Orn's Travel Blog

Between fittings at the tailor shops we have tried to see the sights here in Hoi An.  As I said before this is a cozy little town with a lot of old houses that have been nicely restored.  The Old Town is a protected area so there are no new buildings there and the atmosphere is quite special.  There are both traditional old houses on display as well as museums, pagodas and assembly halls. 

We have been into a few of the old houses and even though nothing is quite spectacular, everything is very cozy and nice.  There is one thing worth mentioning that puts a big mark on the houses here.  Hoi An is build next to a big river so every year during the rainy season, there is a flood and the river grows enormously.  Therefore every house is on two floors so that people can move all the furniture and other stuff from the ground floor up to the second.  In most years the flood is modest and might not even get into the houses but in others the flood can be as much as two meters high up in the the houses on the river bank.

One evening we were eating at this restaurant when we were approached by a man called Mr. Phong.  He told us that he organized tours to his village that was near by and handed us a big book with references and great reviews from people that had joined him at the village.  We decided to visit him the following day.  In short the visit was fantastic!  It was great to see visit a proper Vietnamese village, even though he said that his village was above average in wealth, and to be able to talk to a local.  He went through the Vietnamese war from a Vietnamese perspective, talked about communism, he educated us on the religions of Vietnam and told us about the daily lives in the village.  All fascinating stuff to us

We went with him to a couple of families in the neighborhood and to the market and the looked at all produce of the village: tobacco, moonshine, fruits, vegetables, herbs, rice, pigs and so on.  When we got back to his house his wife had prepared a great big lunch for us including tuna in tomato paste, shrimp spring rolls, fried morning glory, melon soup and rice of course.  We would highly recommend Mr. Phong’s tour to anyone visiting Hoi An.

Mr. Phong’s full name is Nguyen Ba Phong and he can be reached at Quang Than Restaurant on the corner where Le Soi Street meets the river every evening between 18:00 and 21:00 if anyone is interested or by email at nguyenbaphongvn@gmail.com.  The whole tour, including lunch, was only $,10 if we got us to the village at our own cost, otherwise $15.

In the next blog I’ll tell you about the results from our visits to the tailors.