Kitchen in Tan Ky House, Hoi An, Vietnam
I’m not sure if we were really supposed to wander around the kitchen, but we did. The Tan Ky House is over 200 years old and still home to members of the Tan family. The architecture was an interesting mix of Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese – reflecting Hoi An’s days as a major Asian seaport – but what interested me most was the colorful kitchen and the pot boiling on the stove, simple reminders of every day life still going on in the old home.
The Kindle goes to Vietnam
Chinese All-Community Assembly Hall
Lonely Planet can rest easy: The Kindle can’t replace it – for now. An e-reader like the Kindle is great if you only read in a linear way, i.e., page one, then page two, three, etc. But when you’re reading a Lonely Planet book, which requires you to reference other pages, it really is annoying. You have to hit the back button over and over and over. Also, the Lonely Planet maps are teeny on the Kindle. Several times I tried enlarging the maps with my fingers a la the iPhone, completely forgetting the Kindle screen isn’t a touchscreen. Somehow, that made the Kindle seem a little antiquated.
Not everything was bad about reading Lonely Planet on the Kindle. It was great to be able to whip out this small, light “book” wherever we were and read up on the area’s history or great restaurants. I just think the Kindle experience would be even better with a touchscreen. Amazon, you hear me?
Tran Family Chapel
Tran Family Chapel
My Son
My Son
My Son, Vietnam
My Son, a group of crumbling Hindu temples built by the Cham people between the 4th and 14th centuries, is often compared to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat. But from what I’ve read, My Son is smaller and has fewer intact buildings. The ones that are left are made of brick with intricate patterns and imagery carved right into the brick. The biggest My Son mystery is how the bricks are stuck together. Some organic glue? Some mineral substance? No one knows for sure.
There’s one group of My Son buildings that was almost completely obliterated by U.S. bombing during the Vietnam War. A French museum curator of Cham culture was so upset that he wrote to U.S. President Nixon asking him to stop the bombing, according to Lonely Planet. Below you can see my picture (third from the bottom) of the bombed monuments.
Johanna was quite fascinated by all the lingams and yonis, especially the ones that had cracked apart, thus the last photograph.
An early morning run around Hoan Kiem Lake
The usual swarm of people riding motorbikes around Hanoi was replaced by a swarm of people exercising on the shores of Hoan Kiem Lake this morning. This is a daily Hanoi occurence, according to Lonely Planet, and it really is a sight to see. Indeed, this morning there were tourists milling about, taking pictures of the exercisers!
I left my hotel at 6:30 a.m, ran down the street leading to Hoan Kiem and saw hundreds of people walking, stretching and sometimes running in a counter-clockwise direction around the lake. It’s that counter-clockwise direction that surprised me the most at first. Until I ran out there, I hadn’t realized I expected to run clockwise. Those Communists, they have to do everything differently. Hehehe. Better to go with the flow than get run over.
Any exercise you can imagine people might do around a lake, people were doing it. Most people walked while chatting with friends or family. About a half dozen men ran (no female runners except me). Most people wore loose clothing but there were a few groups of young girls wearing tight tank tops and shorts. There were old people in pajamas pushing their wheelchairs. Several groups of about 25 women performed synchronized calisthenics to music, including the Muzak version of Que Sera. Barechested old men swung their arms to and fro while walking at a brisk pace. Lots of people stood around moving their hips in circles, like they were hula hooping without the hoop. There were about 10 women dancing while balancing plastic balls on small tennis rackets. Several couples waltzed to classical music blaring from a portable speaker. I saw one older man stretched out on a yoga mat and one woman walking backwards. There was even one enterprising lady sitting with a small scale, so you could check your progress after your morning constitution.
By 7 a.m. the fun was pretty much over. The exercising ranks had thinned to almost nothing and the motorcycle traffic had picked up considerably. I wish I were around for another morning of running and people watching around Hoan Kiem!
Hoi An Beach
Johanna made the interesting observation that Vietnam and Mexico have a lot in common: good food, interesting historical sites and beautiful beaches. I agree. She and I biked to Hoi An Beach and spent a relaxing morning reading under umbrellas and swimming in the clear South China Sea. I could have spent all day there! I wanted to get a workout (as if bicycling all over town in 100-degree heat wasn’t exercise enough) so I actually swam some laps. It was even harder than I thought it would be what with the waves pushing me around and forcing water up my nose when I came up for air. Guess I won’t be winning any ocean swim races any time soon.
