It was true on all counts, but the old city still had a ton of charm. It's a protected city, so they can't change the buildings in the Old Quarter. Hoi An has the most tailors per block of any place I have ever been. I didn't really need anything, but I found myself walking around saying "I want that jacket!" and "Ohhh look at that dress." I ended up buying some glasses while I was there though. Practical (because sometimes bathrooms feel too gross to be touching my eyeballs to put in contacts) and so much cheaper than in the US!
I knew a surprising number of people in Hoi An. I guess we were all moving from south to north together. A few of the people I met at my hostel didn't refer to each other by name, but by country. When I stuck my head into a dorm and asked if Cheyenne was there, the response was "Oh you mean America? She's downstairs getting breakfast." I liked it. I met Toronto, Ireland and Colombia as well.
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| So many yellow buildings. |
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| Just takin' a nap in the street. |
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| Japanese Friendship Bridge at night |
I decided to make Hoi An one of my relaxing stops. I spent several days wandering around the city just taking pictures and seeing what was there. It had a sandwich shop that's said to be the best Banh Mi in Vietnam. Anthony Bordain has visiting, so of course I had to as well. And it was very tasty. I have heard that a lot of the Asian baked goods and baguettes use half rice flour, which would explain why I have been able to eat them more easily. No complaints from this girl. It's all so delicious.
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| Bike! |
There is one specific dish you can only get in Hoi An called Cao Lau. (Hooooowwwww now Cao Lau!) It's thick rice noodles, pork, greens and sauce. The dish can only be made with water from a well in the Old Quarter right next to one of the markets. It's super tasty and the noodles have an awesome texture. We made friends with this lady who makes cao lau and pho in the market. When my friend, a vegetarian, asked for pho, no bo (bo is beef) the sweet old lady put pork in the soup instead. Vegetarian is a strange concept to some over here. Others have been super accommodating and done things like add veggie spring rolls instead of meat.
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| The market near the well. |
When you wander around the Old Quarter at night, you can see that it is truly lit by a ton of lanterns. The night market was similar to most other night markets I've seen. Many vendors selling essentially the same mass-produced-but-kinda cool goods.
After a couple days in Hoi An, I figured I should look at getting my visa extended because I had a ton of things in Vietnam I wanted to see. Caves, trekking, cities, rice terraces. So much! My friend went to go check the situation out and was told by a travel agent that they could do the visa extension no problem for $35. That conflicted from what we heard from a wise Irish man. He told us that the visa rules had changed and you now had to go out of the country and come back in to get more time. Unfortunately, our hotel agree with him and said that the tourist agency would likely write something in our passport and it would have been a fun surprise when we left Vietnam. I like to think that the travel agencies just didn't know about the new regulations.
They always tell you that if you're shopping for something specific, never go right to that section in a store and never look like you love what you're gonna buy. Because bargaining. If they know you love it, you get a much higher price than if you look like you're gonna walk away at an unreasonable price. Now I had heard that Sapa was really cold, so I was in the market for a nice hat. I saw one sitting in a store and the man working in the store said it was his wife's. She came in a little bit later and offered to let me try it on. And it looked great!! And I made the mistake of getting way to excited. She told me she would sell it to me for $15 and wouldn't change the price! She was excited! I was excited! But wait. It was not in fact a hand-made had like she told me. It had a Made in Korea tag. I liked the hat, but not enough to pay $15 for a used hat from Korea. So don't look like you like things no matter how much you actually do. I found a much nicer and actually handmade hat in Hanoi for about $5.
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| A lady selling veggies. |
After realizing that we had limited time in Vietnam, we hopped on a bus and headed up to a national park full of caves.