Vietnam – Day 9 – Hi Hội An
This will be a quick one. I woke early and had breakfast. I have now switched from taking pictures on a camera and a phone to just my phone. The battery charging for the camera got to be tedious. The bulk of the camera and trying to get it ready for pictures was cumbersome. I also seem to be getting some pretty good shots with the phone.
So the trip was quick. The weather was great and the traffic was light… relatively speaking. I have now adjusted to the motorcycle seat and am more comfortable. The trip was a little over 2 hours not including some stops for pictures. Many touist destinations include ornate famous Buddhist pagoda, but every little town I drove through had multiple beautiful pagodas. They are everywhere. I stopped to take pictures of a few. Giant Buddha statues and dragons, lots of dragons.
Hue is separated from Da Nang, the large city north of Hoi An, by a mountain. There are two ways to get to get from one side to the other: a tunnel and Hoi An pass. A mountain pass with a few switchbacks and hair pin turns. As you might guess I chose the mountain. However I would have had to go through the pass any way as the tunnel is just for 4+ wheeled vehicles. Many roads differentiate motorbike, car and truck traffic. Motorbikes can go pretty much anywhere except the “major” toll roads. Minor toll roads are free for motorbikes and alleys, opposite sides of the road, sidewalks, and alleys are all fair game, except certain streets in Hoi An. But I will talk about that later.
The north side of Hai Van Pass is country. The south side is Da Nang. Hai Van Pass was described as dangerous with many memorials on the sides of the roads for people that lost their lives. As I drove up I saw the memorials and there were a couple of switchbacks with large shoulders. But there were also long straight aways and easy curves. At the top there were buses parked with throngs of tourists snapping photos. The way down into Da Nang was a sprawling city beautiful with large sandy beaches. Many ritzy resorts are right along the beach. The drive though Da Nang was quick and in very little time I was in Hoi An.
Hoi An is like a tourist beach town, only the beach is 15 min away. The streets are very clean, especially for Vietnam. There are thousands of torist shops. I would estimate 30 percent are custom tailors, 20 percent are custom leather crafters, 30 percent of are food and mini mart’s and the remainder are souvenir and everything else. certain sections of Hoi An are for bicyclists and pedestrians only and the pedestrians and tourists take that to heart. There are everywhere.
As you may have guessed, people come to Hoi An to get custom tailored suits, shirts, dresses, coats, shoes, handbags, etc. The can make you anything, if you find the right tailor. When I arrived I was a little overwhelmed as there were so many, I didn’t know where to begin. So I walked around, ate and snapped photos at the requisite tourist destinations like the Japanese covered bridge.
The heat was stifling and I hadn’t showered since yesterday. So I want back to my hostel to clean up for dinner. I had a great meal and took more photos at night. Besides being known for tailoring, Hoi An has Japanese influenced roots. At night it becomes a lantern town. All LED lights I think though.
