Since the planning stages of this trip, Hoi An was high on the list of places we wanted to visit. It’s an insanely photogenic town: a UNESCO world heritage site, with cobblestone roads and narrow alleys, surrounded by rice fields, near the ocean, with magical lanterns lighting up the nights. It has an interesting history as a trade port, with a blend of Vietnamese, French, Japanese and Chinese influences. The village is stunning; it’s a great town to wander and revel in history, art, and architecture.
We had hoped to spend a few days in Hoi An itself, a day of birding in nearby Bach Ma Park, and some time on the nearby beaches. Our fabulous homestay was outside of town, but the free bikes available made it easy to get to town. Well, maybe not easy – have I mentioned yet the insanity of the roads, with their apparent lack of rules? We survived, but man, there were some close calls, especially coming back in the dark. It’s all part of the adventure though, right? Staying outside of town allowed us to decompress a bit after the business of the last 10 days, plus, there’s always the potential for some birds. There was a Green Bee-eater flycatching over the rice fields, a Plaintive Cuckoo singing his song every morning, Brown and Long-tailed Shrikes hunting for insects, and a Black Drongo doing his aerial tricks. Hoi An itself provided a new bird for the list too: Oriental Greenfinch, hanging with the Flowerpeckers in flowering trees in town.
In Hoi An, you can buy a ticket to the old city for a few dollars (120 000 VND) which gives you access to 5 free attractions. There are old Chinese shophouses and assembly halls, a few different museums, and a free arts performance with singing, dancing, and music. These attractions were amazing, and definitely shouldn’t be missed- they really helped us appreciate the history and beauty of the town and culture. There are many many MANY shops selling souvenirs, plus lots of shops with leather-made goods, and oodles of tailors willing to provide 24-hr custom clothing for cheap. We were holding off on buying souvenirs still, as our suitcases didn’t have a lot of room to spare. And while we contemplated the custom clothing, after a bit of research we found out the reason it’s so cheap and fast is because many use sweatshops – I’m sure the higher end stores have their own seamstresses, but we opted to avoid the issue in case we unknowingly contributed to the problem. Instead, we opted to wander and eat, feasting with our eyes and our mouths.
One thing we weren’t prepared for was the slew of tourists present. We can’t turn our noses up at the other visitors enjoying the sights, since we are included in such company, but it didn’t mean we had to embrace it. We ended up chillaxing in our homestay more than expected, but that’s ok – there have been few moments of doing nothing on this trip, and they were welcome. Other travellers said they got up early to walk through town, and it was quiet and lovely – in case we ever go back, that is definitely a strategy we will try.
Our hopes of visiting Bach Ma were dashed when we found out it was over 3 hours away: to be there at dawn would have been impossible. This is definitely a problem with pre-booking the itinerary for the month, since we couldn’t alter our plans to stay somewhere closer. It was hugely disappointing as that was definitely where we hoped to pick up a lot of birds, but there wasn’t much to be done about it.
Instead we spent a day on a snorkeling trip to Cham Island, just off the coast. It was a bit of a bust: we had to wait 1.5 hrs to leave the dock until our boat was full; the ocean was 19 C and we could barely breathe from the cold; another passenger sliced his leg open on the propellor, so the boat had to detour to a hospital; the tour of the fishing village was lame, and seeing all the sea life harvested out of the ocean from this marine preserve was heartbreaking; and there was no reef to speak of, much less fish (other than a gorgeous crown of thorns sea star). The seafood buffet on the beach was tasty though, so there’s that? Oh well. It wasn’t horrible, just not exceptional. The good thing about 8.5 months of travel is that if 1 day isn’t as unsuccessful, there’s a heck of a lot more good days to make up for it.
I had heard about the prospect of bioluminescence in the oceans around Hoi An, so we headed out late one afternoon to the beach in the hopes of seeing some after the sunset, but unfortunately there wasn’t any. We did get to watch the local fishermen in their woven round basket boats paddling and surfing the waves, which was super cool.
From Hoi An we took a train to Dong Hoi, to visit Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park. This place was incredible: karst mountains, millions of years old, hiding massive caves – in fact, the largest caves in the world. The town is quaint, filled with kids taking their bikes to school, water buffalo lolling on the river side, and women harvesting aquatic plants from their boats.
From the boat dock, we booked a longtail with another Canadian family we had met along the way, and headed upriver to visit one of the most accessible caves, Phong Nha. The engine got cut as we entered the cave, and we glided in under the formidable formations, the only sound the slap and rhythm of the boat driver’s paddle in the water. Those paddlers must have abs of steel – what they’re doing is definitely a full body workout. We then left the boat to wander about the lit-up stalactites and stalagmites in the caverns – truly awesome. We visited a second incredible cave up the mountain, Tien Son. Not many people venture up the long staircase, which meant we were almost alone here, walking the boardwalks deep underground, admiring the textures and shapes made by eons of dripping water. Definitely gives one a sense of perspective, of both time and scale.
We found a few creatures around here, too: frogs, skinks, spiders, and glow worms!
We borrowed free bikes from the homestay to cycle the 10 km to the botanic gardens, along a scenic back road beside fog-covered mountains, sharing the road with cows (while dodging their patties). Single gear bikes made it hard to tackle some of the hills, but getting off and pushing the bike up allowed us to slow down and take in the beauty of the area, and even do a bit of birding – we saw a Chinese blackbird and Ratchet-tailed Treepie en route, while keeping our eyes open for the elusive Brown Hornbill.
At the gardens, we hiked the trails and managed to see some Scaly-breasted partridges, a Radde’s Warbler, a huge black and white squirrel, and a massive iguana/lizard thing. Inside and outside the boys bathroom was also a great spot for bugs: we found caterpillars, a thorn spider, Sphinx moth, butterflies, a stick insect, and Dobsonflies. The brakes on the bikes couldn’t be trusted on the downhills back, but otherwise it was another pleasant return bike ride to the village after a great day in the forest.
Our accommodation for our 2 nights in town was a homestay along the river with a sweet family, where our boys played with their 3 children, and we cooked and ate a delicious traditional Vietnamese dinner with them (with samples of rice alcohol, aka “Happy Water”), and listened to sobering stories of growing up during and after the war. As a child, our host had lost friends to explosions, and he himself had scars from napalm bomb shrapnel. He told us about all the millions of tons of unexploded ordinances still buried in the area, and took us for a drive along the Ho Cho Minh Trail in his 1967 US Army Jeep, pointing out the bomb craters amidst the rice paddies. It was a very intimate and very real history lesson which we won’t easily forget, in a beautiful part of Vietnam with a difficult history.
We would have loved to stay longer, but the train schedule meant we had to cut our visit short. A night train to Hanoi would bring us to the last phase of our trip, Northern Vietnam. Our voyage was nearing it’s end, but there were a few remaining adventures to be had.
Theresa
A Lotta Biota 