Pity only 1 day in Hoi An – Vietnam

So after a very nice breakfast, we had a leisurely start to the day at 9am, when our guide Huyén Nguyén, took us on a walking tour of the ‘old town’, through the busy markets, the temple with a mixture of Vietnamese, Japanese and Chinese influences, and few hundred year old house and the famous Japanese bridge built in the 1500s.The morning included a concert of traditional music, singing and dancing, and a very strange operatic number with the performer throwing herself around the stage while making sad, angry or fierce facial expressions.

This holiday has definitely had a focus on boats, which is great as I love boats, though it means you constantly have this swaying motion even when on land. Our boat ride today took us to a pottery making village. The village is quite poor and struggling to survive as the young people are not interested in the pottery making profession and move to the city for other job options. We were given a demonstration of pottery being made on a manual potter’s wheel by an 87 year old women who has been making pottery since she was 17 yrs old. She made it look easy. The power for the potters wheel came from a younger woman who used her foot to keep the potter’s wheel spinning. I was then given a go (see the video in the photo gallery!!). My pot was placed on the shelf with other tourists pottery attempts, to be on exhibition for years to come, so if you ever visit the pottery village in Hoi An make sure you look for my pot – it is decorated with the letters ‘L I Z’.

The other highlight of the day was John being measured by a tailor for a new suit. Hoi An is a centre for silk making and famous for its tailors. He was measured (see photos!) at 9:30am in the morning, a first fitting check at 4pm, a 2nd fitting check at 5:15pm and then delivery to our hotel room at 9pm – all on the same day… (Aussie tailors have a lot to learn about customer service). Although the Vietnamese staff sometimes work 14 hr days to meet the demand.

After a rejuvenating swim in the hotel pool, we ventured back into the town for some shopping, good bargains to be had, but one very quickly tires of the pressure placed on you to buy something every time you stop to look. Dinner, again, was delicious Vietnamese food, sitting on an upstairs terrace overlooking the river and the street below lit up with Chinese lanterns – very pretty.

After dinner, as the nightly torrential rain storm hit, we took cover in local art gallery, and ended up investing 3.8 million in original Vietnamese artworks… hopefully a sound investment for the future.

We really are having an extraordinary holiday, some wonderful experiences.

Hoi An Traditional Dancing

another boat cruise

Liz the potter

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