Hoi An - Vietnam
6/17/05
After a whole night traveling by bus from Nha Trang, we arrived in Hoi An at 6:30 a.m.
Hoi An is a picturesque riverside town, it is definitely the most enchanting place along the coast in Vietnam.
The tour bus brought us to an excellent hotel; the room was quite luxurious and the hotel also featured a nice swimming pool with hydro-massage, all for US$ 8.
Right after we checked in, we jumped in a tour bus to visit an ancient site called My Son, one hour away from Hoi An.
My Son (pronounced 'mee son') is Vietnam's most important site of the ancient kingdom of Champa, and, as of 2000, Unesco declared it a World Heritage site.
It is also considered to be Champa's smaller counterpart to the grand cities of Southeast Asia, another Indian-Influenced civilization like Angkor Wat (Cambodia), Ayuthaya (Thailand) and Borubudur (Java/Indonesia). It was a religious and political center from the 4th to the 13th century.
During the American War, the region was completely devastated and depopulated in extended bitter fighting. Finding it to be a convenient staging ground, the Vietcong used My Son as a base; in response the Americans bombed the monuments.
Traces of 68 structures have been found, of which 25 survived repeated pillaging in previous centuries by the Chinese, Khmer and Vietnamese. The American bombings spared about 20 of these, some of which sustained extensive damage; the rest was reduced to rubble.
There is a little museum at the site were some carvings are kept. Also, like if it was one of the art works in exposition, a B52's bombshell is in the room.
From the site we returned to Hoi An by boat. It was a nice trip; we were served lunch and stopped in a woodcarving village for a visit.
In Hoi An, we got off the boat right in the middle of the market of the old town.
Hoi An, known as Faifo to early Western traders was one of Southeast Asia's major international ports during the 17th and 18th century. Hoi An was to Vietnam what Macau was to China or Melaka was to Malaysia. It was at one point busy with Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and other trading vessels.
What is left today is a charming little town with hundreds of old houses.
6/18/05
We took it easy on this day; we spent the morning resting by the swimming pool.
In the afternoon we biked to the An Bang beach (the hotel also provide bikes free of charge), crossing rice fields and then back to the town. The beach wasn't touristy at all.
For dinner we tried White Rose (steamed shrimp wrapped in rice paper), Cai Lau (doughy flat noodles with crouton, bean sprout and pork slices) and Hoi An spring rolls.
After dinner we spent the evening in one of many nice bars.
6/19/05
We started earlier with the swimming pool and then left with the bikes to visit the old houses and monuments of the old town.
First stop was Phac Hat pagoda.
Then we went to a 3 centuries old house in the center. Cars are not allowed in the old town so it is really nice to bike around here.
The houses are a mixture of Vietnamese, Chinese and French architecture. There are hundreds of old houses, chapels and pagodas.
Since a lot of Chinese people migrated to Hoi An more than 300 years ago, they built several big halls to meet and celebrate according to their province of origin. Here is the Cantonese Community Hall.
They also built an assembly community hall for special occasions when all the Chinese people would meet. It was founded in 1773.
Some scenes of daily life around here hasn't changed in years.
Another pleasant thing for the wanderer are the numerous art galleries spread out in the town.
Some Japanese people also migrated to Hoi An. The Japanese bridge was first placed here in 1593 in order to join the Japanese neighborhood to the Chinese one.
We stopped for lunch in a cute restaurant by the river and moved on to another bar for a treat before continuing the tour.
One of the old houses presented a traditional music performance that we didn't miss.
After the performance we visited more art galleries.
After a whole night traveling by bus from Nha Trang, we arrived in Hoi An at 6:30 a.m.
Hoi An is a picturesque riverside town, it is definitely the most enchanting place along the coast in Vietnam.
The tour bus brought us to an excellent hotel; the room was quite luxurious and the hotel also featured a nice swimming pool with hydro-massage, all for US$ 8.
Right after we checked in, we jumped in a tour bus to visit an ancient site called My Son, one hour away from Hoi An.
My Son (pronounced 'mee son') is Vietnam's most important site of the ancient kingdom of Champa, and, as of 2000, Unesco declared it a World Heritage site.
It is also considered to be Champa's smaller counterpart to the grand cities of Southeast Asia, another Indian-Influenced civilization like Angkor Wat (Cambodia), Ayuthaya (Thailand) and Borubudur (Java/Indonesia). It was a religious and political center from the 4th to the 13th century.
During the American War, the region was completely devastated and depopulated in extended bitter fighting. Finding it to be a convenient staging ground, the Vietcong used My Son as a base; in response the Americans bombed the monuments.
Traces of 68 structures have been found, of which 25 survived repeated pillaging in previous centuries by the Chinese, Khmer and Vietnamese. The American bombings spared about 20 of these, some of which sustained extensive damage; the rest was reduced to rubble.
There is a little museum at the site were some carvings are kept. Also, like if it was one of the art works in exposition, a B52's bombshell is in the room.
From the site we returned to Hoi An by boat. It was a nice trip; we were served lunch and stopped in a woodcarving village for a visit.
In Hoi An, we got off the boat right in the middle of the market of the old town.
Hoi An, known as Faifo to early Western traders was one of Southeast Asia's major international ports during the 17th and 18th century. Hoi An was to Vietnam what Macau was to China or Melaka was to Malaysia. It was at one point busy with Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and other trading vessels.
What is left today is a charming little town with hundreds of old houses.
6/18/05
We took it easy on this day; we spent the morning resting by the swimming pool.
In the afternoon we biked to the An Bang beach (the hotel also provide bikes free of charge), crossing rice fields and then back to the town. The beach wasn't touristy at all.
For dinner we tried White Rose (steamed shrimp wrapped in rice paper), Cai Lau (doughy flat noodles with crouton, bean sprout and pork slices) and Hoi An spring rolls.
After dinner we spent the evening in one of many nice bars.
6/19/05
We started earlier with the swimming pool and then left with the bikes to visit the old houses and monuments of the old town.
First stop was Phac Hat pagoda.
Then we went to a 3 centuries old house in the center. Cars are not allowed in the old town so it is really nice to bike around here.
The houses are a mixture of Vietnamese, Chinese and French architecture. There are hundreds of old houses, chapels and pagodas.
Since a lot of Chinese people migrated to Hoi An more than 300 years ago, they built several big halls to meet and celebrate according to their province of origin. Here is the Cantonese Community Hall.
They also built an assembly community hall for special occasions when all the Chinese people would meet. It was founded in 1773.
Some scenes of daily life around here hasn't changed in years.
Another pleasant thing for the wanderer are the numerous art galleries spread out in the town.
Some Japanese people also migrated to Hoi An. The Japanese bridge was first placed here in 1593 in order to join the Japanese neighborhood to the Chinese one.
We stopped for lunch in a cute restaurant by the river and moved on to another bar for a treat before continuing the tour.
One of the old houses presented a traditional music performance that we didn't miss.
After the performance we visited more art galleries.
posted by Adriano and Angie | 6:58 AM
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