Travel Log: Hoi An (March 13 - 18, 2007)...

Note: This post is part of a series regarding a recent trip.  Please read this preface to the series prior to this post for context.

Probably one of my personal favourite destinations now within Vietnam, and specifically in the back country, is Hoi An.  Located in the middle of the country just south of Hue (the ancient capital city) and Da Nang, Hoi An is known primarily for it's beaches (just south of "China Beach") and tailors.

In fact, we decided to spend almost a week here, by far the longest we spent in any one place.  While here we were able to recoup from our travel agenda and just enjoy the sun, sand and surf (so to speak).  The fact is that there is very little surf to be had here, though that didn't stop a young American guy from proudly toting his surf board (girlfriend in tow) to the beach to conquer the 2' swells coming in.  No matter...

Another highlight of Hoi An was taking advantage of the opportunity to get a custom made (even better than "made to measure") set of shirts done here.  My original plan was to get a handful of shirts made so as to see what kind of quality could be expected, but given a number of business meetings that I was scheduled to have in Hanoi the following week, a business suit, complete with shoes, shirts, ties and cuff links was required.

I left Hoi An with a very nice summer suit, five custom made shirts (of a particularly nice woven fabric) and even a pair of leather shoes... all for the sum of $305USD, and this was from one of the more "exclusive" tailors in the area, Yaly Couture.  My sales associate was Yen (or her English name "Mary"), and her English was excellent.  We later learned that these girls worked roughly 12hrs per day, 7days per week with typically two days off per month.  What a schedule!  After a little bit of research this is not out of keeping with many of the labour standards in the country.  Given that $300USD is a substantial sum by local standards, it was only proper to tip Yen well as she had worked hard to ensure everything was "perfect". 

By the way, as a rule these tailor shops turn around all garments for their first fitting within 24hrs, and are typically completed the garment 24hrs later.  They accomplish this with an army of tailors and seamstresses that work through the night.  It would seem that this is the equivalent of a "sweat shop", but in fact those that I met seemed very happy and not exploited (and I didn't see any children working in the back).

The village of Hoi An is quite picturesque and is even protected by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) as a world heritage site for it's unique history as a 15th to 19th century trading port that was virtually untouched by the countless wars and conflicts that have plagued the country.

We stayed at the Golden Sand Resort in Hoi An, and upon checking in and finding that we were Canadian, the front desk girl correctly guessed that we were from Vancouver, Canada.  She mentioned that the manager was also from Vancouver, and as a result I made sure to meet him.  Christopher Nguyen, the adopted son of a Vietnamese expatriate living in Canada in the '70s and '80s, followed his father back to Vietnam to help run one of four family-owned resorts.

Christopher's experiences after moving to Hoi An from Coquitlam (a suburb of Vancouver) were very interesting, and he spoke of opportunities for those with residency (which he had recently obtained) having the ability to purchase ocean-front lots in the area for roughly $10,000 per lot (about 15m x 35m).  Building a home that is very nice by "Western standards" would cost a further $40,000 aided by inexpensive labour, concrete and even Teak and Marble given the proximity to Teak forests and Marble quarries.  When asked what you would get for a $100,000USD investment in a home, he suggested basically "a palace", though the only differences at that stage are the quality of the appliances and fixtures in the bathroom(s) and kitchen.

While in Hoi An, we also visited Marble Mountain and China Beach, and in fact spent St. Patrick's Day on China Beach partaking of one of the local craft brews.  From this we thought we would create T-shirts when we got back to Canada that had a picture of a Leprechaun with a Vietnamese Rice Hat on with the word's "I partied like an Irishman on China Beach, Vietnam.  St. Paddy's Day 2007".  That's still on my list of things to do...

An interesting difference in Hoi An is that it isn't a dirty place.  As a result of the abundant flour-like sand (similar to Caribbean beaches), you don't see a lot of dirt.  You do however see sand everywhere on their streets, homes, buildings, stores, etc. but it doesn't seem "dirty" at all.  Cambodia was similar, except it was just dusty, not particularly dirty given the lack of humidity and water.

I did get the opportunity to fill out my diver card a little in a couple of dive's off of the coast.  It was about a one hour trip by dive boat to the site, and the ocean was rough enough that a number of the diver's on this trip had made liberal use of the only head (bathroom) on the boat.  I'm sure that didn't help their dive experience. 

The dive(s) were fair, but visibility was somewhat limited.  In fact at one point I got separated from the dive master (and one other diver in our small group) and had to hover at about 5m until I could find their bubble trail.  We found a few interesting fish species, but nothing terribly colourful like those I had seen in Fiji.  I'm told that I should have tried the diving in Nha Trang as it is better the further south you go.  I did find a perfectly good snorkel/mask set in about 20m of water though...

Next up: Hanoi (for some business), then a three-day cruise on our own private Junk Boat in Ha Long Bay...

To facilitate navigation this is a summary of posts in this series:

• Vinh Long (February 28 - March 4, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Saigon (March 5 - 6, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Nha Trang (March 7 - 9, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Siem Reap, Cambodia (March 10 - 13, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos from Siem Reap and Angkor Wat)
• Hoi An (March 13 - 18, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)
• Ha Long Bay and Hanoi (March 19 - 23, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos from Ha Long Bay)
• Saigon (March 23 - 25, 2007) - (Link) - (Photos)