Day trip to Cham Island
Things I thought about while swimming, snorkeling and lounging around Cham Island:
1) I’ve never seen such brilliantly blue starfish. It looks like some kid spread blue Play Doh in the shapes of stars all over these rocks.
2) The water is so clear!
3) I didn’t know there were so many pastel-colored coral.
4) Did someone drop a big blue soccer ball into the South China Sea? What? It’s a sea anemone? No way!
5) Why don’t I know more about the underwater ecosystem?
6) Oh my goodness, schools of silver fish seem to be swimming circles around me. So cool.
7) This was totally worth the $40 I paid to Cham Island Diving.
Hoi An, I love you
The Tran Family Chapel was built for worshipping family ancestors. The architecture is a mix of Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese.
Johanna and I have been biking, walking and sweating our way around Hoi An, a small city on Vietnam’s central coast. Despite being quite close to the Vietnam DMZ, Hoi An escaped unscathed from the Vietnam War. The city is beautiful! Hoi An’s Old Town was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. With such credentials, you can imagine the number of tourists in this city. You can also imagine the number of businesses that have popped up to support the tourists. The Old Town is filled with hundreds of old buildings, many of which are occupied by tailors and shoemakers offering to make you a dress or stitch you some shoes for $10 or $15. It’s a little disconcerting.
Nevertheless, there’s a lot to see and do here beyond getting a new wardrobe made. We’ve visited Chinese Assembly Halls (many Chinese fled to Vietnam after the Ming Dynasty fell in the 17th century) and explored restored homes, such as the Museum of Trading Ceramics (not too edifying except for the small section on the history of restoring old Hoi An buildings). One of our most interesting visits was to Reaching Out Vietnam, a fair trade shop where all the handicrafts are made by disabled people. Johanna and I spent about an hour browsing the store and watching the tradespeople make the items sold in the store. According to the Reaching Out brochure, employees receive salaries that are 35% higher than other artisans and also receive health and social insurance. The employees we saw did look happy and interested in their work. It’s heartening to know that a Vietnamese-founded and Vietnamese-run organization has found such success in Hoi An.
And what would a visit to Vietnam be without eating some really good food? I’m not an epicurean but Johanna is – lucky me! We’ve tried all sorts of noodle, fish and vegetable dishes. I’m not the biggest fish person but braised fish with lemon grass sauce was one of my favorites. One of our favorite desserts was fried wonton with fruit and chocolate inside. We enjoyed that one at Mango Rooms, an upscale Vietnamese fusion restaurant where Mick Jagger supposedly once dined. Yes, even Mick Jagger has been to Hoi An.
All in all, I really like Hoi An. It’s easy to get around on bicycles, though the lack of stop lights and stop signs makes any journey a little bit dangerous. You’re constantly dodging motorbikes darting onto the road from hidden alleys and swerving away from bicycles moving into your path. Let’s just say traffic is very, very fluid here; lanes are optional. The people are friendly, though, and the vibe is peaceful. Whenever I visit a new place I always ask myself, “Could I live here?” And the answer for Hoi An is, “Yes. I love it.”
Street outside Tran Family Chapel
Abandoned house near the Thu Bon River
Tran Phu Street in Old Town Hoi An
Johanna inside the Assembly Hall of the Fujian Chinese Congregation
Fish inside the Assembly Hall of the Fujian Chinese Congregation
Dragon inside the Assembly Hall of the Fujian Chinese Congregation
Restaurant in Hoi An
Banana flower salad
Bar at Mango Rooms restaurant
Marvelous menu at Mango Rooms
Wedding pictures in front of the Japanese Covered Bridge
Portraits in the Chinese All-Community Assembly Hall of Chinese resistance heroes in Vietnam who died during World War II.
Get your shoes made here.
Johanna trying on clothes in a tailor shop.
Johanna at Mango Rooms
Figuring out where to go next in Hoi An.
We took a bumpy shortcut to dinner.
View of Hoi An street outside the Mango Rooms restaurant.
12 hours in Hanoi
Mostly motorbikes and bicycles on the roads.
“Heaven” in a park around Hoan Kiem Lake.
View from the hotel room.
Kumquat tree on the hotel room balcony.
(Above: That's me photographing while snowshoeing through a snowstorm. Picture by 