Days 5-6: Hoi An, Vietnam

After our sunrise visit to Angkor Wat and swing through several final temples, we bid fairwell to Cambodia and boarded an early evening flight to Danang, Vietnam.  Danang is located on the South-Central coast of Vietnam on the coast of the South China Sea.  During the Vietnam War, it was home to a major air base used by U.S. and South Vietnamese air forces; now it is a bustling commercial and educational center with a remarkable number of luxury resorts being built along the sandy beaches.  (The downturn in property development in the United States doesn't appear to have affected the impressive building boom!)

We didn't linger in Danang, but set off straightaway for Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to a thriving tourist industry and about eight million tailors.  Although our time in Hoi An was something of a blur due to our adventures in custom-tailoring (more on that to follow in a separate post), the picture-perfect old town was absolutely charming and one of the highlights of our trip.

We had chosen a smaller-scale accommodation option -- the Orchid Garden Homestay -- after reading many enthusiastic reviews online.  On balance, we were glad we did.  The Orchid Garden is run by a family and has four bungalows and two other rooms located on the main road a few km outside of Hoi An's old city, with a small pool and breakfast area.

Our bungalow...

Our room was well-appointed, with a kitchen and sitting area.

There was a (cold) outdoor shower as well as hot/cold indoor "shower" that was essentially a shower head attached to the wall in what was otherwise an unremarkable half-bath (toilet and sink).  This presented logistical (and perhaps some aesthetic) challenges--though I must say that the TP holder was a convenient spot for my shampoo and conditioner!

After the opulance of the Bangkok Marriott and the boutique chic of the Sojourn, the Orchid Garden was definitely more along the lines of what its name suggests--an (admittedly upscale, at least for Vietnam) homestay.  But we grew to be very fond of the place, not least because of the lovely family who owns and runs it.

Orchid Garden was a (hot and dusty) 30-minute walk from the old city center, but only five or six minutes by bicycle, which became our preferred method of transport while in Hoi An.  Orchid Garden provided free and authentic-looking bikes, on which we wobbled back and forth to town, dodging motorbikes, cars, trucks, dogs, chickens, and random street construction. 

Although Vietnamese road "safety" practices apparently do not typically involve lights or even reflectors, I pioneered our own version, which involved J riding in front using a (tiny travel) flashlight to check for potholes and hopefully alert oncoming traffic of our presence, and I followed close behind with a (keychain sized) penlight clipped to the back of my daypack.  We can only imagine what the locals thought of our efforts.

Hoi An's charming old town center is located on an estuary of the Thu Bồn River.  The riverfront is lined with shops and restaurants occupying the ground floor of pastel-colored houses built in traditional architectural styles.  Plenty of fishing boats line the docks, and colored paper lanterns and animal sculptures float in the river and along the bridge.

It's not hard to tell from the next picture why Hoi An typically experiences significant flooding at least once a year during monsoon season; luckily it was all above water during our visit.

The streets bustle with locals and tourists on foot, bikes, and motorbikes, as well as locals hawking their wares.  The old town boasts a historic covered Japanese bridge, a central food market, and plenty of tourist-focused shops.

(One of these cyclists is not like the others...)

After exploring a bit on our bikes, we stopped at Mango Mango for what turned out to be one of our favorite meals of the entire trip.  (Here's what the NY Times has to say about Mango Mango's sister restaurant, on the other side of the river bank.)

We had absolutely amazing rice noodles, the lightest and most crispy spring rolls (way better than anything I've had back home), and a Hawaiian pizza. 

We spent several hours of the afternoon making an initial survey of the overwhelming number of tailoring shops, our experiences at which deserve their own post.  It was not until we left the tailors that evening when we realized that the Hoi An town center was at its most charming at night, when the hundreds of colored lanterns come to life.

Japanese bridge...

Although we could have lingered downtown until the early morning hours, we eventually headed back to Orchard Garden, knowing that we'd need a good night's sleep to face the tailor madness the next day.