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| Han Huyen Homestay |
Over the course of my stay here I come to learn the home was built three years ago and it is a family run business. From what I could tell, there appears to be four generations living on the ground floor of this home. They have six rooms that they rent out.
My room isn't ready yet but that's okay because I haven't eaten since last night's cashew chicken in Siem Reap and I need to go and find some breakfast. I am given a restaurant recommendation but despite how hard I look I can't find it. So I pick a restaurant that has some people sitting in it - this has become the way I decide whether to eat at an establishment or not. If it has people in it, that's a good sign for me.
I sit down and order fruit with yogurt and muesli. I chat up the couple seated next to me: Mary and Ian from Australia (somewhere near Sydney). They tell me they are staying in Danang to have major dental work done and have come to Hoi An for the day. They have ordered some clothes and leather goods to be made. I asked them how they decided on a particular shop to use and they tell me they got the names of the shops from other tourists. Word of mouth recommendations seem to be the way to go here. Ian gives me a laminated currency cheat sheet. The Australian Dollar is pretty comparable to the Canadian Dollar so I'm happy to have the cheat sheet. We talk about seamstresses and leather shops.
Mary's dental work consists of 3 crowns, 5 fillings and a cleaning for $1500 US. She said that they were extremely impressed with the extensive reports (3-D pictures etc) that each of them were given. Ian's dental work is very extensive and he was still deciding which route to go. $17,000 was one option. In the end, after talking with them again a few days later, Ian decided to go with the cheaper option which would entail bone reconstruction in his gums and a subsequent two trips back to Danang from Australia. They say that even with the return trips, they are ahead of the game financially. It's only a 5-hour flight from Sydney to Ho Chi Minh (same distance as from Vancouver to T.
After about 30 minutes or so, Mary and Ian leave and I follow very soon thereafter. My room should be ready by now so I head back to the hotel. I check in and am shown to my room on the second floor. It's lovely and I am very happy with it. It's costing me $300 Cdn for the week. Can't complain about the cost for this lovely room that's for sure.
My room isn't ready yet but that's okay because I haven't eaten since last night's cashew chicken in Siem Reap and I need to go and find some breakfast. I am given a restaurant recommendation but despite how hard I look I can't find it. So I pick a restaurant that has some people sitting in it - this has become the way I decide whether to eat at an establishment or not. If it has people in it, that's a good sign for me.
I sit down and order fruit with yogurt and muesli. I chat up the couple seated next to me: Mary and Ian from Australia (somewhere near Sydney). They tell me they are staying in Danang to have major dental work done and have come to Hoi An for the day. They have ordered some clothes and leather goods to be made. I asked them how they decided on a particular shop to use and they tell me they got the names of the shops from other tourists. Word of mouth recommendations seem to be the way to go here. Ian gives me a laminated currency cheat sheet. The Australian Dollar is pretty comparable to the Canadian Dollar so I'm happy to have the cheat sheet. We talk about seamstresses and leather shops.
Mary's dental work consists of 3 crowns, 5 fillings and a cleaning for $1500 US. She said that they were extremely impressed with the extensive reports (3-D pictures etc) that each of them were given. Ian's dental work is very extensive and he was still deciding which route to go. $17,000 was one option. In the end, after talking with them again a few days later, Ian decided to go with the cheaper option which would entail bone reconstruction in his gums and a subsequent two trips back to Danang from Australia. They say that even with the return trips, they are ahead of the game financially. It's only a 5-hour flight from Sydney to Ho Chi Minh (same distance as from Vancouver to T.
After about 30 minutes or so, Mary and Ian leave and I follow very soon thereafter. My room should be ready by now so I head back to the hotel. I check in and am shown to my room on the second floor. It's lovely and I am very happy with it. It's costing me $300 Cdn for the week. Can't complain about the cost for this lovely room that's for sure.
