18 to 20 September 2007. Hoi An is a small town with MANY tourists, but never the less, it has a special atmosphere about it. It is situated south from Hue, just about 4km from the sea. We stayed in the Dai Long Hotel (nothing special and exceptionally noisy) juts about 300 meters away from the mid-town filled with markets.
Hoi An basically has three types of shops (millions of each, it seems); Tailors, Restaurants and Souvenir shops. The town is especially well known for its tailors and you can get a tailor made suit within 24 hours of ordering. So we were out on a mission to try this.
Eon ended up buying a fancy tailored slim-fit black suit for about R400 and I got two pairs of trousers for about R130 each (tailor-made, so they fit perfectly!). Now let’s hope that we do not gain too much weight during the trip. At the market Eon also bought a nice Vietnamese t-shirt for about R10!
We had a fabulous dinner at Phoung Phuc - BBQ Snapper in banana leaf (Fish smothered in butter, lime juice and very thinly sliced and crispy fried onion, garlic and spring onion all wrapped in banana leaf and grilled on the BBQ). It is out of this world! And the second night I had crab, a first for me, and the amount of sauce covering my hands and face was a definite indication of how much I enjoyed it! The seafood here is the most expensive items on the menu, still the crab cost only R35 for two huge ones. Okay, enough about the food!
On our second day in Hoi An (20 September - Melindi’s birthday - happy, happy!), we went on a morning outing to My Son (pronounced Me San). A taxi picked us up at 5am and drove us out of town, about 45km west of Hoi An. The tour included breakfast, which turned out to be a yucky sandwich and water. Regardless of how put off I was with the breakfast, My Son definitely made up for it.
My Son is a collection of ruins from the Champa clans, dating back to the third century. I have not yet seen Angkor Wat, but apparently this place is a miniature replica of it. I was stunned at the sheer beauty of these ancient buildings and the history behind it. It is such a pity that the majority of the buildings were destroyed by USA bombings during the war. Have a look at our pictures.
We returned from My Son at about 9:30, had a shower, checked out of the hotel and went for our tailor fittings (I think I now have an idea what movie stars must feel like!). Then we went to Shree Ganesh’s, an Indian restaurant in Vietnam! WOW! This was even better than the Indian food we’ve had in South Africa. I can really recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting Hoi An.
To end the day off, we got onto the bus to Nha Trang. This was probably the worst bus ride of my entire life! Not only was it from 18:00 to 6:00, but it also had the most uncomfortable seats ever! They stuffed us into the back of the stinky, noisy bus, stopping every few kilometres to pick up or drop off some locals. Sleeping positions while sitting upright with no legroom are actually quite limited! My butt might just be slightly flatter after this ordeal!
Have a look at the photos from Hoi An and My Son by clicking on the image below, finally got the sizes a bit bigger!