Haters of rain should probably check the weather before planning a trip to this ancient riverside port lest they find themselves caught in a downpour, or worse – Hoi An occassionally demands a raft. This October, when Typhoon Ketsana struck, tourists were shut up in their hotels for days, relying on wooden skiffs sailing down the streets to deliver water and noodles. Perhaps the spirit of the deity Quan Van Truong (Guan Gong in China), honored by the Ong Pagoda in Hoi An, protected the architecture of this UNESCO World Heritage Site from serious damage. It would have been sad if Vietnam's most unspoiled town, which escaped shelling in successive wars and has been spared the ravages of modernization, succumbed to floods.
Located just south of bustling Danang, Hoi An meets two of the main requirements for today's intelligent vacationer: it is an important cultural destination offering numerous side trips, and it has some of the world's best beaches nearby – ones largely unspoiled by modern tourism.
AN OVERSEAS CHINESE TOWN
The Hoi An landscape is, thankfully, unmarred by tedious contemporary structures. With its mustard yellow walls and curved tile roofs, the majority of the city's architecture dates from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, when it acted as an important harbor and a favored home for Chinese merchants.
Closed to auto traffic, the old town is perfect for renting a bike and gently gliding along the Thu Bon River. Bars, restaurants, and cafes — mainly catering to foreign tourists but still appealing — crowd the banks, while the waters are plied by fishermen in small skiffs and larger boats, often with fearsome faces painted on the hull. While in the alleys surrounding you will find picturesque mansions, temples and guild halls, many constructed by the long ago Chinese community.
Highlights include the Cantonese and Fujianese assembly halls, with the Cantonese hall home to an awe-inspiring statue of Guan Gong, the deified general from China's Three Kingdoms period who is even more venerated in Vietnam than he is in most parts of China. Representations of Laozi and Confucius, are also seen throughout the city, as are yin yang symbols placed prominently on buildings to ward off evil spirits.
It is not just Chinese cultural relics that deserve attention. The Covered Bridge, built by Japanese merchants, along with the attached Buddhist pagoda, and the Tang Family Chapel, which received a 2009 Honourable Mention Award from UNESCO for preserving cultural heritage are particularly impressive. The Hoi An local authority contributed 60% of the funds toward restoring the chapel – a strong example of an overseas Chinese ancestor worship hall, with a succession of smaller entry halls leading to a large central one.
WHITE ROSE BY THE RIVER
Westerners, in particular, love Vietnamese cuisine, with its mix of fresh ingredients, diverse herbs and spices, and stimulating presentation. The restaurants along the waterfront offer local delicacies like cao lou noodles and fried wontons, as well as the famed ‘White Rose.' Named by the French, this visually pleasing dish contains tiny shrimp fried in thin rice paper parcels. For all but the most discerning gastrophile, it is pretty hard to go wrong with most restaurants in Hoi An.
One stop for basic Hoi An specialties is Miss Ly Cafeteria 22, right near the market in the Old Town. For top seafood, try the Thi Nhan, outside the old town, which sources the prawns and crabs for other restaurants in town. And for the originator of many local delicacies, visit Bong Hong Trang, a restaurant owned by the descendants of Grandfather Tran, who claimed to have served the first plate of White Rose. No trip to Hoi An is complete without a cooking class, which are offered by countless restaurants in town, including crowd favorite, Ms Vy's School of Cooking in the Morning Glory restaurant.
The humidity and heat of Hoi An makes a cold drink by the river unavoidable, and decent draft beer costs under 50 cents a bottle. With all the bars within around a 300m walk of each other there may not be a more centralized (or reasonable) pub crawling area in the world. Those seeking the Central Vietnam expat scene will, however, have to make the 45-minute trip to Danang, where brightly-lit and music-heavy bars abound on every corner.
TAILORING YOUR TRIP
Visitors to Hoi An may be shocked by the number of tailors; in fact, many brides- and grooms-to-be choose the city as a vacation spot knowing that the money they save buying quality wedding dresses and suits in Vietnam should more than pay for the rest of their trip.
Tailors occupy the majority of the ground floor stores in Hoi An, a town of around 100,000 which boasts over 400 custom clothing establishments. With prices generally lower than Beijing and Shanghai — though fabric not necessarily of the same quality — and a more adventurous spirit when it comes to experimenting with new styles, Hoi An has much to offer those in need of a new wardrobe.
Also omnipresent are shops selling oil and traditional Vietnamese lacquer paintings. While most of these shops sell cheap versions of the original, and should therefore be avoided, it is not hard to find craftsmen following the traditional methods and creating worthy objects for your walls, though Hanoi offers far more when it comes to Vietnamese art. Hoi An is, however, Vietnam's lantern-making capital, and a simple but elegant wood and paper lantern can be picked up for a song.
BEACH LIFE
China Beach is one of those places that should be visited before it is too late. Famed as a rest center for US soldiers during the Vietnam War, investors now hope to develop the area into the next Bali or Phuket. The beach is currently wide, pristine, and still largely empty, but in another ten years it may be lined with representatives from all of the big name resorts – many of which are already under construction. Nowadays there are still plenty of stretches with little visible other than fishermen's boats docked, perfect sites for surfers looking for an undiscovered gem. American bunkers and aircraft hangers can still be visited in several places.
Still, those seeking a resort will find something truly exceptional already in place. Just 15 minutes from Hoi An's old town — through paddies plied by water buffalo — is the Nam Hai, with 85 acres of landscaped tropical gardens, a spa with each treatment room allotted its own island within the lagoon, and an 18-hole golf course. French architect Reda Amalou and Indonesian interior designer Jaya Ibrahim joined forces to create a property that adapts local materials and construction techniques for a resort that feels both majestic and tranquil. The smallest villas — the most basic rooms at Nam Hai — come in at over 80 square meters and offer outdoor showers, mood-setting music with surround sound, and specially-designed healing shampoos and conditioners. The bed, on a plinth in the middle of a terraced chamber with six-meter-high ceilings, is a design perfect for honeymooners. Aside from the attentive staff, the only sounds you can hear are the lolling waves and frogs croaking in the evenings. In an ever-crowding market in which standards are constantly rising, Nam Hai is memorable, as is Hoi An.