HOI AN Old Town

What we end up saving from places is what we lived while in them.

Actually, we didn't know almost anything about this vietnamese city. Is for that reason that it surprised us!

After spent the day in Hue, we took a bus to Hoi An. When we arrived, we found a lot of people offering their hostels to us. So, you are not going to have any problema to find accomodation! You don't have even to look for it! They will go to you! 

As I said before, Hoi An was an excellent suprise for me. I'm going to tell you a bit more of this amazing city.

About 25km southeast of Da Nang, the ancient town of Hoi An nestles on the Banks of the Thu Bon River. Originally a seaport in the Champa Kingdom, by the 15th century it has become a coastal Vietnamese town under the Tran Dinasty. At the beginning of the 16th century, the Portuguese came to explore the coast of Hoi An, Then came the Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, British and French.

Hoi An appeared in Western travelogues in the 17th and 18th centuries as Faifo or Hai Po. For several centuries Hoi An was one of the most important trading ports in Southeast Asia. By the beginning of the 19th century the mouth of the Thu Bon silted up an another port was built as the mouth of the Han River. Thenceforth Da Nang (a city a Little bit more to the north of Hoi An) replace Hoi An as the centre of trade.

In the early 1980's, UNESCO and the Polish government funded a  restoration programme to classify and safeguard Hoi An's old quarters and historic monuments. Hoi An was designated a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1999.

We spent around 5 days in this city (one of them we went to My Son, but I will tell you about it later...). 

We just were walking, enjoying its quietly atmosphere, taking a ride by bicycle, going to the beach, eating, drinking, eating more!
What an amazing city to eat!!

Actually we planned to be there for 3 days or at least 4. But we spent one day more because of the weather. We wanted to go to the beach but it just started rainning at the momento we arrived to the beach.

And that is the way we spent the days in Hoi An, with a lot of smiles from the people and from us!

As I told you before, one of those 5 days, we went to visit My Son.

The valley of My Son, nestled under Cat's Tooth Mountain, was chosen as a religious sanctuary by King Bhadravarman I, and from the fourth century, many temples and towers were built in this área. These ruins are all that remains of the ancient religious capital of Amaravati, the greatest of the Cham states. 

During the Second Indochina War (1954-75), the Viet Cong based themselves in the temples, using them as  bunkers. American B52s bombed them thoroughly, leaving only a small vestige of what was once a magnificent ancient city. Traces of around 70 temples and related structures may still be found at My Son, though only about 20 are still in good condition.

So, after this sad and crazy information about the history of those champa temples, I will show to you what is still surviving. 

Hue, The Imperial City

From Ninh Binh we wanted to take a night bus to Hoi An, but we decided to stop first in Hue (we were going to arrive to Hue around 8am, so we could visit Hue during the day and arrive to Hoi An in the night). And we did like that!

The night buses in Vietnam are a bit strange. There are not the usual sits... but they have bunkbeds! Amazing! I could sleep all night long!

Hue is a quiet village, not too big and without too much traffic.

But actually, we only visited the Imperial City, an área with palaces and gardens with vietnamese architecture.

In 1802, after quelling the Tay Son rebellion, Lord Nguyen Phuc Anh proclaimed himself  Emperor Gia Long and founded the Nguyen Dynasty. He ordered the new royal citadel to be built along the Perfumer River, which became Vietnam's new capital city. Just 33 years into the dynasty's reign, the Frenck invaded Hue. They retained the Nguyen Dynasty with nominal governance over central Vietnam and northern Vietnam. Thanks to French manipulation of the dynsty, a quick sucession of emperors graced the throne ending with Bao Dai's abdication in 1945.

In the afteroon, we took a bus to Hoi An. I don't remember weel how long it takes, but not more tan 2 hours from sure!

When you arrive to Hoi An's buses terminal, there are a lot of people offering their hostels. We just ask a girl how much we had to pay for one night and we decided to go with her. Almost all the hostels costs the same, but you also can negotiate with them.

Ninh Binh, the other "Halong Bay"

From Halong Bay we came back to Hanoi and inmediately we took a train to Ninh Binh.

Ninh Binh is a village situated three hours to the south from Hanoi (I don't know how many kilometres).

In Ninh Binh we spent the night in "Queen Hostel Mini" (or something like that). It is situated in the same street as the train's station and the owner is soooo nice!! 

He gave us a lot of information about where we could eat cheap and good, what to visit around the city and how to get there. So the next day we rented a bicycles from him and we went away to explore the city and the nature around it.

Fortunately, we arrived to Tam Coc. It is an amazing place, really. In my opinion it is the "halong bay from the mountains" but with only local tourism -what makes it more special-. In Tam Coc you can take a boat and enjoy the landscape. You will see how they drive the boats with their feet!  The boat goes on the river between a lot of small mountains and througt some caves as well. It costs around 130.000 dong and it worth.

With our super boat driver! 

After that, we took our bicycles again and we went looking for a temple. If I'm not wrong, the temple is called Bich Dong Pagoda and you can enjoy the views of Tam Coc from the temple (wich is on the top of the mountain after going up 400 steps!)

Thanks to Ninh Binh, our feelings with Vietnam changed and we started to enjoy and to love that amazing country. 

The next day, we took a bus to Hue, the Imperial City.