By John Rozentals.
Ferry cross the Thu Bun … just about everyone has a motorbike or a cycle.
We’re the only Westerners among 40 or so locals on the ferry crossing the Thu Bun River from Hoi An’s bustling Old Quarter to Cam Kim, a rural commune where village life still rules.
It’s late afternoon and most of the locals are returning from work. Many have obviously been to Hoi An’s markets and just about everyone has a motorbike or a cycle.
The chat seems mostly just that but an elderly woman remonstrates vociferously with a public-service type about the evils of government corruption. Her candidness is potentially dangerous, we’re told. Despite new-found economic freedom, Vietnam is, after all, still a totalitarian country and even small commuter ferries can have ears.
We cycle among market gardens, recently harvested paddy fields and water buffalo grazing on the stubble of their hard labour to the house of our guide’s father-in-law. He lost a fair bit of his face during what Vietnamese call the American War — doing nothing but keeping his family alive trying to harvest sweet potatoes from what turned out to be a land-mined field.
The Thu Bun really is the river of life … a young couple have their wedding pix snapped.
Still, he’s quite happy to sit with us on his veranda to share a pot of tea and some memories. Perhaps it’s a Buddhist thing, but the Vietnamese seem much more immediately forgiving than we have been towards past enemies.
It’s a moving and intimate experience — certainly not the sort of thing you could get on a coach tour — and shows the value of booking a tailored but independent tour with a personal guide and driver.
Just up the road is Kim Bong, a village whose craftsmen helped fashion many of the magnificent historic buildings in the nearby ancient capital of Hue and which is reemerging as a significant woodworking centre.
Huynh Ri, a 15th-generation master craftsman, has used his studio to train hundreds of artisans, whose projects have included the restoration and maintenance of Hoi An’s Old Quarter, a UNESCO World Heritage site and an absolutely charming precinct that still solidly reflects the central Vietnamese port’s status as one of South-East Asia’s major trading centres from the 16th to 18th centuries.
The Japanese Covered Bridge … a relic of Hoi An’s days as a prosperous trading port.
The Old Quarter is a compact area that is most readily covered on foot and it doesn’t take long to see the diversity of influences — Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and, more recently, French.
You could easily spend several days exploring the narrow streets and alleys, discovering fine old structures — the Japanese Covered Bridge, which dates from 1593 and incorporates a Vietnamese temple; the Cantonese Assembly Hall, with its many fine Chinese artworks; the Museum of Trading Ceramics; the extravagant Phuc Kien Assembly Hall with its elaborate facade and temple to Thien Hau, goddess of the sea and protector of sailors.
There are also several family homes and chapels open for inspection. My favourite was the House of Quan Thang, a single-storey shop-cum-house built by a Chinese trader in the 1700s and still occupied by four generations of his ancestors.
Many family members sit around the large kitchen table making banh bao vac, a Hoi An specialty shrimp dumpling also known as white rose.
The Hoi An Historic Hotel … literally a couple of minutes from the Old Quarter.
The other local specialty is cao lau, a dish of rice noodles topped with pork and lots of fresh vegetables and herbs. The secret, apparently, is to use only water that has been drawn for centuries from a particular well in the Old Quarter.
Hoi An is Vietnam’s tailoring capital and the streets of the Old Quarter are lined with stores that will produce fine jackets, shirts and trousers in a day or two. I took along a favourite jacket, chose some material and had a better-than-the-original replica made for about $65.
Shopping in the evening — most stores are open till 9pm — was both more relaxing and seemed to offer better value, with staff even keener than normal to deal and enhance the day’s takings.
Our interest in culture drew us to the Hoi An Historic Hotel, which in a previous life served as headquarters for French, American and Vietnamese administrators.
A local specialty … making banh bao vac in the House of Quan Thang.
This charming, rambling property is literally a couple of minutes from the Old Quarter, has a reasonable restaurant and offers most of the creature comforts, though as in many older Vietnamese hotels the plumbing can be a bit temperamental.
Hoi An’s waterfront contains a plethora of dining opportunities at ridiculously cheap prices by Australian standards. The trick is to spend up. You’ll still get out for not much and the experience will usually reward the extra few dollars.
Foodies should also seriously consider taking a Red Bridge Cooking School course, which includes a buying trip through Hoi An’s colourful Central Markets and a boat ride across the river to the school.
IF YOU GO:
Hoi An Historic Hotel, 10 Tran Hung Dao Street, Hoi An City. See www.hoianhotel.com.vn.
Visiting Hoi An: see www.visithoian.com.
