Hue to Hoi An

Monday, March 18th, 2013 Hoi An, Vietnam
On Saturday night we went out for dinner at another good Vietnamese restaurant, although not as good as the vegetarian restaurant the night before. As we walked along the street, we passed the old residence of the French governor, where the Vietnamese people held a tax protest in 1908. Ho Chi Minh was one of the protesters but he must have been very young - I think about 18. There is a plaque honoring the protesters.

Hue has been the scene of some significant events in recent Vietnamese history. The reason that the Citadel was so heavily bombed by the Americans in 1968 was because the North Vietnamese captured and held it during the Tet Offensive that was such big news in North America. First the Americans bombed it and then American marines attacked it on the ground against heavy opposition. This was one of the significant battles in the American war.
 Yesterday morning we pigged out at the hotel breakfast buffet because we weren't sure when we'd eat again. We took our time getting organized and checked out just before noon.
Our bus arrived to pick us up, as promised, at 1:15. We had booked through the hotel. We were assured that it was a good air conditioned express bus that traveled directly to Hoi An in 3 1/2 hours. Our hotel was great so we assumed that they were sending us on a good quality tourist bus, although we should have been suspicious about the low price of 100,000 dong each ($5).  For the first 1/2 hour we drove around Hue picking up other passengers, mostly Vietnamese people and some western tourists. Although it was a highway bus, it was obviously old and dirty, with plastic covered seats, some of which were broken. It had air conditioning but it really didn't do much.
As we traveled south, there was beautiful scenery. Hills come right down to the edge of the ocean and there are some nice beaches. The only problem was that the bus couldn't seem to go faster than about 60 km an hour. On every hill, and there were some big ones, we slowed to a crawl and the driver opened the door and turned off the AC, possibly because the bus was overheating, although I'm not really sure.

Not a great picture, but this is a rest stop where we got a toilet break, about 2 hours into our trip. The driver went around feeling all the wheels to see if the brakes were overheating. Then we started climbing and descending hills again and went through the longest tunnel either of us have ever driven through, north of Danang.
We drove right into Danang, a fairly big city, and stopped to let people off twice. Along the road both north and south of Danang is mostly beach with some resorts. Other new resorts are half built and abandoned, just as we saw at the beginning of our trip in Mui Ne, likely the result of the 2008 global financial crisis. The long beach near Danang has several different names but is known collectively by some as China Beach, where American GIs came to relax during the war.
South of Danang, at Cao Dai beach, we turned away from the coast and drove inland to Hoi An. Hoi An was a port city with many Japanese and Chinese merchants in the 1700s and 1800s, until the river silted up and the ships could no longer get in. Then nothing much happened for a long time until tourists started coming. The "ancient city" is still largely intact, with no high rise development or boxy looking new buildings.
We arrived in Hoi An about 5:30 so it really was only 4 3/4 hours of travel instead of the promised 3 1/2. That's not bad in southeast Asia. It was a bit hot and tiring. We got a taxi from the bus stop to our hotel for 60,000 VND ($3). Our hotel is only 5 minutes walk from the old harbour and the ancient city.
We walked down to the Cargo Club, a restaurant recommended in Lonely Planet as having good food at reasonable prices. The place was filled with older tourists and the food was okay, but the prices were much higher than we are used to. My chicken "hot pot", which is a kind of soup into which you throw herbs, veggies and vermicelli noodles, cost 145,000 VND ($7.25) all by itself. That might not sound like much but it seems outrageous by our current standards. A main course should really be under $5 and usually is $3 to $4. The restaurant had a nice 2nd floor terrace overlooking the river but Lonely Planet needs to upgrade it from modestly priced to moderately expensive.

The bridges over the river are all lit up and very beautiful at night.

 This morning we arranged a night sleeper bus on Thursday to Nha Trang through our hotel. We'll get 2 berths, like on a train, in the best bus (we checked) for 565,000 VND each (about $28). It leaves at 6 pm and arrives in Nha Trang at 6 am. With that business over, we walked down to the central market to get my pants fixed. The clasp at the waist had broken, hopefully not because I'm so out of shape from eating so much Vietnamese food.

 The market area is quite lively in the morning.

Anita stopped to appreciate some live chickens and ducks being sold on the street. The vendors tie the chicken's feet together so they can leave them laying on the street until they're sold.
A little dress shop nearby looked promising so we went in and asked about my pants. The lady said it would cost $1 and to come back in half an hour. She said if my wife bought a dress, she wouldn't charge anything. So we wandered around in the heat for 1/2 hour and then went back. Another couple there were just picking up their purchases and were very happy with the shop. In the end, Anita picked out fabric and got fitted for 2 dresses which will be custom made by tomorrow at 11 am. Total cost: $30 each (plus I got my $1 back).