Vietnam Vacation-Hoi An

We left the bay and flew further south that evening to the city Hue in the central highlands. Hue is city closest to the old DMZ from the Vietnam war. We originally hoped to have more time here to explore, but when the trip got shortened, this was the part we cut out. Instead we left the following morning to head down to the small, river town of Hoi An.

Along the way we drove along China Beach. It was very calm and peaceful, and much different, I'm sure, than what it must have been like during the war. We passed the old Air Force base that was there, which is now being used by the Vietnamese Army.

The sun was out again this day and we enjoyed the rest of the 1.5 hour drive. We had such wonderful scenery to look at along the way. We thought it was especially neat to see this man working his field. After looking more closely at the photo we realized he has one hand on the plow and the other is holding the buffulos tail! Once we got to Hoi An we were excited to walk around. The small town was a nice change of pace. The old quarter had quiet, narrow streets and some neat architecture of French, Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese influence (before modern ships this was a fairly large port town and thus had quite a bit on international influence). The bridge in the picture is a Japanese covered bridge--hundreds of years old with the original wood on the inside!
A walk along the river was a perfect way to spend a sunny, warm afternoon.

There were still some motorbikes here, but nothing near what we'd experienced up north! We were thankful for that as walked the streets searching the seemingly undendless handicraft shops.


We ventured into the market as well. It was loud, smelly and colorful--all of the things you'd expect of a market.
We had dinner at a little restaurant on the river. I was thrilled with my dinner--a spicy chicken and mango salad with a black bean salsa and lime cilantro dressing. Doesn't that sound yummy? It was!! The strawberry smoothie wasn't exactly a great compliment to the meal, but it was pretty yummy too!As a special Christmas treat we checked into a resort on the ocean (about 15 minutes from town) on Christmas Eve. We enjoyed an afternoon by the beach just relaxing--wonderful!