We
caught the 17:40 sleeper train from Binh Thuan/Mui Ne to Da Nang/Hoi An. There are two-person couchettes on Vietnamese sleeper trains, but none was available for this journey. Nonetheless, we had the compartment all to
ourselves until around Midnight, when we were joined—miraculously, almost silently—by
a couple from France, who took the top berths.
FEBRUARY 20
On awakening we started a conversation with our compartment mates. The woman spoke English and said she was a widow who had been married to a Vietnamese man she met in France. The man, her second husband, spoke no English but was originally from Italy, so we conversed in Italian. They were full of suggestions and assured us we would love Hoi An.
We arrived at the station in Da Nang at 9:12--right on schedule--and shared a cab into the town, which took us through Da Nang, site of the airbase built by the French and used by the US and South Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. Images of frantic refugees rushing to jump onto the wings of planes landing and taking off, we decided not to visit.
Hoi An is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and we were anxious to see it. Famous for its French colonial architecture and silk lanterns that illuminate the town by night, we had booked the Evening Lantern Walking Tour offered through Guru. These tours are interesting in that there is
no set fee; you pay what you think the tour was worth. Our guide, Huyen, was born and lives in Hoi An and knows the city as only a native can. We met her and the five others (three Germans, one Italian, and one Pole) in our small group at 5 p.m. We all bought tickets to enter the Old Quarter, which entitled us to visit five of the many sites.
Our first stop was Quan Cong Temple, built in 1653. From Vinpearl:
Quan Cong Temple, also known as Ong Pagoda, was established in 1653 by Chinese immigrants in Hoi An. The temple is a place of worship devoted to Quan Cong, a talented Chinese military general and a martial master. Honored as a God of War, Quan Cong is worshiped around East Asia as a symbol of loyalty, bravery, integrity, and justice. Legend has it that Chinese merchants came to Quan Cong Temple to sign contracts for loans because no one had the audacity to commit fraud in the presence of the deity.
We got our first up-close look at lanterns, both painted and embroidered, inside the temple.
The wood work, like this screen, was exceptional.
Tracing Chinese history back to 1649,
the Qing dynasty won a pivotal war against the Ming government. After the Ming
Dynasty collapsed, many Fujian families migrated to Southeast Asia, including
Vietnam. Lord Nguyen, the ruler of Inner Realm (Central and Southern Vietnam),
allowed them to settle in Hoi An and erect Minh Huong Village. There, they
established the Fujian Assembly Hall to serve the fellow community – the
largest concentration of Chinese was in Hoi An at the time.
Huyen then took us to the covered market, which was getting ready to close for the day at around 7 p.m.
From the market we followed Huyen to Quan Thang Ancient House. The sun had set and the streets were aglow by the light of hundreds of lanterns.
Quan Thang Ancient House was built in the late 17th C. by a Chinese merchant. Made of wood with stone floors, it is a single-story building divided into three areas: one for habitation, one for commerce, and one for ancestor worship--the latter forming an atrium which keeps the house cooler in summer and warmer in winter.
The atrium (below) has an altar with a shallow basin decorated with broken pieces of Chinese pottery. As we would discover in Hue and also in Thailand, this was a common mode of decorating structures, both inside and out. Pottery was shipped from China to Vietnam (and Thailand), where it was broken up, and the pieces were cemented into place, creating organic and geometric design motifs and introducing color into the architecture. Gaudí used this technique in Parc Güell.
The tour ended at the Japanese Bridge, also built in the 17th C. and repeatedly damaged by severe flooding over the centuries. It has been slated for reconstruction for over 20 years now, but as the local architectural historians cannot seem to agree on how it should be restored, it remains closed and sheathed in scaffolding and tarps. This Vinpearl website photo shows what the covered bridge used to look like.
Full of beauty but empty of food, we sought out a place for Com Ga Hoi An, a stewed chicken and rice dish with greens and sprouts--and the ubiquitous chili condiment. Deceptively simple, it was full of rich flavor.
FEBRUARY 21
We decided on a savory breakfast of Cao Lau Hoi An, a pork and noodle specialty Tony recommended. His description of where the best Cao Lau in all of Hoi An could be found took us back to the covered market we'd visited the previous evening. It wasn't easy to find the food stall where he ate, but find it we did. We sat on a bench at the counter and watched the owner prepare our dish.
She served it with some kind of crunchy crackers--or pork rind, maybe? Whatever they were, they were an inspired addition that gave the dish a really interesting texture.
We retraced our steps from the evening lantern tour to find the Cantonese Assembly Hall, located near the Japanese Bridge. Built in 1885, according to Vinpearl:
This hall had a fascinating construction procedure because each component was made in China, then transported by boat to Hoi An and assembled all together.
Cantonese Assembly Hall was made primarily of stone and wood in the shape of 囯 (meaning "nation"). It's a closed campus with a three-door gate entrance, a large garden with bonsai trees, a communal temple, a main hall, and a backyard; a common feature found in every assembly hall in Hoi An.
The backyard had a massive ceramic sculpture of a carp jumping over the dragon gate, a Chinese legend. You can see the broken pottery used as decoration.
The Old Quarter is full of multistory wooden houses from the 18th C. built with internal walkways around atria, like Phung Hung House, inspired by Japanese architecture, introduced to Hoi An by traders.
On our way to lunch at Tony's Banh Mi joint, we passed more examples of 19th C. French colonial architecture like this stuccoed house festooned with lanterns and painted the traditional ocher color.
Banh Mi Phuong was packed with locals and tourists when we arrived.
Part of the challenge of our trip to Southeast Asia involved finding cool cocktail bars. Our helpful hotel concierge recommended a rooftop bar along the river where we could observe the ebb and flow of Hoi An by night. It did not disappoint.
FEBRUARY 22
My husband wanted a sweet, rather than savory, breakfast on our last day in Hoi An. He searched online and found an American-style cafe a bit of a walk from our hotel. Along the way, we passed a day care center where a dad on a motorbike was dropping off his wailing son (who was quickly whisked inside by staff). Inside were children dressed up in party clothes celebrating a classmate's birthday. (Look at all that candy! Those kiddies will be bouncing off the walls before nap time.)
At the cafe, I had oatmeal with fresh fruit, including my husband's new favorite--dragon fruit, and a watermelon shake. He had scrambled eggs on toast with smoked salmon, and iced Vietnamese coffee. Not to be confused with Starbucks.
In keeping with the American theme, there was an amusing sign on the back of the door to the ladies room.
Then it was a long walk back to the hotel to collect our bags and receive some Vietnamese sweets, a gift from our concierge, and pile into a cab to the Da Nang/Hoi An station, where the 12:58 train would take us to Hue. On entering our compartment, we saw that the train staff had prepared a snack and drinks, arranged with fabric tulips and a lamp with a paper shade. That never happens on the ICE in Europe, believe you me! No Tiger beer, unfortunately, though. Just the sign.
Keep it real!
Marilyn
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