Today’s adventures started with a walking tour of Old Town in Hoi An. You need to buy a ticket to enter but you can go back as often as you like. It is sometimes referred to as Ancient Town and there are many old building and land marks such as this 18th Century wooden Japanese bridgefeatured on the 2000 dong note.
The streets are bright and colourful and closed to motor bikes from 9am – 11am which makes it easier to explore. This was one of my favourite places because you could explore without fearing for you life while dodging traffic. The streets were full of cafes and restarants as well as shops selling bags, clothes and souveniers.
Many locals were taking advantage of the quiet streets as well as the pituresque setting for photo shoots. It is customary for Vietnamese couples to have a wedding shoot done prior to the wedding day and then display the photos in their family homes on the day of the wedding. Often the bridge and groom’s family members will not have met each other and the bridge and groom’s families do not gather together in one place on the wedding day. They visit each of their family homes where the locals from their village come and bring gifts and eat with the family to celebrate before the bride and groom return to the groom’s home to begin their married life together.
Nguyenn took us to the Hai Cafe that is renowed for its coconut coffee. It’s like an iced coffee but with coconut flavour. I don’t drink coffee so had coconut iced chocolate instead which was also delicious. Coffee is a big part of the Vietnamese culture.
After our morning coffee and a bit more of a wander throughout Old Town we made our way back towards the water to explore the food markets. As the lunar new year was approaching there were many flower stalls for locals to purchase decorations for their home in preparation for the celebration. There was a wide variety of fresh fruit and vegetables as well as seafood and meat which is where the locals purchase their requirements daily. In the photos below you will notice an older lady wearing a hat and a purple scalf. Her teeth and lips are stained red. This is from chewing betel nut which many of the older generation do. It is a psychoative drug and produces effects such as alertness and increased stamina which may be why she is still able to go to work every day at her advanced age.
As we walked around Old Town we of course came across a Temple to explore. The intricate details are so beautiful and make each temple unique.
One more temple explore. This time we were interested to see the flood level marker in the grounds. It showed the height of the water that flows through the town’s streets and buildings most years.
We had a final look around noticing all the details such as the plants growing in every possible space including the roof tops. Checked out a local photo club’s shop and then as they began opening the streets once again for traffic we headed back to our hotel for a rest before our afternoon jeep tour and boat cruise.
After a rest and some down time at the hotel we were picked up for a jeep tour to look at the nearby countryside and wild life. We headed off with the promise of seeing water buffalo and some rice fields. Well we did see some rice fileds and some water buffalo in the far distance but we got held up a bit by our two jeeps having to reverse for quite a long way along a narrow stretch of road between the rice fields to let some locals get through. We had to reverse all the way back to the previous cross road which took quite a while and we just missed the water buffalo and only got a distant glimpse. The jeep ride was a bit of fun but it wasn’t really a highlight of the trip as we saw most of the same scenery the next day as we headed out of town for Hue. The jeep tour dropped us at our next activity which was the sunset cruise.
Our sunset river cruise with cocktails and hor d’oeuvres was a lovely relaxed trip along the Thu Bon river past Day Hua fishing village. The cloud meant the sunset was a no show but the food and the company delightful along with the scenery. The cruise ended at Nguyen Hoang Pier.
After arriving at Nguyen Hoang Pier were were delighted for find ourselves in the night markets. The atmosphere was festive and as we had only had hor d’oeuvres on the boat we were tempted by the fresh lobster on the grill. It’s cost us 500000 for two freshly cooked lobsters with green onion. About $35 Australian. As well as the delicous seafood cooking on grills all around us there were some things less tempting such as the frogs and quail on sticks. After a big day of adventure we headed back to our hotel to pack ready for our next leg of our journey through the amazing Vietname.
Hello
I love your posts of Vietnam and I adore your photos of you and your family. I have 19yr old boy/girl twins who are both talented in music (trumpet and violin) and sports (baseball and soccer). My daughter introduced me to 5SOS and I love their music. What I love most is your close relationship with your family. Thank you for sharing your life with fans of your son and fans of you as a mom.