Hoi An catch up

Err so we are now in Saigon, I mean Ho Chi Minh City, no I mean Saigon, well the locals don't seem to know what it is called so how can I do any better.

When we last posted we had just arrived in Hoi An having done the very scenic trip from Hue over the Hai Van pass, the one they did on Top Gear. We had the same driver as the previous day so we stopped to take a few photos, and had lunch together at Great Veggie place we found in Da Nang.







We also stopped off at the rather tacky Marble Mountain on the way past, not amazing but it was only 90p to get in and some of the carvings were impressive.

We spent a rather luxurious five nights in Hoi An buying custom tailored clothes, and having massages.



Morning juice with flower on the glass!

Hoi An is a nicely preserved old town about half way down the Vietnamese coast. It has an unusual history in that it was a major trading and commerce site until the river silted up and the traders moved on. This history of over seas trading has left the town with a mixture of Chinese, Japanese, French, and Vietnamese building styles whilst much of the old town is frozen without a lot of modern development. Part of the old town is also, sort of, pedestrianised making it very pleasant to just wander around, even at night.
















We stopped one afternoon to have a drink at one of the coffee shops, sound familiar, totally at random we walked into Reaching Out Cafe (we choose it because the walls are turquoise). It was a great choice, there are lots of other reviews on the web so I won't repeat too much but we had some beautiful drinks, and a contemplative moment in a very peaceful setting. If you are in Hoi An (or Vietnam for that matter) find this little place.










The delay in posts is partly due to relaxing too much in Hoi An but also due to the really bad internet access in Mui Ne so that will be tomorrow's catchup post.

Goodbye Hanoi, hello night train.

Appologies for the lack of posts for the last few days, this was not due to a busy travel schedule but rather that when we sat down to relax I got sucked down a Wikipedia rat hole.

I started writing this post and realised that we had done more than I had thought so I will start with a speed round then dig in with a few more details:

Water Puppet show (amazing)

Temple of Literature (pretty but too busy, and hot)

Lenin Park (quiet, tidy, shady, pleasant)

Enthographic Museum of Vietnam (interesting, detailed)

Night train to Hue (comfortable enough)

Our last few days in Hanoi were mainly spent wandering Hanoi's tiny lanes, and watching life on the street. Like many places in Asia a lot of local life in Hanoi happens out on the streets and in public places. This makes it a great place to pull up a plastic chair, order a coffee and take in what is going on around you (it doesn't hurt that the coffee is about 50p a glass). We found a great spot, that we went back to a few times, where we could watch the cyclo (reverse bicycle rickshaw) tours come past. The range of expressions on the other tourists faces went from terrified to sleepy via highly amused. The effect was hightened by the group tours which would snake past us, sometimes ten to twelve bikes longand block the whole road for several minutes. I was rather glad not to be pedalling the cyclo myself as the sweat would be pouring off the drivers. 

We also had a ride on a cyclo ourselves after walking a bit too far to Lenin Park via a detour in a housing area of tiny alley ways. It was a hugely enjoyable (if guilt inducing) way to travel across the city. As you have likely heard there are no real road rules in Hanoi and at first sight the traffic is nothing short of unfathomable. But then, a strange logic filters in where all of the road users share the space and watch out for what they are doing. I have no hard and fast evidence for this but it seems as if by keeping moving slowly everyone gets to where they are going faster. Anyway back to the cyclo, we were able to witness all of this crazy vehicular dance up close from the front seat whilst our driver squeezed us through improbable gaps and accompanied by his manic laughter (which I put down to the fact that our hotel was slightly up hill from Lenin Park). 

At the other end of the adrenaline scale was the wonderful Water Puppet Show. I can not recommend this show enough, yes the dialogue was in Vietnamese but the music and puppetry effects were unique and told a humorous story. Some of the movements of the puppets (specifically the fish) created a very life like effect.

In a similar Vietnamese culture veign the Ethnographic museum had some really interesting and original displays and was well explained in English (possibly too wordy but I like facts so it was great for me). The museum covers in some detail the different cultures that live around Vietnam and gives illustrations of the different ways of life. The most unusual of the exhibits, for me, was the architecture garden when there are at last ten full size structures to really show how the different groups have (and in many cases still do) lived. 

That just leaves us with the night train. As night train's go, not too bad. Quiet, cleanish, on timeish, slightly hard bed. I enjoy the experience of sleeper trains, I'm not totally sure why, I know they are not for everyone. I find getting rocked to sleep and the idea of getting on in one city and off the next day in another fun. Try it once, possibly on Amtrac in the USA, it is a bit more romantic.