We flew to Vietnam at the end of November, just before our 90-day Australian visa expired. We have never been here before and it is popular for many reasons – friendly people, delicious fresh food, good internet connections, safe place to travel, and relatively inexpensive. We don’t know how long we will stay – but it is a great new place for us to explore!
Our plan is to get used to the country and allow Hubby to focus on his work by staying in one town, Hoi An, on the central coast for two weeks. We chose to stay in two places for one-week each. The 10-hour time difference with Arizona makes it so he can connect with his colleagues and students in our early morning and in their late afternoon.
We started close to the UNESCO Heritage old town of Hoi An and stayed in a small hotel on an “island” surrounded by rice paddies. It was a great retreat from the busy-ness of town where there is nonstop motor scooter traffic and lots of people everywhere.
There are narrow cement roads that connect the rice paddies to each other and to town. My favorite thing to do was birdwatch along the rice paddies in the mornings.
You can tell these paths are not meant for cars, though our hotel was close to town so cars could get in and out the shorter road – but not pass each other! Most folks (over 90%) travel by motor scooters though – including the postman, trash pickup, delivery services, etc. Scooters had trailer attachments hauling long loads of wood, pipes and rebar!
The “sidewalks” are obstacles to navigate as they serve as parking lots for cars, bikes and scooters, as well as sites for people to pile garbage, burn garbage when it was dry, weld metal together, cook meals and as sidewalk cafés. Sidewalks are NOT meant for walking so the few people that walked (mostly tourists) end up on the sides of the streets. Because of the traffic flow it is customary to just walk on the same side as all the other traffic. Pretty crazy at first – but I’m getting used to it.
Hoi An has a lantern festival every full moon, and we were lucky to be here for it. The festival dates to the 16th and 17th centuries, when Hoi An was a lively port and trading post. The Chinese and Japanese who settled in Hoi An brought lanterns and hung them in front of their door as a reminder of their homelands, and all the stores today are required to have lanterns. You can buy lanterns everywhere, take a boat ride and float your own lantern on the river, or just enjoy the spectacle of an electricity free night. It is pretty and marvelous!
If you miss the full moon festival, you can still enjoy the lantern-filled city and the boat rides every other day as well! But you will miss the alters that people put out in front of their homes to honor and feed their ancestors. Here is the alter at our hotel. You can see our hotelier working into the night in the background.
We have had a lot of rain though the rainy season should be nearing an end. Darrell caught a cold and was trying to get a lot of work done so he didn’t get out as much as I did – but I walked in rain or sun to see the sights.
One popular tourist activity is to go out in the round basket boats that have a long history in Vietnam. This article has more information on these unique boats. The boatmen and women can make the baskets spin – causing lots of tourist fun, though I haven't tried it myself.
I’ve been impressed by the incredibly industrious Vietnamese people. Honestly, everyone seems busy doing whatever they can do to make a living and still be friendly!
Yesterday, we moved to a beachside homestay for our second week in Hoi An. More adventures to follow!
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