A day trip to Hoi An

Being the ambitious hothead, I thought we should spend all of our days off traveling. And first stop, Hoi An. Hoi An is an ancient town that served as a major trading port, especially in spices with the Indonesian trade routes. This sounds awfully familiar to Lijiang, Yunan on China, so I thought, no problem! We can explore this place ourselves! How wrong I was, though more on that later. 

Getting there was fairly easy. There is a yellow colored bus that makes a ton of noise that rampages down the streets in Da Nang, dragging up customers to go to Hoi An, or anywhere along the route. The bus stop we waited at was at the corner of Yen Bai and Le Duan. Given the bus route is a bit mad, the best way to figure out where to catch it should be to ask the locals. The guy hurries you inboard the bus, and maybe help point a seat if there is one, or tell you where to stand in between everyone else's stuff (the locals carry everything from boxes to flag poles to motorbikes on said bus). The bus looks like a fairly standard city bus with some rows of seats in the back and single seats with standing poles upfront. 

This is when I learned that I stood out like a sore thumb as a foreigner. After we have been going for a while, the ticket collected guy came around to ask for money, which for the locals is something like 15000 to 17000, however he was asking for 50000 from me. I had already prepared 20000 for this and refused to give him more. This guy was reasonable and didn't push too hard, the guy on the return bus on the other hand... 

The Hoi An stop is at the end of the line, so there is no mistaking it. This is also the place where people will hound you to take you somewhere. The area of the ancient town is actually just to the east and south of the bus station, so it's a reasonable 10 minute walk. I saw lots of foreigners biking across, but I was not able to find out where bike rentals took place. 

I made the first mistake of following he signs on google maps for the "ancient town". This was actually marked wrong and is actually just a residential area... After trekking for 20-30 minutes in the rain, we arrived at said destination only to find a bunch of houses. However, there was a small scenic cafe right where we realized our mistake with wifi! The name was Cafe Mocda. 

The owner spoke no English, but we were at least able to ask for coffee, which he served us iced coffee as well as some hot tea. 

The ice worried me, so I drank it too fast, but it was very delicious. There was not very much of it, but it was very aromatic and pretty strong! 

After some regrouping and furious online searches, I figured out the semi right direction. We then semi back tracked to the right area where the shops are. 

The yellow buildings on the side are the little shops, quite similar to Yunan. Most of them were clothing shops that offer to tailor clothing. There were also shoe shops that will make custom shoes as well. A few shops sold souvenir products, but soon I realized they were all selling very similar items. Being very similar culturally to China, many items looked like something that I could buy in China, except cheaper and of better quality. The knock off bags were tempting. There was a Hermes wallet that the lady asked for 650,000. $30 is not bad for a brand name wallet, but not for a knock off wallet. One of the first stores we found was a jewelry shop, right next to 2 tran vu. I bought some earrings there, but later realized that their products were definitely the more unique items being sold around the area. I would recommend this shop, though they are horrendously overpriced and bargaining is key! I also ended up buying some lacquered small perfume jars, which was of questionable quality but at least looked pretty. The asking price is 100,000, I was only able to bargain down to 60,000 and that was because we bought three. My goal next time is 50,000, though we will

have to see. It's a bit harder to really bargain in a tourist area as there are so many tourists that they can probably sell it at that price to the next tourist. I will try to take a picture of said bowl later and upload it here. 

Along the way, we came across a lady who sold fried doughnuts and other fried items. This is also quite common around the main area near the river. 

The doughnut was delicious, and I ended up buying a second one. The triangular thing on top had pâté smeared on the other side and is salty, quite delicious as well. The round thing to the left is a bun with coconut shreddings inside.

The coconut didn't have much flavor, so not as good as the other two. Some of the other ladies also sold this bun with peanut and soybean inside. I did not end up trying it. 

The main area also has an area where fresh produce, as well as meat and fish were sold. The pricing once again is a bit ridiculous, but I really have no clue of the standard price of things in the area, so did not make much of an effort to buy anything. 

For some reason, dragon fruit is kinda ridiculously expensive here. The asking price is 40,000 per kilo. I am pretty sure it's $2/lb in the US, but still, not sure I am pleased with said price. Oh, and also Vietnamese coffee is also sold here. 

Lunch ended up in a restaurant that clearly caters to foreigners. There are quite a number of these fancier restaurants. Our restaurant was named Yellow River. 

I am unclear of the reference to China, but they offered Cao Lau, which is a local specialty of the area, so We ended up here. 

The dish on the left is named bahn bao vac or "White Rosé". It is supposed to be Vietnamese dumplings. There was just a little filling inside, and the outside is a chewy rice flour dough. Not too impressive. 

The dish on the right is Cao Lau. This was quite delicious as it decidedly had more flavor. 

There were definitely mint, basil, bean sprouts and basil in it, which is pretty good but definitely a risk. 

I also ended up trying the coffee with fresh milk here, which was very little serving and extremely thick. The fresh milk I suspect is just cream. 

An interesting finding we came across on the way back to the bus station. 

I suspect this is a brothel, probably a high class one. Though if you look at the building to the left, which is the one connected to these pictures, it looks like any residential building, a traditionally styled one at that. 

And at least in Da Nang, motorbikes are everywhere. They are the preferred method of transportation for almost all non-high class people. We stuck out like a sore thumb as only foreigners walk. Like, you will never see any Vietnamese person walk any more than 1/2 block because they would go to the next block on their motorbike. And just to emphasize how important motorbikes are, see below. 

And to finish off my story with the story of the battle between meme vs bus ticketer. On the way back, after we were seated, me in the back row with 5 other Vietnamese locals, the bus person wanted 30,000. Albeit, this is not unreasonable, but after a day of bargaining and dealing with sellers, I refused to feed into this "foreigners are rich and let's overcharge them" mentality. So I said no, I will only give him 20,000. He initially try to collect 30,000 from the locals around me, but as I still refused to change, he have them the change, which was more than 10,000. He then turned around and tended to the other customers. Along the way, he would intermittently look back and demand the 30,000 and refused to accept the 20,000. I, being extremely stubborn at this time, refused every single time. If he doesn't want the money, then fine by me. However, my friend give in half way as she was worried about being thrown off the bus. I was initially worried about it, but then I saw how he walked away rather than persisting on the matter, then I knew he would not throw me off. Perhaps he would not let me off, but he wouldn't throw me off. As I kept persisting for the rest of the 40 minute bus ride, the girl next me try to tell me it's really not much and to just pay. And when I explained that the difference is what pissed me off, she said that it's because they are Vietnamese. I am fine with the extra 50,000, which seems to be going rate for foreigners, but I won't take any higher.

At the end near our stop, my friend had the good sense to get off with other Vietnamese locals and I happily handed the guy 20,000. I won! ^o^V

However, the day in Hoi An taught me several things. One, don't expect much out of the scenery. Two, I cannot avoid looking like a foreigner. Perhaps it's the way I dress, my looks, the way I carry my bags, but the locals can tell from a mile away that I am not one of them. Though the ironic thing is that most foreigners cannot tell that I am not a local either. And lastly, this is not China. I need a tour guide. Figuring out where things are, what to see is actually really hard to do on your own, as things are far less organized and commercialized than China. I fully intent to find tours for our next destinations, which hopefully will include HaLong Bay.