It may have been my fault. I definitely said nothing but I may have thought that the Buddah at the Citidel needed to lose a few pounds, purely for health reasons, and I think it upset him because last night Buddah cried and it got very wet. 

The rooms at our hotel, the Ancient Hue Gardens, has very beautiful traditional garden houses but the roofs are made of clay tiles. At first I couldn’t understand why Brigitte was having a shower at 4am, then I realised it was the torrential rain pelting the clay and coming through the porous tiles into the room.

As I said in my prologue post, we were fortunate to miss Typhoon Yagi.

Unfortunately Typhoon Man-Yi has just hit the Philippines and it’s now on its way here, so it seems we could be in for some bad weather for a few days.

Fingers crossed the typhoon will calm a bit before it gets here as we have a very nice pool on the roof in our hotel in Hoi An where we just arrived and we’d like to use it before it blows away.

I just went to explore said pool and, on the way back, I made the classic mistake of opening the wrong door and ended up in a broom cupboard! Luckily I think no-one noticed. 

Philosophical question: If you walk into a broom cupboard and there’s no-one there to see it, are you still a plonker?

Hoi An is around 240km (150 miles) south of Hue and I recently requested a diversion to Da Nang as I’d heard it was an interesting city.

Rather than the motorway, we took the The Hai Van Pass, a 165km winding scenic route on the East Coast of Vietnam, connecting Hue to Da Nang. Great for motorbikes so I gently leaned into the corners for nostalgia.

This pass was used as a military post in the past as it was a strategic and physical border between the kingdoms of Champa and Dai Viet from 1306 and north and south during the Vietnam war. 

 

We then stopped at a beautiful bay which seems to exist solely as a photo opportunity with its typical working fishing boats. 

Then we reached Da Nang itself and visited the museum of Cham sculpture. 

The Cham, or Champa, were the original inhabitants of central Vietnam and Cambodia. There are only around 150,000 of them left  in southern Vietnam. (Ethnic cleansing 😩). They were Hindu/Buddist with their own language and built many, many temples. 

The museum was one of the first built by the French and an archeologist, named Henri Parmentier, collected hundreds of artefacts and statues which are now in this world-class museum. 

Next stop was Marble mountain in Da Nang. It’s a group of five karsts (like the ones that rise from the water in Lan Ha bay). They are both a natural wonder and spiritual setting.

The five karsts are named after the five ‘elements’. Metal, water, wood, fire and earth and home to a network of caves, tunnels and pagodas built by the mahayana Buddhists and Nguyen emperors (remember them?).

Lots of steps to climb! So many that we were exhausted so we had to find a nice beach club for lunch…

…before reaching Hoi An, our home for the next few days.

Toilet talk

If you followed my Japan blog you will be aware of my obsession with their toilet technology. Water sprays of varying temperatures, pressure and pulsating cleaning jets. ‘Privacy’ modes to mask ‘certain noises’ and lovely warm air dryers.

So impressed was I that kept my blog promise and installed one when I got home. I’m now well known for having one of the freshest bottoms in the Harrogate region!

In Vietnam, however, toilet tech is way behind Japan, though a little ahead of the UK, as many WC’s have a hose attached with a manual water jet. 

I have absolutely no idea how to use such a thing. Do you stand up and spray up, down and around? How does one aim without a mirror? Or, are you meant to just stay seated and somehow thread the hose into the bowl and randomly spray?

Either way I reckon you’d just end up with damp dongs. (Because everyone surely keeps their money in their back pocket don’t they?).

Fruit quiz, Fruit quiz, Fruit quiz

Today, I’m going to award Anna half a point for knowing that the mystery fruit is also known as the ‘queen of fruits’. Its actual name, however, is the Mangosteen. It’s incredibly popular here, made into jams and desserts, and thought to have many medicinal properties.

The Durian (see fruit quiz no. 1) is known as the king of fruits and Mangosteen the queen, so they are often served together.

(Come on Charlie, I have to be impartial and don’t want to fruit-shame you but your fruit confidence and fruit knowledge are out of alignment😉)

Todays fruit quiz…

Another day, another mystery fruit

This evening we wandered the Night market.

Hoi An is a cute little town split by the Thu Bon river, along whose banks most of the action occurs.

There’s an old historic town which we’ll explore another day and the night market named because, well, it’s a market and it opens at night.

The frontage, as Brigitte pointed out, is a bit Torremolinos in terms of tourist quantity, lights and people trying to persuade you to eat at their restaurant but it’s much smaller, the food enticers are less pushy and no one has kiss me quick hats. (Or hôn tôi nhanh lên as they’re called here).

There’s lots of illumination along the riverbanks and a fleet of small dragon boats taking tourists up and down the river to cast their lantern upon the water and make a wish.

My wish would be for less people.

However, move one street away from the riverbank and the atmosphere completely changes into a lovely, quiet little town with really nice boutiques and restaurants.

We ate at one called The Secret Garden and we weren’t the only ones, so it looks like their secret got out last night and they’ll now have to change their name. Maybe just the garden in future?

That’s all for today, another adventure awaits tomorrow when we get down and dirty on a local organic farm.

Hoi An. 19th November 2024.