You know that paint you used in grade school? The chalky stuff, tempera, that when it dried, rubbed off on your clothes and your hands and your backpack and your homework? Remember those dry colors, dusty and dirty but oh so bright? Those are the colors of Hoi An. And because the entire country is in a frenzy of preparation for Tet, new coats of yellow and turquoise green and cerulean blue are being applied to the buildings that line the streets. The phrase “a riot of color” barely does the situation justice, though I will use it all the same because I can think of no more accurate way to express it. It is a sight to behold.
We left Hoi An early this morning for My Son, a smaller version of Angkor Wat – sort of an appetizer for what’s to come in Cambodia. The Vietcong holed up at My Son so the US bombed the crap out of it – there’s very little preserved save one small cluster of temple buildings that are blooming with ferns and lichen and a few weather beaten Hindu gods. It was beautiful and tragic – it’s such a waste to think that the US military destroyed the site and lost the war – what’s the point, really?
We returned to Hoi An via the river, a much more pleasant journey than the bus and with far less honking. There wasn’t much to see, some fishing boats, the shoreline, a watermelon farm, but it was nice to be away from the center of town for a few hours in the quiet of overgrown crumbling ruins or on the muddy green waters of the river.
When we got back into town, we made a beeline for the pastry shop we’d spotted the day before. The French occupation of Vietnam did, I’m sure, lots of damage in all kinds of unthinkable ways, but it also left behind some very pretty architecture and more than one fine patisserie. Long time readers of Nerd’s Eye View will know of my obsession with the sweeter side of snacking and forgive my trivializing the empire, new readers, please trust I’m not totally frivolous, but I do love a fine piece of cake. The double layer passionfruit/chocolate mousse confection I had was worthy – and the bakery was churning out some very attractive breads as well. Note to self: Pick up baguette tomorrow morning after we fetch J’s new pants and the travel shells we ordered from the tailor.
Hoi An, if you don’t know, is tailor central – you can have nearly anything made to order, complete with your embroidered logo. It would be fun to have my entire travel wardrobe replicated in black and red dragon patterned brocade, right down to the shoes – which, FYI, is totally doable. We didn’t buy much, J got to pairs of pants, I got some shorts and we’re having a couple of copies of this fold into itself shell thing I have done just for grins. We pick up everything tomorrow morning before we head to Danang where we’ll hop a flight for Saigon/Ho Chi Min City.
- Weather: Overcast, but mild. Very warm at the ruins.
- Health: Mornings are a little rough but that’s probably the damp. Our hotel room was underwater not all that long ago and the mildew isn’t so very healthy.
- Funny: Our tour guide today took advantage of our tour route to do all kinds of peculiar errands. After a lot of honking, we stopped at the side of the road in a tiny village. The guide hopped off and returned with a plastic bag full of meat. Another 20 minutes up the road, in town, the aggressive honking was repeated. The guide got off again and returned a few minutes later, minus the bag of meat.