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| Finally a proper shower that doesn't get the toilet and the entire bathroom wet. |
I get settled in my room and then go downstairs to ask about borrowing a bicycle as I need to go to the bank. Unfortunately all seven bicycles are already in use by other guests of the homestay but the lady offers for her brother to take me on his motorcycle. Awesome! I tell him that I want to go to the MB Bank. Sure am glad that I had the experience of riding on the back of a scooter in Ho Chi Minh so I won't be scared. The MB bank is the only bank that allows you to withdraw $5,000,000 VND at one time (that's only about $350.00 Cdn). Most other bank machines only allow a $2,000,000 withdrawal and with a $5 fee and 2.5% charged by the CIBC every time I use my debit card I am trying to get more bang for my buck. We head out on his motorbike. I enjoy the ride and getting to see some of Hoi An. I was hoping that if I went inside the bank branch that I would be able to withdraw more than $5,000,000 VND but they won't allow that and as it ends up I have to use the bank machine. Oh well, it was worth a try. I video the entire trip from the bank to the homestay but I didn't press the "record" button. Damn it!
I am in Hoi An for an entire week. I spend this first day just walking around trying to get my bearings.
Hoi An is a smaller city and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. I am staying in what is called Old Town. There is a Japanese/Chinese influence to the city. My homestay is in a super convenient location. The nightly night market is at the end of the street, and it's literally only a 5 minute walk into the main shopping/dining area for tourists.
Here is my First Impression of Hoi An:
Hoi An is well-known for its tailoring/seamstresses. Literally every third shop is selling made-to-measure clothing. If you dare stop to have a look you are told to "come inside and have a look" or "what you want lady?" I came here knowing that I wanted to get a leather tote bag made. I use the recommendation from the Aussies Mary & Ian. In the end, I am not thrilled with it. The work is good, but the design isn't exactly what I had in mind. My own fault as I allowed myself to be swayed by suggestions and too many questions when she was asking me the specifics of what I was wanting. Oh well, I now have a unique leather bag that no one else on this earth will own and it cost only $120 Cdn.
The lady from the leather shop recommends her sister's shop to get clothes made. Mary had already ordered a winter coat from this shop and she was happy with the results. I too want a coat made but when I look at her fabric options there is nothing I want. I do get her to make me two tops though. I had come with a photograph of what I was wanting. I am happy with the finished items.
I do find a large tailor shop that seems to have a lot of tourists coming and going from it so I go in. Nora waits on me and I am very happy with her customer service. I tell her what I want and she brings out large swatches of fabrics for a coat. In the end, I don't see the fabric I am looking for so I settle on a brown wool tweed - the exact same fabric as the uniform blazer jacket that all the ladies in the shop are wearing. I want some other tops made but really have no clue what sort of a top I want. They give me about eight massive catalogues to look through. I find two styles I like and I ask Nora to recommend fabrics for each style. I pick my fabrics and she tells me to come back tomorrow afternoon for my fitting.
I am very happy with how the blouses turned out. One of them I like so much that I decide to get the exact blouse made again in a different fabric. The coat I am not too happy with. The arms are way too tight and it's too tight around the middle. Nora makes some adjustments with her tailor's chalk and tells me to come back tomorrow to fit the third blouse and the coat. The next day, the 3rd blouse is perfect, the coat is still not right. I am sure it is the lining in the arms that is too tight. No problem. Nora makes some marks on the sleeve and tells me to come back tomorrow. When I return for what I think is the fourth fitting for the coat, and with the sleeves feeling as they should I am okay with the coat. Not in love with it but it's okay. I am not happy with the fabric, and am especially feeling so when at my second fitting Nora takes me into another section of the shop and I see the exact brocade fabric I had envisioned. I tell her that if she had shown me fabric samples for the coats on display I would have picked from those sample fabrics. I'm definitely not thrilled but will have to live with my decision. In the end, the coat is not the quality I was hoping for. I am pretty sure they did not put any interfacing in the collar. It just doesn't feel as sturdy as it should. When I ask Nora about that she assures me they did use interfacing. I am skeptical. As well, I note the pockets are not lined. Oh well, it only cost me $80 Cdn. so if I wear it a handful of times it's not the end of the world.
