fodder as we got settled. Unfortunately the passengers were at the mercy of the bus driver’s pit stops for the toilet. There is a toilet on board BUT there are strict instructions not to use it. The pit stops were some of the worst we’d seen in 5 months, but the “yuck” factor was somewhat numbed by being so sleepy. Secretly I was glad we were not allowed to use the toilet on the bus!
We arrived in Hoi An at the back of a hotel called Grasslands at 6:30am. The staff was instantly on us to book our stay with the hotel. Ever skeptical, we wanted to look around to make sure it was the right place for us. We had heard such amazing things about Hoi An, we wanted to make sure we were in the right spot, good price and well located. They wore us down (remember it was 6:30am) so we committed to one night mostly so we did not have to lug our packs around while we looked elsewhere. Well they lied like rugs. A 10 minute walk to old Hoi An was actually about 20 minutes down a dusty road. The beauty of Hoi An is the old town and being right in the middle of all the action, don’t compromise this if you ever get there. We found an amazing breakfast, booked another hotel and skulked back to back-peddle out of our one night. They were definitely not happy. It took some major body language (and 100,000 Dong) for us to get our passports back.
I can’t recommend the hotel we ended up at (The Serene III) because it looks like they may have charged us double for our stay…but that’s another story, one that is as of yet unsolved and
in the hands of VISA. We loved Hoi An. For every bit of character lacking in Dalat, Hoi An was packed with it. The French influence has resulted in beautiful fusion colonial architecture which has been incredibly preserved. And the food is to die for. The old town is absolutely packed with good restaurants and food/drink; Cargo (don’t leave without the chocolate truffle cake), Café 19 (we ate there twice), Café 29 (cooking classes?), the market tables, pints of “fresh” beer for 4,000 Dong or about 25 cents and much more.
We rented bicycles and checked out the beach which is only a 4 km ride away. We dodged the forced bike parking and routed around the village to find our own entrance on to a deserted section of the beach where we found some guys to play Frisbee with and good surf to bob around in. Ron and I bought tickets for the old town tour which was a bit of a snore but the highlight was a peek inside the Diep Dong Nguyen House, still home for the sixth generation of a local family who give you a tour of their home themselves. Most incredible though was the record of the annual flood levels on the wall in the old home, with September ’09 being the most recent record holder at more than 9 feet. Apparently those living and doing business within the flood area from the river in the old town have to take everything upstairs during the annual flood season and are usually marooned up there for 3-5 days when the river is at full height.
Of course the main attraction in Hoi An is the tailors! We heard the buzz about the tailors for weeks before arriving. There are apparently more than 200 tailors in this tiny old town. Tailors will make a copy of anything you want using a photo, sample or sketch as their guide. We, like most others, got caught up in the frenzy. So if Ron needs to don a suit over the next 10 years or so, he won’t have to call Rich Pestes and borrow one. The girls got silk P.J.’s made and Janet even participated too by getting a wool coat sewn up. Trips to the tailor took some time each day between measuring and numerous fittings. Hoi An is filled with normally scruffy travelers who are suddenly all spruced up in their new wardrobes. There are also many, many shops making shoes to order. As with most things, you definitely get what you pay for. We were given the heads up our niece Charlotte to use Yali’s for tailoring. Our friend Paula happened to have the same recommendation from someone else. They are not the cheapest but the quality is good. Ron of course had to test the theory and suss out a few shirts made at a cheaper location…but they are not nearly as good.
Having a new friend and a nice balcony off our spacious hotel room gave us all the encouragement we needed to buy a bottle of gin and have cocktails. We invited Paula and her friend over for gin and tonics feeling like we were doing something actually “normal” from our previous life. Ron even put out peanuts in little bowls and the girls brought over Oreos. Being from Australia, Paula had never tried them and was curious.
We are still enjoying our $1 pedicures Sadie, Anna & I got in the local market. We also had a wonderful evening out on the river for the Full Moon Festival drifting amongst the candle lit lanterns and steered by one of the most classic Vietnamese characters we had seen.
Our biggest cultural endeavor was a trip out to see My Son, ancient ruins from the Cham Dynasty. Never the ones to willingly join a tour bus if we don’t have to…we rented motorbikes but this time we also rented a guide to accompany us. The driving was fine, but the directions would have taken a lot of energy…it was nice to just follow. Turns out the “guide” was really just guiding us to the site and knew next to nothing about the ruins. We relied on our Lonely Planet guide to educate us (always a bit sketchy) and occasionally eavesdropped on other tour groups. It is a ruins site, in ruins. The ruins are the remnants of the religious and intellectual centre for the Kingdom of Champa. Sadly the Viet Kong used the area as a base during the American War and it was heavily bombed. The bomb craters are all still there. It is amazing there is anything left at all, especially once you learn the Champa did not use mortar while building with bricks. My Son is billed as Vietnam’s Angkor Wat, but I would beg to differ. It was interesting…but did not really grab our attention for long. Avoid the crowds and go early, the best time is apparently sunrise however we didn’t make it there that early. The best part for us was the setting and the drive there and back! Our guide took a detour on the way home, down a bank and weaved his way through a small neighbourhood and rice patties. Whoo Hoo!
Overnight trains were all booked and we weren’t up for the 18 hours bus journey from Hoi An to Hanoi. Fortunately air travel is often cheap in Vietnam, so we took advantage of a $35 pp. seat sale from Jet Star.
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