February 12, 2015 – Hoi An #1
Hoi An is a small city along the Thu Bon River, about an hour south of Da Nang. What makes it special is the ‘old’ downtown, which is more than 500 years old. It retains much of its original architecture, and rather than widening the streets to accommodate modern transportation, they have barred vehicles from the five or six blocks adjacent to the river, effectively creating a city-within-a-city.
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A city street in the afternoon.
And in the evening.
There are several very wide walking bridges across the river, which are decorated with large statues made from something translucent, and they light up at night! That sounds tacky, but they’re actually pretty interesting.
You can’t get away from the giant chickens in SE Asia.
The obligatory dragon.
A snake, I think… I’m on the bridge, and you can see how wide it is from the people in front of the statue.
An evening meal beside the river.
There’s a riverside street, which is fronted with second-story restaurants and all kinds of shops. It’s easy to spend days just walking the streets. There are many clothing stores featuring custom-made outfits, anything you like. Debbie had a couple of outfits made up. And lanterns. Lots and lots of lanterns.
Yes, of course they have a market.
A view from the island, looking back at the downtown riverfront.
A giant chicken during the day, at the entrance to one of the bridges.
Wanna buy a lantern?
This is not a lantern. But he must have been a very good boy.
After a week or so, we decided to go on an evening dinner cruise. The boat is quite rustic (I’m being polite here), and it has four tables in the stern. It leaves the downtown dock, steams up the river for about five kilometers, catches the sunset at a convenient wide spot, and then steams back to town. They serve dinner on the way up, and on the way back they have a little ceremony where you can write down all your hopes and dreams (be realistic, it’s a small piece of paper), put it in a little boat, and turn it loose on the river. Mine sunk.
The dinner was quite good, and there was unscheduled entertainment when a rat came out of the bilges and then decided to hide between the feet of a young couple having a romantic dinner. Everyone survived.
Debbie watching the town go by on our dinner cruise.