From reading the Trip Advisor forum I know you can buy cheap prescription glasses in Vietnam. I go into a shop and ask how much it will cost to make my progressive lens prescription into a pair of sunglasses. I pick out a designer frame (Gucci) and pick out the most expensive lens coating. $175 US for everything. Now that is one heck of a deal as I know I would pay between $500-$700 in Vancouver for those glasses. The guy offers to test my eyes but I have come prepared with my prescription that is only a few months old. The shop was completely legit with the guy measuring my pupillary distance and all the other things that any eyeglass shop would normally do for prescription glasses.
One afternoon I walk into a silk shop just to browse. It's obviously a high end place and all the clerks speak good English. One clerk asks me where I'm from. I tell her Vancouver and her face lights up. She tells me her husband lives in Vancouver and that he is flying back to Vancouver later this week. She says that he just retired from BCIT where he was a teacher. I can't recall what she said he taught. In any event, she and their two teenage children are going through the Immigration process. They were denied on their first attempt as all of their paperwork wasn't in order. For their second attempt, her husband has hired an Immigration lawyer. She was very excited about moving to Canada. She said she is wondering about the weather though. She says she and her kids both speak English so she thinks their adjustment won't be as difficult as it is for may immigrants. I tell her that I completely agree with her and that I am sure she will do just fine because knowing English and having experience in the customer service business in a high end shop she will not have such a difficult time adjusting
Hoi An is also famous for its Handmade lanterns. They hang all over the city and at night time is when you can really see them for beautiful pieces that they are.
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| Making lanterns |
Hoi An really comes alive at night time. The night market sets up seven nights a week only a street away from my homestay. As well, as busy as the town seems in the daylight hours, at night time the tourists come out in full force and the temporary population seems to quadruple from the daylight hours. Setting up for the night market
Day #2 in Hoi An is gray and cool. It may be only about 20 C. (if that). I ask the lady at the hotel if the sun will come out today and she says she doesn't think so. Hmmm... well it is probably a good day to head out on a bicycle to see what is yet to be discovered. I don't have a plan but set out on the main route which was the same way that we went to the bank yesterday.
I've only gone a block or two and notice that one of the brakes on the bike doesn't work at all. The only working brake is at about 15%. Yikes! I cycle about three miles to An Bang beach. A block from the beach I quickly learn that bicycles are not allowed past a certain point when I hear a whistle being blown at me. There is a parking lot for bicycles that you pay to park your bike. White chalk is used to write your claim ticket # on the seat of the bike. I can't recall how much I paid to park the bike but it was probably about .50 cents Cdn. I didn't have a lock for the bike. When I asked the homestay about locking the bike they said it was fine to not lock the bike. I raised my eyebrows and questioned her again and she said she was not concerned about the bike being left unlocked.
There are two beaches near Hoi An. An Bang is the one beach where the beach hasn't been washed away from the monsoons that come through Hoi An, the most recent one being only about 6-8 weeks ago. The beach is okay. Nothing spectacular and not as nice as the beaches I saw in Thailand. I walk a couple of miles down the beach. On my walk back I notice the tide has really come in severely, so much so that I have to move up close to the bank. Gosh, glad I turned around when I did. I manage to pick up a couple of beach treasures, as well as a piece of broken glass, sharp side pointed upwards just waiting for an unsuspecting foot to step on it.
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| Beach treasures |
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| Fishing boats on An Bang beach. They go out very early in the morning. |
I'm getting hungry but the restaurant selections at the beach are minimal (two places!) and very overpriced. Double the price of what you would pay in town. I go and collect my bike and as I'm pulling it out of it's spot a man comes to check that my paper ticket matches the white chalked number on the seat.
I enjoy the cycle back towards town and veer off onto the paved pathways that meander through rice fields. These paved pathways are like rural roads for motorcycles, bicycles and farmers. Cycling through the rice fields
I come across a guy fishing in the rice fields and it intrigues me as it isn't anything close to a lake and I wonder what kind of decent fish could be found in such shallow waters. He caught a fish
As I get closer to town, I spot a restaurant that has a lot of people in it so I decide that is where I will stop for lunch. Pho Bo which has become my "go to" meal here in Vietnam. It's beef noodle soup with a variety of accompaniments served on the side that you mix in as to your liking.
