HoiAn > Hue

After a decent sleep-in (ie 8am) we checked out of our hotel and got a car to DaNang train station. Where we were initially and hour early and the train then decided to be an hour and twenty minutes late, bare in mind that this is a three hour train ride we're talking about. So instead of getting to Hue at 3pm we got here at 4:30pm, and the weather had worsened to a drizzle. 

The train ride was lovely, if a little long. There were moments where the view just opened up and we were sidling along coastline looking out onto the ocean wih either a small inlet, beach or just straight forest all around. It was amazing at times just watching the view open up and seeing the ocean or seeing small villages or even decorated tombs along the side. 

The hotel we're staying in is called the Orchid Hotel, it's priced at about 3 stars but the service we've received has been closer to 5. They had welcome drinks and snacks for us and they replaced the computer tower in the room the moment we asked as the other wouldn't turn on. Oh and I forgot to mention it has a bath, which is just a wonderful thing at this stage of the trip.

We freshened up and headed out to meet one of Nicola's friends from high school, she's traveling with her boyfriend on a tour going the opposite direction to us. We had dinner at a place called Le's Garden, it's tacky and had terrible service. Their western menu was majorly overpriced, some of the burgers came out cold, one wasn't completely cooked (beef, granted but not ideal). I ordered from the Vietnamese menu and I got a decent serving size but it was nothing special. I wouldn't recommend it unless desperate. We then headed to a bar called Brown Eyes, this place is surprisingly just up the street and a busy hub of activity. The music was great, props to the dj he did a great job while we were there. There was a pool table with about three games over the few hours we were there. It was very loud but it was nice to dance for a bit. We then headed back aired out our coats (cause I love my new coat smelling like tobacoo). It was actually fairly cold tonight, I wore leggings under my pants. But my bed is comfy so I will finish here and sleep for tomorrow.

HoiAn Day 4: My Són ruins

Today was and early wake up for a bus that ended up be half an hour late. After an hours drive (~45km) out to the complex we headed in by foot and were given a quick chat about the overall My Són complex. It's an ancient complex, with the earliest buildings being from the 4th century, built by the Cham people of central Vietnam when the country was still mildly feudal and had three seperate kingdoms. The Cham were the controllers of trade as they held the middle ground of the rivers, they were first exposed to Islam by traders then Hinduism from India. Buddhism stuck in the north and some of the south but the entire complex built by successive kings were all worshiping Hindu gods, mostly Shiva though.

There are 4-5 sections of buildings, labelled from A to K depending on the architect and time scale (king wise). Not many of the buildings are in good condition due to bombings from the war; from the way that the Cham built the towers I'm almost certain that all the towers would be standing and be structurally sound to this day if they had not been damaged. The Cham use double fired bricks, the bricks are fired first then the structures were built they then basically set the building on fire and fired the bricks again making them very dry (no mould/lichen) and making the structures incredibly stable using no mortar.

Some of the carvings were still in decent condition although many of the figures faces had been lost to erosion and damage. There are guards in every building group stopping people from walking/climbing on or near ruins, they just yell but they have a job to do. 

Our guide was good at passing on details about how the ceremonies would've taken place only for the audience of the king in the inner sanctuary. As well as the significance of some of the building types. 

It's a world heritage site so I'll include a link to its information page at the end.

I liked the site, what I didn't like were some of the people on the other tours. You don't walk in front of someone who is clearly taking a photo, stop and then take your own. Nor do you need to spend 10minutes trying to take a group shot or a selfie to the point where you can't actually see the site you're taking the picture at. Let alone people who just see the place a pile of rubble 'which probably would be like this anyway', which FYI I highly doubt that it would need any major restoration if a couple of bombs didn't go off in the middle of them. Does it come across that I don't like large tour groups even when I'm in one? It wasn't as bad as Cambodia granted but still annoying. 

