The ever-illusive Cao Dai Beach at Hoi An!
After a rude awakening by the morning light streaming in through the bus windows we travelled through the typhoon-damaged coastline of torn palm trees and battered buildings and into the wee tourist hotspot that is Hoi An. We ended up in a hotel with breakfast included which wasn't a bad choice seeing as it actually made us get up in the mornings!
As recommended we went to the hotel tailors to see what was on offer and how impressive the rates were (very!), but left so that we could have a think about what we actually wanted rather than being told by the saleswomen!
We wandered Hoi An to see the Japanese Covered Bridge and the Cantonese Assembly Hall. Both of these dated from the mid 16th century when communities from China and Japan settled in Hoi An (then Fai Fo) under their own laws and customs to take part in the vast amount of Asian and European trading in the port. We also saw some ornately carved and painted good vs evil doors on another Chinese meeting hall.
After passing the markets and reaching the edge of town we decided to continue walking the "3 to 4 kilometres" remaining to the beach. Oh how wrong we were to think that the Rough Guide and business card maps we had would actually be anywhere near correct! It turns out that the beach is not actually just due East of the town and moreover not down the road which was indicated and down which we tried to walk! After about 35 minutes with no beach in sight we were quite sure we weren't where we intended - appearing to be in the river delta rather than in the vicinity of the beach. Our sixth traveller-sense also told us we were far off the beaten track as the children only knew "Hello" and not "Hello, one dollar"!
Finding a random cooking school we were provided with a map which again showed the beach to the East, only this time it was apparent that we needed a road alittle further North. The cooking teacher drew on the roads, well tracks, which we needed to walk down. Once again though the map barrier (ie lack of proper orientation of features) illuded us so we walked a good few more kilometres back in the direction we'd originally been going!
Finally as our track was about to turn into mud we gave up when a man on a motobike asked if he could help us. He looked a bit surprised when we said we were headed to the beach and took us right back the way we'd come and then along a road which actually went NORTH-EAST!!! No wander two hours of walking in the scortching sun had been fruitless! (Next day a proper map showed us how we'd been wandering aroudn a peninsula nowhere near the beach!) A good job we set off early!
When we finally arrived the beach was lovely apart from the persistant hassle of locals trying to sell you fruit and footballs. Its fun to begin with but it soon wears off, especially once it becomes very likely you're going to get the runs from the amount of fruit you've already consumed! The even went as far as saying "You buy from her, why you no buy from me?"!
That evening, at a broken cash machine, we bumped into Mark, a guy working as a teacher in Bangkok, and Joel, a construction engineer from Sydney. Xing Xang Bar (or similar!) seemed to be lively and have cheap beers so in we went. The food was good and we had a good few games of table football which always goes down a treat!
As recommended we went to the hotel tailors to see what was on offer and how impressive the rates were (very!), but left so that we could have a think about what we actually wanted rather than being told by the saleswomen!
We wandered Hoi An to see the Japanese Covered Bridge and the Cantonese Assembly Hall. Both of these dated from the mid 16th century when communities from China and Japan settled in Hoi An (then Fai Fo) under their own laws and customs to take part in the vast amount of Asian and European trading in the port. We also saw some ornately carved and painted good vs evil doors on another Chinese meeting hall.
After passing the markets and reaching the edge of town we decided to continue walking the "3 to 4 kilometres" remaining to the beach. Oh how wrong we were to think that the Rough Guide and business card maps we had would actually be anywhere near correct! It turns out that the beach is not actually just due East of the town and moreover not down the road which was indicated and down which we tried to walk! After about 35 minutes with no beach in sight we were quite sure we weren't where we intended - appearing to be in the river delta rather than in the vicinity of the beach. Our sixth traveller-sense also told us we were far off the beaten track as the children only knew "Hello" and not "Hello, one dollar"!
Finding a random cooking school we were provided with a map which again showed the beach to the East, only this time it was apparent that we needed a road alittle further North. The cooking teacher drew on the roads, well tracks, which we needed to walk down. Once again though the map barrier (ie lack of proper orientation of features) illuded us so we walked a good few more kilometres back in the direction we'd originally been going!
Finally as our track was about to turn into mud we gave up when a man on a motobike asked if he could help us. He looked a bit surprised when we said we were headed to the beach and took us right back the way we'd come and then along a road which actually went NORTH-EAST!!! No wander two hours of walking in the scortching sun had been fruitless! (Next day a proper map showed us how we'd been wandering aroudn a peninsula nowhere near the beach!) A good job we set off early!
When we finally arrived the beach was lovely apart from the persistant hassle of locals trying to sell you fruit and footballs. Its fun to begin with but it soon wears off, especially once it becomes very likely you're going to get the runs from the amount of fruit you've already consumed! The even went as far as saying "You buy from her, why you no buy from me?"!
That evening, at a broken cash machine, we bumped into Mark, a guy working as a teacher in Bangkok, and Joel, a construction engineer from Sydney. Xing Xang Bar (or similar!) seemed to be lively and have cheap beers so in we went. The food was good and we had a good few games of table football which always goes down a treat!
Labels: Vietnam
posted by Ian Matthias at
10/15/2006 03:31:00 pm
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