7. HOI AN, THE QUIET TOWN

Hi friends. We have had some help from our friensd at Blogsy regarding our photo uploading problem and .... We are back in business. Photos are in...

Cocktails in Hoi An anyone?

I know, same map as last time... But if your like me, you don't know where Hoi An is... Now we do...

HUNDREDS OF YEARS OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND STILL GOING STRONG; Somehow Hoi An (pronounced hoi an. :) ) largely escaped the destruction of successive wars. Its Ancient Town is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a South-East Asian trading port dating from the 15th to the 19th century. The architecture is a blend of traditional Vietnamese, Chinese courtyard shop houses and some Japanese. Everyone came here, Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Indian, Filipino, Indonesian, Thai, French, British and American ships came to purchase high-grade silk, fabrics, paper, porcelain, tea, sugar, molasses, nuts, pepper, Chinese medicines, elephant tusks, beeswax, mother-of-pearl, lacquer, sulphur and lead. Today, international trade is still strong here as every street in Ancient Town is lined with shops of every kind, mostly catering to the tourist; souvenir, hotels, restaurants, bars, tailors, and cobblers (though the locals call shoe makers tailors too). You can get a good Vietnamese meal or pizza and a local beer, for two, for around $8 to $10. The majority of tourists are, you guessed it, Australians which may explain why we often hear a strange Aussie twang when the locals speak English. Bizarre...

Our new home... The biggest bed we have ever seen. The hotel was ok, room was spacious, the plumbing was passable, the electrics were pathetic and the Wi-Fi should be called Why-Try. But we were comfortable.

Lantern town

Typical street

The river

More bonsais in this country than we have ever seen any where else

Leafy streets

Traditional architecture

Someone needs a shave

Japanese bridge

THE QUIET TOWN; According to our LonleyPlannet, Hoi An is a "quiet town". Well in comparison to the larger cities, this is true. It is a small town with an Ancient Town at it's heart. The streets are easy to navigate and cross. The ancient town has narrow streets where cars cannot travel and is exclusively traditional architecture. Just pedestrians, bicycles, and of course, beeping motorbikes. Much quieter than everywhere else we have been.... But for 2 little things. Our stay coincided with 2 festivals.

NUMBER 1. THE FESTIVAL OF CHILDREN (OR DRAGONS N DRUMS); Everyone knows that boys like noise, so imagine a Festival of Children were they are encouraged to walk around town in packs, rhythmically beating a drum and cymbals as a writhing silk silk dragon bobs and weaves its way trough the crowd seeking cash.... For the entire duration of our 5 night stay in Hoi An the children's festival filled the streets. It's amazing how popular the old dragon has made himself (Rev 20:2). In the evening there must be 2 dozen dragon troupes moving through the narrow choked streets beating their drums and venturing into restaurants to swallow money from tourists. The favorite performing place is in the middle of a T-intersection so as to totally stop the traffic. From late afternoon until around 11pm the dragns persisted. Even in our hotel room we felt like Quazymoto; "the drums, the drums". On the positive side, it's a very colourful cultural spectical and locals and tourists just love it. They cannot get enough of the drumming and the boys are very good at keeping a rythm.... for hours on end... On the other hand, we seriously contemplated taking up a spot of dragon slaying...

Every boy in town let on the loose with a dragon costume and the drums... The drums...

Our old friend the dragon misleading the entire town

The drums, the drums...

NUMBER 2. THE FULL MOON FESTIVAL (OF THE FESTIVAL OF SPIRITS OF PEOPLE WHO DIED IN THE RIVER OR SEA); Every full moon the town has a festival. All the lights along the river are turned off as people go down to the river to to release paper boats with candles. Something about freeing the spirits of the dead if we understood the people we spoke to... That dragon really gets in doesn't he... Despite suspecting there was some Babylonising overtone (every every custom here seems to be religious), we set out in the evening to walk from our hotel to the river to see what all the fuss was about. The"quiet streets" we're a cacophony of noisy happy Vietnamese and tourists (mostly locals though), cars and motorbikes. We have never never seen such a traffic jam. The narrow streets of the tiny Ancient Town was literally (one of my pet hates is the way people misuse the word literally, so I literally only use it literally) literally jamed with thousands of people, some in cars, many on motorbikes, and many more on foot (including us). Picture the scene (i don't think I can describe it properly). The footpath is packed tight with parked scooters and motorbikes, there is nowhere else to go but the road. Honking cars are completely stopped, beebing growling motorbikes (with red hot mufflers) are tightly packed into every space between the cars and thousands (literally) of people are jamed into the spaces remaining. When it comes to driving side,there is no right or wrong side of the road at the best of times so the sheathing mass is attempting traveling in more than 2 directions, to and from the river... And we are right in the middle of it...oh, and it's pouring with tropical rain and our feet are submerged in black water... We have never experienced such chaos. But everyone is joyful. They love it, why wouldn't they? If they didn't they wouldn't come. Throw in a few dragons n drums and you have everything you need to make a Hoi Anan happy. We stayed close together for fear of being separated and eventually extracted ourselves. Down at the river it was a bit of a washout anyway.... But you had to go to see what all the fuss was about.