Hoi An

Okay, so Hoi An is a bit further along the road to being a complete tourist trap. Following on the theme of the last post, Hoi An could be what Hue has to look forward to – but let’s hope not! The old city center has basically been stripped of any traditional shops, industry, or housing in favor of restaurants, clothing shops, souvenir shops, and hotels. Since the old quarter is small, the surrounding city still supports a more vibrant local life, but that too is also quite touristy.

Not saying the old city isn’t cute – it really is. It’s a collection of Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese inspired architecture from a couple centuries before the 20th, when the city served as a thriving port in Southeast Asia that attracted traders from all over Asia. Hoi An today though is definitely in danger of becoming like Lijiang, China (an utter façade of an “old city” since nary a local person actually sleeps OR lives in it anymore.) The prices here have also skewed higher, and in some cases completely out of reach for normal Vietnamese. There are beach resorts that cost hundreds of dollars a night, hotels in the old quarter that go for close to 100, and restaurants that charge close to 10 dollars a person for a main course (considering a bowl of pho can be 1/10 of that, you can see how this is relatively decadent.)

Although I’m not sure it will remain nice in the future, it still is worth a couple of days of wandering. Unfortunately for me, after two full days of real sun in Hue (the first sunshine I’ve seen since I left California on the 27th if you can believe that!) we’re back to doom and gloom and even worse as it rained all day today. It made going out and walking around the old quarter a bit difficult. The change in temperatures and my idiot use of a fan while sleeping last night has me feeling a bit under the weather. I’m hoping I can chase the cold away with the ginger tea I’m drinking right now but I’m not holding my breath.