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Hoi An
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We've arrived in Hoi An and found a fairly ritzy hotel for $32/night. We were able to get such a deal because the place is brand spanking new and not yet listed in the tourist books. Our hotel is outside of town among the rice paddies rather in the heart of Hoi An so it's quiet.
We've spent the day walking around little Hoi An, and tomorrow we're going on a tour of the great Cham ruins in My Son. We look forward to spending some time in Hoi An, considered an antique town where the remnants of Chinese Mandarin architecture from the 1800s are well preserved.
We met my Ong Chu (Great uncle) Tran today at the post office. He took us to see my (Great aunt) Co Sau and on a walking tour of Hoi An. Co Sau has Alzheimer's disease and does not remember me, but asked about Grandma. Ong Chu Tran is the picture of health and bicycles around Hoi an even though he is now 70 years old. He talked about my grandfather fondly. He wants my mother to come to Hoi An with my brother Sam. He says if the family comes back he will give them a complete tour of the central region. He is retired and spends his time making handicrafts. He gave us a carving of mandarin chinese man as a souvenir of him.
He is confused about the money we have though. Mom's instructions were to give him $30 and Co Sau $50. I gave him $50 and Co Sau $50. He was expecting $500 from me. He said mom told him that she was sending $500 as a gift to the temple. Mom, are you sending him $500 through someone else? Please write him and tell him, as I have given out the rest of the money to the other relatives.
Silk Road Port
Click on this picture to the right to hear Tran Quang Hai playing "Song of the Blackbird" on a board zither, a traditional Vietnamese instrument.
Hoi An is so special. It was one of the major ports on the Silk Road and the entrance to IndoChina between the 13th and 19th centuries. Traders from Portugal, Holland, China, Japan, India and Malaysia frequented this port. The Dutch, Chinese, and Japanese especially, developed trading centers in the city and were permitted by the Nguyen Lords who ruled Vietnam to establish centers in town, live and marry here. Apparently, my great great grandfather was a sucessful Cochine Chinese trader here and settled and married a Vietnamese woman.
Today the house where he lived is a major tourist attraction and has been kept exactly as it was in the 1800s. My great uncle took me to see it and talk to my cousin who lives there and keeps up the house. It's still very ornate. The entire town is in the process of restoring the older houses to the state that they were in at the height of Hoi An's trading boom in the 1700s.
We also took pictures of the house in Hoi An that my grandparents used to live. My uncle tells me that on the 14th of every month the entire town returns to living life as they did in the Cochine era, they stop riding motorbikes, watching television, and dress up in old fashioned Chinese attire and play Chinese games. Too bad we won't be here to see it.