SS Quah's Anything Goes: Danang, day two: Hoi An in the morning

Tuesday 15 January 2019

Danang, day two: Hoi An in the morning

After breakfast in the hotel and checking out, we were driven into Hoi An's UNESCO heritage zone for a walk around the place. Basically, we were re-tracing our route from the previous night but instead of continuing through to the river jetty, we were now taken to visit their Ancient Town.

This part of Hoi An is exceptionally well-preserved and dated back to a period from the 15th to the 19th century when it was a busy trading post that attracted the Chinese and Japanese. Also the Portuguese, Dutch and Indians. These foreign influences had definitely combined to produce this unique heritage site.

This is the temple across the road from our hotel.

We noticed this ice delivery man loading up his vehicle with fresh blocks from an ice factory

Thang Loi shop

Our visit to this old quarters of Hoi An would include an unannounced stop at a shop that makes one of the town's most well known products: their colourful cloth lanterns. Two workers were working busily to make some intricate wood carving products in a corner of this shop while the back of the building had been turned into a small silk factory. I didn't see or recognise any mulberry tree in the compound but there were trays upon trays of live silkworms. Workers were seen extracting silk thread from the cocoons, some were weaving the silk while many more ladies at the back of the room were making embroidery.

The Thang Loi shop I mentioned earlier, which makes lanterns, wood carvings and produces silk and embroideries

Lantern making

Intricate wood carving

Silk weaving

Silk embroidery

Siesta time in the morning, which is quite a common sight!

Hoi An Ancient Town

We crossed the road and entered a small lane. When we emerged at the other end, lo and behold, we suddenly found ourselves within their UNESCO-listed Ancient Town. As I had mentioned earlier, this part of Hoi An was very well preserved. I could imagine how this part of Vietnam was like when it was bustling with traders. Today, the roads are filled with tourists instead. Shops catering to the tourist industry - selling textile-related goods and coffee outlets among them - lined the whole stretch of the road while hawkers tried to peddled their food by the roadside.

And here we are within the UNESCO heritage quarters of Hoi An

I shall leave the spouses to their shopping of silk scarfs

Pho by the roadside, if you are game enough.

Old house of Tan Ky

One attraction that was in our itinerary and which we actually managed to visit though was the Old House of Tan Ky. This is a well-preserved old historic building with Japanese and Chinese influences. We old farts were so enamoured with the house interior that the house guide was ignored as we wanted to take our group photos there first. Thereafter, when we wanted to do the house tour, the guide refused to entertain us. We were left to our own devices walking through the building. This guide's poor attitude was unprofessional and needs to be pointed out.

The entrance into the Old House of Tan Ky

An old temple right beside the Japanese Bridge

Japanese bridge

So we walked. And walked. And walked. And at the end of the road was the western entrance to the covered Japanese bridge. This is an iconic attraction which dates back to the 18th century. It is claimed that the Japanese built it to connect to the Chinese quarter across the canal. Took about three years to complete. The Japanese Bridge underwent renovation work in 1986 to restore the arch.

The old Japanese Bridge

Time for a group picture

Quang Dong assembly hall

The Quang Dong (or Cantonese) Assembly Hall was the other attraction we visited. Originally, we were supposed to visit the Phuoc Kien (or Hokkien) Assembly Hall but it was about 1.5 kilometres from the Japanese Bridge. Seeing that some of us old farts - the oldest in our group was well in the eighties - might be unable to walk that far to the Phuoc Kien Assembly Hall, the tour guide decided that the Quang Dong Assembly Hall would be a good alternative. But he didn't tell us. I had to ask him later.