We Love Hoi An

This past weekend we traveled to Hoi An for the first weekend trip. Hoi An is this sixteenth century trading port where Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese all lived together and had raucous parties all night long. This picture is taken from one of many tourist shops - the towns entire economy appears to be about beach resorts, silk pajamas, and late night clubs.






Hoi An is also known for its lanterns. Its one of those weird things that started here back about ten years ago, maybe one shop that made lanterns the old-fashioned way, that has mushroomed into a nation-wide phenomenon. Every backpacker joint and tourist shop from Hanoi to Saigon now sells these lanterns. They are like beacons attracting all manner of scantily clad tourist to buy some statues or order a cafe sua da (ice milk coffee).




Yep, Hoi An brings out the best in tourists. There was a full-moon festival when we went, and the students hooked up with a few Vietnamese pop stars and spent the evening at the beach with Vicky returning to show an autographed poster of the main pop icon. Scuppy, Hong Anh and I opted for more staid entertainment. We rode swan boats and wandered among the carnival.

This picture is for the grandparents reading this and Scuppy's many admirers...

It's this pretty, really. I shot this at 5:15 am walking across the river from our hotel to the main downtown market.