Day 78: Hoi An

This morning started right away at 7am when I had to wake up to finish packing for our trip. I was out the door within 45 minutes and grabbed a banh mi op la before we all got in taxis and headed to the airport. We got to the airport and waited around for awhile before finally boarding our flight to Da Nang, which was full of business men and women. The flight was only about an hour long, but as soon as I got on the plane I fell asleep and only woke up once the plan landed.

We were greeted by our tour guide once we got off the plane, and we hopped on a bus that took us to Hoi An. We didn't spend much time in Da Nang, but from what I could see through the bus windows they have some pretty awesome bridges. The tour guide talked the entire time we were driving, but we were honestly so out of it that none of us were paying attention. We passed some pretty cool stores that sold marble carvings of Buddha, and the statues were huge! They were each probably eight feet tall or more. We arrived in Hoi An around 1pm and immediately went to lunch at a restaurant. Upon our arrival in Hoi An, we had each received a piece of paper with some things we should see and eat, so at the restaurant I made sure to order two of the dishes. I ended up having White Rose, which is a dumpling with shrimp in the middle, and cao lao, which was a noodle dish with pork, fried bread, and rice paper. (In case you haven't noticed, my attitude on noodles here has definitely changed! Thanks Thao!)

My wonderful dish of cao lao.

White rose, one of the local dishes we were told to try.

After lunch, we got back on a bus and headed to our hotel where we unpacked our bags and had very limited free time. Then we were off to taking a walking tour of the city. I thought this would be pretty cool, but once we started walking around I realized that I had absolutely zero interest in it. There were tourists everywhere and the streets were crowded with people walking. The only Vietnamese I saw were those working in the stores that lined the streets. We were shuffled from place to place, told some history of the building we were in, and moved on to the next one. The only thing that I really gathered from the tour is that Hoi An was under a tremendous amount of influence from both the Chinese and Japanese. We also got to visit another silk farm--that's #3 since my time in Vietnam--and this one was definitely more on the tourist side. We did get to see another aspect of the silk factory, though, as this one takes pictures and recreates them as artwork done with silk!

The front of a Chinese temple.

The triangular things hanging from the ceiling are actually incense that is burned to wish good luck to those who pray for it.

The Japanese bridge in Hoi An.

When we were finished with our tour, we had a few hours to ourselves. Hoi An is famous for its tailoring shops (there are between 300-500 here) and a few people knew that they wanted to have some tailoring done. I decided to go with them to see what the whole thing was about and we went to a tailoring shop that Chris recommended. The women working there were so sweet, and the Loyola students simply showed them pictures of what they wanted, picked out a fabric, and were measured. The store also had books of pictures that had things they could make for you. The tailoring here is so good that they can literally replicate anything you bring in for them. I was sitting quietly in the background, watching everybody choose between fabrics and styles and getting measured, when one of the women came up to me. She asked me if I wanted anything made, and I told her that I wasn't sure. She recommended either a jumpsuit (because of my height) or a dress, to which I explained that I really had no use for either. She kept trying to push me to get something tailored, so I finally asked her if they make shorts. She got out the catalogue of shorts and I went through it but nothing caught my eye. Realizing that maybe I should just purchase something, I stood up and asked her if she could make me another pair of the shorts I was wearing. Her reply? "Of course!" I was suddenly being measured, having pictures taken, and chose out a fabric for my new shorts. The total cost was 420,000d (or $20). We go back in tomorrow afternoon to try on our new garments and make sure they fit. Talk about a fast turn around!

The whole thing at the tailor shop was hilarious, and after I had dedicated myself to buying a pair of shorts I was asked if I needed shirts or a dress. I explained no, but did ask them to measure my height so when people ask I can tell them what it is in meters. A group of four women gathered around me, measured my height, and I received multiple comments about how lucky I was, how I should be a model, and how they wish they could be as tall as I am. They then decided to measure how long my legs are, which sent them into another state of disbelief and a multitude of more comments.

Supper tonight was actually a cooking class, and we learned how to make papaya salad, spring rolls, and fish in banana leaves. Our first dish was the green papaya salad with grilled beef, followed by fried shrimp spring rolls. Next we had fried wontons with a kind of shrimp salsa on top followed by white rose. The main course of lemon grass fish grilled in banana leaves was next, and dessert was fresh fruit. It was a very good meal, but we sat at the restaurant for almost 2 hours preparing it and then eating it!

After an exhausting day, we all decided to come back to the hotel to crash. The walk back was so different then the Hoi An I had experienced today. No tourists, motorbikes were flying down the streets, and we were actually able to see Vietnamese going about their nights. Street vendors were on the roads, the lanterns were lit up next to the river, and it felt like so much more of a Vietnamese city then it had earlier today, when it had felt like a tourist village.

Lanterns all lit up!

Lanterns everywhere!

Fun fact about Hoi An: Because the city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, motorbikes aren't allowed on the road during certain times of the day to help reduce the noise.