Hoi An Overview

Hoi An
The photos are of the Hoi An riverfront area and the Reaching Out disabled artisans workshop.
We left HCMC on Thursday and flew to DaNang, where the hotel picked us up (for $15) and took us to Hoi An. Our hotel, the Greenfield, is just that: a huge bright green structure! We can’t miss it, so we’ll never get lost. It turns out that it is actually in the best location. We are walking distance to town, yet close enough to the beach as well. (We tried to walk yesterday, but ended up grabbing a taxi in this god-awful heat.) We wanted a hotel on the beach, but the one we could afford was booked, so this one, at $23/night for the two of us, including breakfast in the morning and a free rum punch at ‘happy hour,’ is actually a better deal. The staff has bent over backwards for us as well. They had to change out our fridge on the first night because it wasn’t working, but they were up and getting it taken care of immediately, and you know me and my towels, which they hand over happily.  They put us on the top floor at the farthest end of the hall, where no one but the hotel staff would probably walk, as the staff staircase is at this end; the main one is at the other end. I am so grateful, for there are lots and lots of ‘young-ens’ staying in the 5$-a-night sleeping dorm, and I don’t need the noise. We decided, after the first night, to have our dinner here as well, and so they move the big portable cooling fan (part AC, part fan) to our table when we eat. We watch the ‘young-ens’ run back and forth to the pool bar to refill their happy hour free rum punches; mine gets filled automatically at my table.  You won’t believe it, but I have them stop at 2, thank you.
As soon as we arrived, I went to Anet’s travel agent and booked our snorkeling tour, my My Son tour, and our taxi ride back to the airport.
On Friday, we went on a boat ride/snorkeling adventure out to the islands near Hoi An and had lunch on Cham Island. This was definitely the highlight of the trip. It was booked with Blue Coral Dives, and they are absolutely fabulous. We saw other boats and diving trips; our boat looked the cleanest and most comfortable. MUCH more on that in another blog!
On Saturday, I got up and caught the 5:00 am tour bus to My Son (pronounced mee-son). It was great because we got there so early, with no other tours or people, so my pictures don’t have a bunch of tourists in them. More about that in a separate blog as well. Oh, but about the pronunciation of My Son, I do have a story. As you know, I brought my son to VN. Well, in this town, when I am looking for my son, they all think I want to book a tour to My Son and I just don’t know how to pronounce it!

When I got back from the My Son tour, I managed to just get into the free breakfast with 2 minutes to spare. I put food on my plate and then they cleared the buffet table. When I got back up to the room, Anthony was happily on the computer. He’d gotten up at 8:30 and was happy as a clam.

We walked into the town and did a little sight seeing then. There is a shop called Reaching Out that I wanted to find. It was started by a man who is in a wheelchair from a botched operation when he was 16. Until recently, the disabled were considered unable and he set about to change that. He opened an artisan shop where they make various things: jewelry, linens, pottery, etc. The workshop is in the back of the store, where they are working away. We got to watch them work, and then browsed the store. All profits go back into the store and its people, which is so cool. You can order things from their website, www.ReachingOutVietnam.com as well. Their silks are 70% silk, 30% cotton (or maybe 80/20) and they are absolutely beautiful. The silks are only $7 USD per meter. They buy the woven cloth from another company with a similar philosophy and make linens and other items with it.

We walked along the river and also through the obligatory market, where Anthony bought 2 more lighters and I got Nick 5 t-shirts. That excursion, plus coffee, took us about 2 hours. We still had time for the beach!


I will say that the beach is beautiful, but it’s not as much fun when you are wondering where your 14 year old son went. He doesn’t get to ‘take a walk’ again. I kept looking and looking for him, and he came up from the other direction. It seems he had lost our beach chairs and grass umbrella. Well, they do all look the same. We rented the beach chairs because they had the only cover on the beach, and we were still a little red from snorkeling the day before. We tried to slather ourselves with sunscreen before we left the hotel, but we probably sweated most of it off on the way to the beach, and the rest washed off in the waves coming in. The waves at Cua Dai were a lot of fun, though. I could swim out (way past all the stand-ers) to the warning flag and then ride them back in. I had to watch out and never go past the warning flag, however, because the crazy jet-skiers were out there. I don’t think they paid attention to anything.

Today is our last day, but we are not catching our plane until 8:00 pm. I wanted a full day here to do whatever else we wanted. Mostly, though, with Anthony’s sunburned face, that will be mostly indoor activities. We’ll check out at noon and head across the street so mom can get a cheap massage at one of the spas and Anthony can read his book or play on the PSP. I can’t pass this up. The most expensive treatment in the whole brochure is still $45 for 120 minutes. Where in Washington am I going to find a deal like that??? I can’t find it in HCMC either.

Update: waiting for the plane now.
We were scurried out of our room at 11:00, so we walked across the street to the 'spa' where I had a 1 hour massage ($10) a shampoo (which includes a scalp massage) $4, and a haircut ($5) all of which I needed. My hair looks pretty good, and I really needed this cut and was wondering when i would find time to fit it in.

After that, we went to the hotel restaurant for one last meal, where I typed more blogs in Word and Anthony played on the PSP. Then we took one last walk into town, found a new market, bought some chopsticks, and headed back to catch our taxi.

Business class rocks, by the way. I'm so jealous of business travelers now.

Catch you up later this week!!