Two extremes

We arrived in Hoi An late last night – after a cancelled flight, and further flight delays. Frustrating, but completely beyond our control.

Today was stinking hot. The hottest it has been so far. Combined with blue skies for the first time in ages – it was simply a matter of trying to stay out of the sun as much as possible whilst catching as many sights as possible. Despite the heat, we started with an egg coffee – these things are getting quite addictive… wonder if I could convince Wellington baristas to give it a try???

Hoi An is very clean, there is almost no sign of rubbish, the streets are pristine, and there is concrete in places that there would be dirt and holes in the ground in other cities and towns. It is almost too clean – and seems a bit devoid of personality. Nevertheless it is a very pretty place. There has been a lot of effort in restoring old buildings – and obvious UNESCO funding.

There are a series of 22 tourist attractions that you have to buy a ticket for – but you only get to choose 5 sites to visit. It is a bit of a strange set up, but we selected three sites in amongst all of the perfect shops selling the same stuff – but most of the wares on display here are higher quality items than the plastic gimmicks of elsewhere. We visited an old house – but were dominated by a couple of large tour groups – so that didn’t last long. A folklore museum in an old building was very well done and much more enjoyable, but the people there were peddling various items for sale (silk scarves, paintings on handmade paper) which just seemed a bit odd. One minute you are getting a demonstration of how people used to harvest silk, the next you are being encouraged to buy scarves – all in a supposed museum. Anyway, this one was hands down a better visit than the old house. We also went through an Assembly Hall, Phuoc Kien. It had a very elaborate open space, followed by successive spaces of assembly and a couple of temples – all accessed through each other.

Time for lunch – and we chose a magnificent (and pricey) spot to enjoy a breather from the heat. I think it is quite telling when the wifi password for a place is “tripadvisor”!!! However the service was exceptional, and so was the food, so no complaints from us.

Dark clouds on the horizon

We continued for a bit, then succumbed to the heat and caught a taxi back to the hotel to spend some time cooling off in the pool. Today must be changeover day at the hotel, as there is almost nobody here. We didn’t care – as that meant we practically had the pool to ourselves. Once we’d cooled down enough, we ventured in to the old town again and picked up a few bargains. We could see a large and very black cloud on the horizon, so again went back to the hotel. And then the storm hit. It lasted for over an hour – absolutely bucketing down, with thunder and lightning thrown in for good measure. At least that gave us time to catch up on the finances and to have a bit of down time.

The night markets in the old town were super crowded – this is nowhere near how the day started here. Fancy a quick walk through the markets with us? Feel free to watch along…