As I get closer to town, I spot a restaurant that has a lot of people in it so I decide that is where I will stop for lunch. Pho Bo which has become my "go to" meal here in Vietnam. It's beef noodle soup with a variety of accompaniments served on the side that you mix in as to your liking.
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| Pho Bo. If you only you could smell it. Yummo! |
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| I can only presume they carried the ladder in on their motorbike. |
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| How do you know which wire is faulty? |
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| The guy with the pole is slapping it in the water to scare the fish out of the weeds. |
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| Vegetable garden |
Back at my homestay I get a chance to see myself in the mirror. OMG! I am sunburned so bad. My face is like a lobster and it hurts. I forgot to put on sunscreen today because it was cloudy and cool earlier this morning. Later on as I was wandering the streets and stopped into a shop, one of the store clerks comments on my sunburn. I told her it was painful. She spoke Vietnamese to her sister and then in English told me that her sister would take me to the Pharmacy to get something for my face. How nice is that? The sister doesn't speak English but motions for me to follow her. We walk a block or so to a Pharmacy. It's counter-service only. You tell the Pharmacists what you want and he goes and fetches it. I end up with a tube of Aloe Vera gel. Very cooling and refreshing and exactly what my face needs to calm down and repair itself.
Every day is pretty much the same here in Hoi An. I get up early and am downstairs eating my complimentary breakfast by 7:00 AM. The Mom of the homestay does the cooking. You can choose from traditional Vietnamese breakfast dishes of rice or soup, or Western foods of eggs, pancakes, fruit etc. I have the same thing every day: fruit with a banana pancake and Vietnamese coffee. The pancake is so delicious. I've had them a few places on my travels in Vietnam but the pancake she makes is the best. No syrup is served with it as it always has banana or pineapple inside of it. The banana pancake is my favourite. It's really thin. They don't use any leavening agent. It's a mixture of white flour, water, milk, and egg. I'm kinda getting used to Vietnamese coffee now so near the end of my stay I am starting to order a 2nd cup now that I've built up a tolerance.
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| Banana pancake. So delicious. |
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| The ratio of coffee to sugar. I drank it black. If you like milk, it is served with sweetened condensed milk. |
After breakfast I venture out and about every day. Never have a plan. Hoi An is a rather laid back city and it definitely moves at a much slower pace than any other place I've visited in Vietnam. Touring the country sides by bicycle, browsing around, shopping and eating seem to be the popular things to occupy your time in this city.
I email a company that offers guided bicycle tours. I make arrangements for the next day to go to Cam Kim Island. After breakfast this day I ask for a bike. Despite my having told them that the bike I had used the other day had faulty brakes, I am certain I am given the exact same bike again. By the time I get to the tour office I am very leary about using this bike for hours. As it turns out, there were supposed to be three of us on this tour but two people cancelled last minute so it was just me and my guide Nancy.
Nancy has attended University for tourism. Her English is excellent She has a very happy disposition and she is a very good tour guide. Just as we are about to leave her office it starts to sprinkle rain so Nancy gets a rain cape for each of us. We travel through the non-touristy areas of Hoi An for about 15 minutes to get to the ferry dock that will take us to Cam Kim Island. I had no clue Hoi An was this large. The things you see when you join a tour guided by a local and get away from the touristy areas. I love it.
We don't even get to the ferry dock and the brakes on my bike are non-existent. I am having to use my feet to stop and it's a bit scary as you never know when you have to stop on a dime here with motorcycles and other bicycles not abiding by any Western rules of the road. I tell Nancy that my bike is unsafe. She says that she will call into her tour shop and see if they have a spare bike. We're sitting on the ferry waiting for more customers to come along (the ferry does not run on a schedule, it departs when there are sufficient people to cover the ferry owner/operator's expense of running it) and within 10 minutes a motorcycle pulls up with a bicycle splayed out on the seat. That bike is for me! The motorcycle driver takes the homestay's bike back to their shop on their motorbike. Now that is great customer service.
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| Nancy teaches me how to take a selfie. It's true, I had no clue. |
It's raining the entire 15 minute ferry ride. Oh well, we make the best of it and set out to cycle around the small island.