After the hour return by bus we wandered and got some lunch at a place called Miss Ly's, bit pricy but the food was good. I still prefer street food, one I can see them making it and two it just tastes amazing and I've never felt I'll from it. You just go where the locals do, they know which places are good. Then just an afternoon of wandering and repacking of bags for our trip to Hue (hway, like Jose) tomorrow lunch time.

HoiAn Day 3: Final fittings & wanderings

A relaxed morning and breakfast found ourselves wandering around the old town looking at shops and some souvenirs. We went back to the book store and I got some art posters. We then wandered and looked at the Japanese covered bridge (requires an old town ticket) then wandered by the river, declining the quieter harassment of the local hawkers. We had lunch by the river made in front of us by an old Vietnamese woman, who seemed to appreciate the small gesture of politeness (if a person is older than you, you hand the money over with both hands) and saying thank you in Vietnamese. 

We continued our wanderings and found some pottery and some other small pieces before our final fittings. We had both had some minor alterations to a few of our pieces. Mine were all fine and she even agreed to have the collar on the vest pressed idea so it didn't gape. We agreed to come back at 5 to pick them all up. After that we headed to the shoe shop to take a look at the final products and we were both happy with the final results. You'll get one photo from me

I'm looking forward to breaking these in properly. All of the shoes are leather which for me means they will last at least 8yrs. After picking up all of our orders we decided to head out and try one of the local specialties call white rose (dumplings) it was nice but nothing amazing. We then wandered the markets while nicola looked for the little things to take home

HoiAn Day 2: Cooking School & fittings

An early start was required for this mornings cooking class. I got there early and managed to have a micro nap before we started with the market tour. The guide myself and some others had was very knowledgable and funny, he was willing to answer all of our questions and explained all the different ingredients and how to pick the freshest meat and seafood. 

Prawns: clear bodies, head inline, firm

Fish: clear eyes, no smell, flesh returns when pressed

Meat: 'wobbly' texture, meat is same colour when cut

After the market tour we got on a boat and went up river to the Red Bridge reasturant and cooking school. It was a nice ride, about an hour or so on the water. When we arrived we were treated to a complimentary drink (lime-tea punch: orange & like juice, tea, 7up and grenadine) and a tour of the herb garden. I knew some of the herbs and unfortunately I wasn't able to make notes on the many uses of each herb.

We then headed to a small pagoda and started our cooking lessons, our demonstrating chef was a lovely lady, good clear instructions and a good sense of humour. What we cooked today was

- Hoi An Pancake (rice water, prawn, pork and herbs)

- seafood salad, Vietnamese herbs in pinapple boat

- shrimp fresh rice paper rolls

- rice paper

- Vietnamese eggplant in hot pot

- tomato flowers & cucumber fan (decoration)

- peanut/fish and sweet & sour sauces

- steamed fish on vegetables (not demonstrated but tasty)

Our guide was really helpful and gave us an extra recipe booklet for the full day course which included 

- Pho 

- Lemongrass shrimp in banana leaves

- Claypot fish with fresh dill

- Grilled chicken and banana flower salad

Afterwards I headed back to the hotel and met Nicola before e headed to our first fitting. I am really happy with the way that the dresses, aoi dai and suit vest have turned out. There were some minor changes to make them slightly more fitted. And the shoes are fine with some minor changes to the fit. All of them will need softening when I get home, but I'm happy that all of these will last for many years. We just had a quiet night and a light dinner while I caught up on my blog posts

HoiAn Day 1: tailors and friends

[10.02.2014]

After a late wake up (feeling the fatigue from two straight active days) we headed out to find the tailors that were recommended by our hotel, on the way we were accosted by another Vietnamese woman who insisted that we come and visit her families shop and that it would be cheaper than the recommended one (the hotel gets a commission for referring on). We decided to play along and were pleasantly surprised when we each were looked after by an individual tailor and that the prices for the amount of things we were having made (several pieces in my case) were reasonable considering the fabrics and amount. We were there for about 1.5hrs talking designs and fabric choices. We were to have our first fitting the next afternoon. 

