Hoi An

Danang /Hoi An, Vietnam

About 2 days before hitting Vietnam we were informed that we didn't have the correct Visas even though I had questioned Cunard home office about this several times before leaving home. The ship would get the Visas for each day. We were told that because we were flying out of Ho Chi Min City the same day we were arriving by ship, the ship visa should be OK. Well it isn't ok because we are traveling on our own to Bangkok and would not be traveling with a group. OK, fine. Alex, the manifest purser, took care of everything for the new visa and said we would be contacted when the Vietnam authorities arrived. When the call came we went up to the immigration room for our special visas. The visa required a passport photo. This was one case where my obsessive planning paid off. I bet there aren't any other people on this ship that brought extra passport photos with them and were carrying them! I asked Alex if we could take our passports with us because we were traveling on a private tour and were traveling a far distance from the ship. He said they still needed to process them and we should just go with the other papers we had and it would be fine. I asked what would happen if we missed the ship. He said, “If you do, I'll leave them on the shore with the Asians. “ What a mental picture, the back of the ship leaving port without us and our passports left on shore for us to make our way the best we could.

We left the ship, got our papers stamped in this booth and met our guide, Ving. We had a driver and a guide, both men were named Ving. This is Ving our guide. The other Ving didn't speak English.

We set off on our hour and thirty minute drive to Hoian by way of Danang. Danang was a very busy city. He showed us several sites from the Vietnam War. We saw the landing site of the first Marines and also the places they liked to hang out on their off time. Our tour was really of Hoian, so Danang was really a drive through, still very interesting. One thing that was very prominent in Danang was the motor scooters! They were zipping all over the place. Most times they had two people on each one. Many of the people were wearing very large face makes (especially the women). Ving explained that the masks were for pollution and also to protect the face from the sun. They value light, creamy skin and want to keep it that way.

As we drive to Hoian we saw cattle, huge fishing nets and rice fields.Hoi An is a well preserved town that reached its zenith in 17^th and 18^th centuries. It was once Vietnam's principal trading center. The towns architecture is a mix of Vietnamese, Chinese, Hindu, Japanese and Portuguese. It is recognized as a world cultural heritage by UNESCO. We went to one area and were taught about silk production.

This is a picture of silk worms before I saw the sign that said NO PHOTOS!

It was very interesting to see the different phases of silk production from the worms to the weaving on very old looms. The only downside was our guide, Ving, couldn't go in with us, they had their own guide. She rattled on and on with me picking up every 10^th word at best. She had a big smile on her face the whole time and I am sure she didn't have a clue we couldn't understand her. I did ask her to slow down and it helped somewhat. It was lucky we had read a book in my Florida book club that involved silk production so I really already knew about it, but hadn't seen it. This was also the first place we saw rows and rows of young girls embroidering on large frames. Some of their pieces take months to complete. I wasn't able to take pictures of this, but saw other girls later.

Another place we went in this area was a house that was hundreds of years old and was a traditional merchant's house built to withstand floodwaters in rainy season . This girl was our guide and she said that embroidery was one of her family's occupations. These girls were embroidering in the home. They were selling tablecloths there, but I didn't buy one. I haven't had much luck with those.

We walked around and took in the town including this ancient Japanese bridge.

We also visited an ancient temple. This huge spiral thing is called an incense circle. You can pay to light one for a memory of a loved one or a special cause. Even the Tourist Toilet involved a bucket of water and a scoop and a hose.

Next stop, THE MARKET!!!!! I always love a stop in the local market. First the produce section.

Then the commercial fish market.

They also had many, many tailor shops that you cold also clothes made in the same day. This one is women's clothes, but most shops have both.

The next stop was a wonderful lunch at the Brother's Café on the river. Our menu was Pork Spring Rolls, White Roses Dumplings, Grilled fish with Turmeric, Braised Pork in a clay pot and Stir fried Vegetables. The food was fantastic!

The best thing about the lunch was the great river view with all of the traffic and activity.

As we drove out of Hoian we stopped at Ving's home to meet his wife and visit her internet café. He said the price for service was about $1 US for every 8 hours of use. On the ship we are paying 50 cents a minute!
Our last stop was the Marble Mountains. There are 5 peaks identified by the five elements: fire, wind, water, wood and metal. They had many colors of beautiful Vietnamese marble. They were working on the pieces here and the women are doing the final cleaning and polishing. We had a great day and Ving was a wonderful guide. It is one port I would probably not ever desire to return to, but we enjoyed our day. On our return to the ship we watched Good Morning Vietnam. I had recorded it onto a DVD at home and it really was great to watch it after our day in Danang and in the area.