Eventually it stops raining on the island. Thank goodness. Time for another selfie!
Eventually it stops raining on the island. Thank goodness. Time for another selfie!
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| Yes, the young Vietnamese love their selfies just like young people everywhere. |
Our first stop is to a kindergarten. OMG! I have never seen such a beautiful kindergarten and the kids so crazy (in a loving way). They were mauling me and pulling at me. It was like I was an animal in a zoo. I actually didn't like how they were all over me the way that they were.
Kids in Vietnam start kindergarten at the age of 3. This school has kids aged 3-5. I was thoroughly impressed with what I saw. Kindergarten on Cam Kim Island
Then we cycle only a few minutes further to a home where a mother and daughter are Weaving sleeping mats This is a 3rd generation family enterprise. They sell their sleeping mats at the market. I tried my hand at it as well, tying the coloured pieces of straw to the end of the bamboo stick and interlacing the stick through all the strings. I can't begin to fathom the monotony of doing this day-in, day-out.
Kids in Vietnam start kindergarten at the age of 3. This school has kids aged 3-5. I was thoroughly impressed with what I saw. Kindergarten on Cam Kim Island
Then we cycle only a few minutes further to a home where a mother and daughter are Weaving sleeping mats This is a 3rd generation family enterprise. They sell their sleeping mats at the market. I tried my hand at it as well, tying the coloured pieces of straw to the end of the bamboo stick and interlacing the stick through all the strings. I can't begin to fathom the monotony of doing this day-in, day-out.
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| Weaving sleeping mats |
We are only at the mat weaving place about 10 minutes and then we move along on our tour. We stop in on a family who makes rice noodles, rice paper wrappers and rice crackers.
Once again, I can't imagine the monotony of doing this all day long. This lady gets up in the dark every single day so that the family has fresh noodles for their breakfast and they take the fresh noodles to sell at market on a daily basis.
She feeds the fire with rice husks (the brown stuff at the bottom of the photo). NOTHING goes to waste in this country - well except for plastic. As a friend who has visited here called it "the land of plastic", that is very true analogy of Vietnam.
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| Rice flour mixed with water to make rice paper wrappers. Spread out thin like a crepe and then steamed. |
I try my hand at making a rice paper wrapper. Definitely not as easy to flip that rice paper as this lady made it look.
We enjoy a snack of rice crackers and tea.
Nancy and I make one more stop at a boat building operation. Not much to see here, not to mention it's raining again!
We get back on the ferry and head back across the river to Hoi An. Nancy invites me to lunch. It's not part of the itinerary but as we're in the neighbourhood of the most famous Banh Mi sandwich shop in Hoi An (Banh Mi Phuong) we take advantage of it and go for lunch. Nancy doesn't eat anything but she orders a Banh Mi for me. I've never had one before but have certainly read about them. According to Anthony Bourdain, this is the best there is. Before Anthony Bourdain visited this shop, she sold 700 Banh Mi a day. After he visited, she now sells 3,000 a day! The power of someone famous visiting your shop. Best Banh Mi according to Anthony Bourdain I don't know. I guess I just don't have an appreciation or respect for the Banh Mi. I wasn't impressed. Perhaps it was the knowing that it had pork liver pate on it that didn't appeal to me or the fact that it is a very rare day that I would ever eat a sandwich. As I am writing this some two weeks after the fact, it still remains the only Banh Mi I have eaten in Vietnam.
We get back on the ferry and head back across the river to Hoi An. Nancy invites me to lunch. It's not part of the itinerary but as we're in the neighbourhood of the most famous Banh Mi sandwich shop in Hoi An (Banh Mi Phuong) we take advantage of it and go for lunch. Nancy doesn't eat anything but she orders a Banh Mi for me. I've never had one before but have certainly read about them. According to Anthony Bourdain, this is the best there is. Before Anthony Bourdain visited this shop, she sold 700 Banh Mi a day. After he visited, she now sells 3,000 a day! The power of someone famous visiting your shop. Best Banh Mi according to Anthony Bourdain I don't know. I guess I just don't have an appreciation or respect for the Banh Mi. I wasn't impressed. Perhaps it was the knowing that it had pork liver pate on it that didn't appeal to me or the fact that it is a very rare day that I would ever eat a sandwich. As I am writing this some two weeks after the fact, it still remains the only Banh Mi I have eaten in Vietnam.