They recommended a shoe place that would do us a good deal. So we headed over there and had a chat to the ladies and I decided to have three pairs made (ballet flats, closed toe wedge and a wedge sling back) all from the leathers and heels of our choice. Nicola had a pair of shoes remade and her leather bag as well. Again a fitting the next afternoon to make sure everything was right.

We then headed back to the hotel and rested for a bit as we were meeting one of Nicola's friends from KOTO here for dinner. After a quick bike ride to the reasturant (two pillions is an interesting experience) called Seedlings we were seating upstairs on the balcony. Now at this point I must point out that the winds had picked up and it was actually cold, I'm glad I had my scarf and jacket on for dinner. We ate and talked about experiences in hospitality and what we had observed while we had been traveling (the ridiculously picky customers that don't realise that it's a family reasturant and not a 5 star establishment). Turns out that this guy had had a small issue with starting his new job as the manager for the resort was on annual leave and needed to be there to approve the contract so he was in a state of limbo between jobs as he had wound up his work at KOTO, but it did mean that he got to spend time with his family. 

After dinner Nicola and I wandered the markets, we got a few pieces of jewelry (some earrings for me and skull/happy Buddha beads for Nicola). We then headed back over the bridge and had a wander and we found a book shop that also sold fabric movie poster art made by artists (art Nuevo, minimalist ect). There were a few studio ghibli ones that I really liked and I will consider buying as well as there being a trilogy of back to the future posters that I think one person in particular will love. We then headed back to the hotel and had an early night, hence the delay in this post.

DaLat Day 3: Canyoning > Hoi An

An early start for canyoning, we left the hotel with our guides and picked up another three visitors, two English and another sydney-sider. We headed up the motorway to the mountains and where the river starts to run. 

We trekked down a small path before stopping practicing abseiling techniques. One of the few times I've been told to jump higher while abseiling, normally I get told off for jumping. From there we continued down to the river and had our first waterslide over a small drop, head first. Dear god that water was cold, sorry 'refreshing'. From there we climbed up to an abseil point of about 8m and walked/jumped down then walked back up to meet the rest of the group. We then headed to another this one 15m with a shear face landing in water.

We crossed the river and headed through for about 20min crossing the river here and there before ending up at one point where we free swim/float through to another small drop, this one where you go feet first. We all went down that a few times, it's very disorientating underwater when it's swirling and bubbly and going up your nose at decent speed. From there we then walked to the waterfall; this was our final abseil for the day. The whole thing was probably 10-15m high (I might be wrong but it felt high) and we start our decent from near the middle of the falls. You have to inch your way down as its incredibly slippery, in some cases I just went with the small slides I was feeling. The water at that pressure and speed stings against your legs I was almost at the final 4m (where you free fall) when I hit a patch algae and slipped and landed against the rocks, most of the impact was taken by my left knee (which I found to have already bruised once I was out of the river). Thankfully our guide had given us tips on how to get back to standing so I managed to get back up and get to the 4m mark then free fall. I managed to push off the rocks enough to clear the worst of the water wash from the waterfall. After climbing out and inspecting my knee we watched as the last of our group did the decent then we had lunch on the rocks by the waterfall, and watched a pair of older men do the decent after us. 

Once lunch had been finished (a small feast, might I add) we headed over to the final spot where there are two free jumping levels 7m or 11m. Nicola jumped the 11m twice while my knee was starting to ache and the blisters from yesterday were stinging so I declined to jump. We headed back early as we had to shower and catch our flight. But the people were lovely and they took care of us. I will have some photos, as (the only guy) the other Australian had photos of most of us taken by the guides on his camera. 

After showering and doing the final arranging of our bags we headed out to the airport and got our flight (on an ATR72). We were picked up and driven to our hostel, checked in. Our hostess was very helpful in suggesting good tailors (one has been known to refund if work is not good enough). We then headed out and explored the old quarter and found some street Cao lâo (pork, noodles, vege - only found in Hoi An). Then headed back for an early night.