Hoi An - ancient town tour

On the Wednesday, after breakfast, we checked out of the lovely Green Haven Resort Hotel, put our luggage in the minibus, and embarked on the next part of the guided tour - a walking tour of Hoi An, Ancient Town.  This started at the silk factory/workshop and we observed the silkworms munching the mulberry leaves, and the pupal sacs being boiled to release the silk strands (and kill the developing silkworm larvae inside), and the silk strands being spun and woven, and it dawned on us that aside from being educational, here was where the tourists are encouraged to hand over the cash - ker-ching!

silkworms munching mulberry leaves... yum yum

silkworm pupal sacs are either yellow or white, these are yellow...

weaving the silk yarn

in the workshop

 They had a bespoke tailor area where you could be 'made to measure' in 24hours, and they also produced hand sewn silk 'paintings', which varied in size and content.  Some of the designs were quite traditional scenes, others were photo-quality portraiture in black and white (and all shades of grey inbetween), amazing really.  These were painstakingly sewn by hand, and could take up to 3 months to produce 1 item.  The quality of workmanship (workwomanship?) was superb, but we didn't purchase as none of the designs would have worked in our house.

get made to measure here

get your lantern here...

get your wood carving here...

get your wood inlay here (actually we got one of these)

We meandered the streets of Hoi An, in the increasing warmth of the morning - it didn't take long for the heat to soar past 30 degrees... and it was only 10.30am.  Crikey.  Luckily, the next stop on the tour was the Ancient House.

We learned that this house was over 300 years old, had Japanese and Chinese architectural influences/designs and had been built to cope with the regular flooding in the area by ensuring the structural supports were on raised stonework to prevent rotting.  The professional guide also told us that the same family had been in the house for 8 generations, and still lived there.   There was more opportunity to buy various silk fabric items, hand embroidered tablecloths and other trinkets.

The Japanese Bridge had been built by the Japanese and had a private chapel on the side.  At either end of the bridge were protective animals (a monkey and a dog) who were prepared to listen to your secrets or wishes for a fee.  The bridge had been boarded at either end to prevent wear and tear from motorbikes - conservation is important the world over.

view from the Japanese Bridge, Hoi An

Tom telling the Japanese Bridge Dog about his wishes.... (a PS4, perhaps?)

Pagoda

We then came to the Pagoda.  Which was as you imagine the cliches of the 'orient' or S.E. Asia to be, with the addition of a lot of hot white tourists wearing the typical Vietnamese 'conica' hats - they do give you a great shade protection on your face and the back of your neck.

amazing colour combinations... and massive incense coils!

Leaving the Pagoda we walked along the streets of the ancient town, and the Vietnamese wires got me again...

Tourists on the streets of Hoi An

Locals on the streets of  Hoi An

Leaving Hoi An

We had lunch al-fresco, by the river in a smart restaurant, and then our minibus collected us and took us to the airport for our flight to Hanoi.

Arriving in Hanoi after another short (1hr 30min) flight at around 5pm that evening we noticed a distinct drop in temperature.  Hanoi being in the north of the country has 4 seasons, and the spring temperature we arrived to was 19 degrees centigrade.  A very welcome change from the sweltering heat of Ho Chi Minh City and Hoi An!

Another guide, another driver, and yet another restaurant set meal and we were taken to our hotel.  We went to bed early as the next day was our visit to Bac Giang province to meet our sponsored child.

More about that next time.

Kat.