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| Banh Mi Phuong's banh mi sandwich made famous by Anthony Bourdain |
Nancy and I bike back to her shop. I get back my decrepit bike and head on back to my homestay. At least the rain has stopped so the only working wonky brake is barely working at 10% but I make it back home.
Later this same day, I am sitting at a street side cafe having another bowl of Pho Bo. It's the strangest thing I've ever see. Over the course of 10-15 minutes, all these motorbikes are pulling up and simply stopping on the street and just sitting there. With each passing minute, the number of motorbikes increases. What is going on?
Soon, it becomes very apparent what's going on. Just like any other place in the world, it's After School pickup
Other than the day I went out on the bicycle tour with Nancy, the weather is pretty much perfect here. No rain in sight.
Later this same day, I am sitting at a street side cafe having another bowl of Pho Bo. It's the strangest thing I've ever see. Over the course of 10-15 minutes, all these motorbikes are pulling up and simply stopping on the street and just sitting there. With each passing minute, the number of motorbikes increases. What is going on?
Soon, it becomes very apparent what's going on. Just like any other place in the world, it's After School pickup
Other than the day I went out on the bicycle tour with Nancy, the weather is pretty much perfect here. No rain in sight.
One day, I wander a little further off the beaten tourist track and find one of the local vegetable, fish & meat markets. Hoi An vegetable market
I don't do much of anything exciting in Hoi An for the rest of my stay except wander around, browse, shop and eat. Here are some photos of this most beautiful place on the central coast of Vietnam.
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| Bamboo bicycle |
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| Japanese bridge built in the 1590's |
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| Han Huyen Homestay |
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| I don't know what they were serving but I ate it. |
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| Hoi An is a v-e-r-y popular place or wedding photos. |
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| Most every stairs has a ramp made of cement or steel so the motorbikes can be parked inside for the night. |
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| Brides rent their dresses as they typically have four or five changes of gowns. Wedding photographers cost about $1,000 (which is 1/3 of the average yearly salary). |
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| Taken from inside the Japanese covered bridge, looking across the river towards my Homestay |
My second to last morning I go for a walk in the neighbourhood in a direction I hadn't previously gone to. Here's what I saw:
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| Another beautiful homestay |
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| Dishes drying in the sun |
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| Obviously business last night was very good. Look at all those chopsticks. |
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| It may look like an art installation but those are actually rice paper wrappers drying in the sunshine. |
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| These wooden racks they carry the food on look extremely heavy, when you see them in person. |
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| Donation box for using the bathroom. Too bad they don't use that money to buy toilet paper or soap. Always gotta carry your own as you do come across the odd place that has neither. No one guarding this box. It's just sitting in what looks like a parking lot with no one in sight. |
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| Looks tranquil but it smelled like a sewage pond. |
The morning I check out of my homestay, the daughter (who speaks English) asked me if I wanted to live with them! That was really sweet. I really did like this family. Watching them live and work together, four generations of them, gave me pause for thought as I would see them eating every meal together and work together, each of them doing what they were strong in (one daughter spoke English, the Mom was the cook, the brother the gardener and looked after the financial end of things, the Dad looked after the bicycles and went out to work, another sister waited on the tables and helped the Mom with the food for the paying guests. I came to learn that it is Vietnamese custom that you do not start to eat your food until every person is seated at the table. When I was coming and going throughout the day I would see they had put all the tables in the common area space together and would sit down to eat as one big family. That really warmed my heart. We in North America haven fallen so far off the path of being connected as a family.
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| One of three tables in the main floor lobby area of the homestay where guests dine and then the family puts all 3 tables together for them to dine as a family. |
Hoi An captured my heart. I would absolutely revisit this place again. Give me a choice between Mexico and Hoi An and it would be a real toss up. From the first day I set eyes on this City, I knew I would grow to love this place and I did.
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