Immediately after disembarking the ship, we walked a little in Ho Chi Minh City to escape the extortionist cabs around the port. That turned out to be a good move, since our cab to the airport cost a fraction of the fares demanded outside the port gates. Once at the airport, we hurried up and waited to depart to Hoi An. Hoi An is a 45 minutes drive from Da Nang, along the coast of Vietnam. While Da Nang is home to the big tourist resorts, Hoi An is much less frequented and retains a smaller city charm. Maybe something along the lines of Playa Del Carmen relative to Cancun. Hoi An itself lies along a river about a kilometer inland from the ocean.
We read that Hoi An has a quite pace of life and characteristics of a sleeping farming and beach community. However, the main street through Hoi An is pure Vietnam. Motor bikes, cars, pickups and larger trucks all compete for space on the narrow and crowded street. It is a constant orchestra of noise as everyone uses their horn to alert others to their presence. And more like the middle school orchestra.
But on the bike tour we took our second day, we discovered the quiet we expected once we escaped the main street. We biked through villages that reach had their historic role to play. One village was the brick making village, another made pottery, a third was the vegetable patch. Wending our way on the paved paths we visited workshops and watched people performing their craft. Tet had decreased the actual work activity some, although their were plenty of people around. We even managed to try our hands at making some small bowls on a pottery wheel.
Before long, we found ourselves at the edge of the villages and in vast track of rice cultivation. The land there is owned by the government and leased to families. The back breaking work of rice farming has become less appealing so many plots were unplanted. As we rode along the berms delineating plots we learned about the Vietnam War and the impact on the people. Of course to the Vietnamese, it is the American War. It is a testament to the resilience of the people that, despite the hostilities between the US and Vietnam, they have left that behind. It is similar everywhere we have been in Southeast Asia, where most countries have survived horrible wars. We suspect it has something to do with Americans protesting the war at home. People frequently mention their love for the foreign people and distrust for foreign governments.
We enjoyed our few days in Hoi An, especially the bike tour and the time we spent in the old town. The old town has been a trading port since the 15th century and consists of several shop lined streets on the edge of the river that runs through town. It is the home of the famous Japanese Bridge and was the center of Tet activities while we were there. Visiting the crowded streets was akin to being on a Japanese subway at rush hour! We found some great restaurants along those street during our few days there.
One of our highlights in Hoi An was visiting the Cat Cafe! It was home to a whole bunch of cats – three dozen maybe. And they patrolled the compound as customers wandered in and out and got a coffee or a snack and played with them. The Cafe is a rescue owned by a woman who wanted to do something for all the stray cats.
After a few days in Hoi An, we hopped on the flight to Hanoi. We intentionally visited Hanoi second since there are flights from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh every half hour, but more on that later.
Hanoi was a little anticlimactic, to be honest. We were hoping to find a smaller, quieter version of Ho Chi Minh City, but Hanoi was not that. It was a thriving, crazy city, full of people, motorbikes and cars. We were hoping to see Ho Chi Minh himself, but the viewing hours were super limited and we missed it by just a few minutes. The highlights were a nice hotel with a great rooftop bar and a nice restaurant, and some other good food around the city.
The true lowlight was our trip back. We had booked a flight early afternoon to make sure that we got back in plenty of time. We never book our flights back to the port city on the same day as the ship leaves so we don’t miss the ship. But this time, we saw flights every half hour from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City so we thought it would be fine. However, before we even went to breakfast in the morning, our flight was delayed 4 hours. There was another hour delay by the time we got to the airport….and then nothing after that happened on time either. Our arrival back to HCMC ended up being more than five hours late! So missed our “on-ship” time, although fortunately the ship didn’t leave until the next morning. It confirmed our decision to always come back to the port city the day before!
