Highlights of Vietnam and Cambodia

Highlights of Vietnam and Cambodia – Day Six

Day Six – 22 January 2015

Weather – another sunny and 23.

I’m up and out and in my favorite back seat for the 180 degree view. Before we left, an employee from the hotel came aboard to thank us for staying and then walked the length of the bus to give us all cards asking us to give our opinion on Trip Advisor.

It’s a three hour drive to Hoi An from Hue over the Hai Van Pass. Thom said there is a rail line going through Vietnam but that it’s a single line so that going from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City can take 30 hours. He calls it the Vietnam Bullet Train.

A Flight takes under 2 hours and the bus is 2 days non-stop. I didn’t ask how long by car. Probably abou 15 minutes by scooter.

There was nothing more fun than watching the faces on the westerners riding in the cars behind us as their local drivers went to pass our bus on the narrow, winding hillside roads.

Someone asked him about the children born here with American fathers and he said they were shunned because they were black and white, not yellow. He even admits to seeing this harassment as a kid. In the 80s, the children were all repatriated to the United States as part of the Homecoming Act. A friend of Thom’s left here when he was 14 and moved to Minnesota where he now works for IBM. Then Thom put on a song I think he called the Dust of Life from Miss Saigon and it was quite emotional.

He went on to talk about the boat people. They were primarily people from the south fleeing after the defeat in 75. They feared the same response seen in Hue after the Tet Offensive. Some were taken by the US and other countries, some ended back in Vietnam and were imprisoned and even more died in the attempt. Estimates say that 3 million attempted to flee and only 1 million made it to safety.

Our next stop was a short photo op at a fishing village off the road.

It’s on the Vinh Hien Lagoon which is a brackish water lagoon and is the largest in Southeast Asia. Thom says the best shrimp come from this lagoon.

We take pics and get aboard when Thom points to a Japanese water buffalo. Everyone looks, cameras raised only to see a tractor tilling a field.

We drove a bit farther and had a rest stop where there were some gorgeous little dogs and a sample of the local rice wine.

Then we headed up the pass. Thom said there was a tunnel that is off limits to scooters and motorcycles. If they want to go through it, they have to pay for a truck service that transports their bikes to the other side. Granted, the winding road would be fun on a scooter!

We make a stop for a pic of the ocean. There was a better opportunity at the top of the pass but Thom said the vendors there were very aggressive.

Since our rooms in Hoi An won’t be ready until 2 pm, Thom offers to take us to a restaurant since lunch isn’t included. Everyone is up for that.

We enter the city of Danang and Thom points out Monkey Mountain where the US made its first landings in the war. The city’s economy is supported by steel, fishing, time shares and tourism. The tourism is primarily due to the proximity to the airport. People arrive and go to Hoi An. It has a population of about 1 million and is the 3^rd largest city in Vietnam. It was leading in investments until a massive typhoon struck in 2007 and a lot of investments were cancelled after that. The typhoon killed 300 people and many are still missing. A memorial was erected on the beach. It’s a ship that is facing the see as if it’s going to leave to search for the missing.

And that beach is China Beach. Though they don’t call it that. It’s a gorgeous 42 km long beach. We make a brief photo stop and get my feet wet in the water. Or rather, my sneakers.

The driver’s assistant is waiting with a brush to rub the sand off our feet and shoes.

Thom says that Danang is a cleaner city because of its smaller population and better infrastructure. There are five bridges over the river including a dragon bridge.

Yeah. Dragons!

The French also landed here in 1858 and Danang was the first city taken. Then the French moved south to take Saigon.

Our stop here is at the Cham museum. They were the people from the central part of Vietnam who were squeezed out when the Viet came south and the Khmer went north. They left behind an impressive collection of carved statues, many of which are in this museum.

My Son is the largest Cham site found so far with some 70 structures dedicated to the Hindu god Siva. The area was excavated in the early 20^th Century. The dragon of the Champa Kingdom is different from the Vietnamese dragon but both have a ball in its mouth. It’s usually a pearl and they believe it is being preserved just as society needs to be preserved.

We continued on towards Hoi An which isn’t far from Danang. On the way we passed some new construction and Thom said they were time shares. Most are sold to people from Hanoi with about 12% coming from Saigon and 5% from Danang. Foreign ownership is not permitted yet but that is expected to change.

Hoi An is a small city compared to the others with only 82,000 people and it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Tourism is the #1 industry and has been since 1999. Prior to that it was a sleepy community but cheap housing brought a boom to the area which now boasts million dollar homes. This is a place famous for tailors.

As a UNESCO site, groups have to pay to enter (though I saw little enforcement on the open streets). The money primarily goes to restoration.

We started a walk through the town. In the area preserved by UNESCO, scooters are not permitted. Only bicycles. Thom takes us to the restaurant he recommends and I go for the hamburger.

In the shade I didn’t realize it wasn’t cooked through, but my tummy never did say anything about it.

Abs of steel!

From here we started a walking tour of Hoi An. Motorized vehicle are not permitted on the narrow streets and that was a relief for some in the tour who didn’t like the scooter dance. We made a stop at a Chinese temple called Phuc Kien that also functioned as an assembly hall. It was built in the 17^th C.

Outside was a nice sculpture of the carp becoming a dragon. The carp is considered a powerful fish and after swimming upriver for 1000 years, it can become a dragon.

The entrance has three gates. Middle was for the royalty, the left was for the men and the right was for the women. It’s no longer enforced.

The women made a point of using the left one.

The temple has a painting of the goddess of the sea and protector of sailors, Thien Hau, who saved the Chinese who had come here by boat in 920 CE. She was assisted by gods who can see and hear for 1000 miles.

The temple has huge coils of incense that one can light asking for a myriad of things and the incense can burn for up to a month.

The heat at this point is starting to wear everyone down and Thom decides to cut the walking tour short and bring us to the hotel. He will complete the rest of it the next day for those that want to go. The Green Heaven Hotel is across the river for the UNESCO part of Hoi An and just a short walk. We check in and get our complimentary foot massage coupons.

My feet say oh yay!

I go up to my room and drop my stuff and go back into town to walk a bit. My feet say ney! I pick up the obligatory fridge magnet and a pendant for sister #3 and my first Vietnam t-shirt. Then I hobble back to the hotel and check in for a foot massage but she told me to come back later.

My feet say no way!

I go back to the room to freshen up for the night’s cooking class. Looking back, I should have skipped this one and took the time to wander the streets in the evening. Very safe and the place is rocking.

Our cooking class showed us how to put fish or chicken in the banana leaves for cooking and we cut up our vegetables for cooking and made the dipping sauce as well. The meal was delicious. They gave us the recipe as well.

We were done by 9ish and so was I. We walked back through the night time partiers on the street and I checked to find the foot massage spa closed for the evening.