Hoi An

We spent 3 blissful nights in Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage City.  The old town is incredibly charming and unique, most buildings are painted a shade of yellow, all old and charactered with wooden shutters or wrought iron, and flowers.  Buildings and the streets themselves are strung with colourful lanterns which are neat in the day but extra special at night when they glow warm and bright all through the streets of the old town.  We spent a lot of time wandering the streets at night, soaking in the atmosphere.

Hoi An is known for its tailoring shops, and the only annoyance in the city was the constant soliciting to have something made.  Chris decided to get a suit made which was a fun process to go through, choosing the fabric, getting fitted, coming back a few times to have minor adjustments made, and then walking out with a tailor made suit on the third day.  Pretty sharp!

getting measured up for the shirt

One of the many fittings, we didn't get a photo of the suit, shirt, and tie completed, but

trust me when I say it looks sharp!

The night before we left Maya tried on a jacket she loved and the shop owners assured her that she could have one made in the colours of her choice for the next day, so we put in an order.  Sure enough, it was ready by noon the next day. They told her that 3 seamstresses worked through the night on it, what a lucky kid!  We got it made a bit too big for her so that hopefully it will fit her in the fall.

We got to Hoi An in time for the first full moon of the new year, which we were told was an important day of celebration and would involve a lantern celebration where locals make wishes on the full moon by releasing paper lanterns into the river.  Well, there was a lantern celebration, but I don't think any locals were partaking.  Tons of tourists were releasing lanterns into the water, and there was a breeze which ended up blowing the majority of them to the side of the river to congregate there.  At one point we saw a group of them catch fire right at the edge woman's rowboat, and when flames started lapping at her boat she doused them all with huge splashes of water - so much for those peoples wishes!  We weren't feeling the authenticity there and convinced the kids not to release any lanterns of our own.  Later, Maya said that she had a wish and she regretted not setting a lantern afloat with it.... enter guilty parent feelings!  It has, at times, been tricky to balance wanting to do or try everything with the reality of our budget constraints or sometimes with the negative environmental/ethical impact.  This time it turned out that the lanterns were available the next night too, and since it was much quieter and there wasn't a wind blowing them to the side, we let her go for it.  She wanted to keep her wish a secret, perhaps we'll never know what she wished for! 

a few lanterns carrying wishes down the river - Maya's is in there!

One day we rented bikes and rode through scenic rice fields to get to the beach.  The rice fields were an amazing verdant green, with farmers wearing the traditional Vietnamese hats bent over working the fields, and water buffalo grazing, it was an idyllic sight. 

We got to the beach to find huge slamming waves rolling in, and understandably no swimming allowed.  We watched in awe as the waves crashed in for awhile, then biked along farther until we found a swimming area.  From the surface, it didn't look any more calm than the other spot, but it likely had less undertow or something.  Chris and Lucas jumped right in, Maya joined them soon, I was happy to stay on the beach with our valuables and take pictures- those waves were crazy!

Hoi An was lovely, full of good food and good memories - one of those places where the stars seem to align and good energy gathers, a place that is hard to leave.