Walk in Hoi An: between land and river

Another day in Hoi An. A day that saw us return to enjoy the atmosphere of the market, early in the morning, before taking our walk as agreed the day before with the lady met on the other bank from Hoi An.

Finally, we continued our visit through the alleys of the old town, because we had not yet fully used the possible visits to do with our ticket.

Back to Hoi An Market

So this is our 3rd day in this old town of Hoi An. The morning is a pure delight, no one to spoil your photos, it is not too hot yet, it is calm, relaxing…. The ideal opportunity to return to the market, the activity being at its peak at this time. It is also on this day that I will take the most photos…

We stayed there for a while to observe this special moment of the morning, all this freshly collected food finding these buyers coming from the neighboring restaurants for some, or simple consumers. After we enjoyed the morning atmosphere where the locals were starting to get active.

Jitima will take me to see the local "celebrity", a little granny who sells these pipes, Tiger Balm and others, faithful to the post near the Japanese pagoda bridge. After that we will return to our hotel to take a little break while waiting for our appointment with the lady from yesterday for our little boat trip on the river.

This adorable little granny is a bit of a local star, at least my wife had heard about her, 83 years old and still there selling little clay pipes (we bought a few from her in fact), if you still come across her let me know!

Boat trip on the river

After the market, it was still early enough to go to the other side of the famous Japanese bridge. This is also when we will go shopping to possibly buy backpacks, cheap here. Bags that we will finally buy right in front of our hotel a little later…

The atmosphere is peaceful in the morning because most of the tourists are resting, so the streets are still quite calm, we sometimes come across grannies selling their goods, a future married couple taking photos, bicycle sheds etc.

It was after the time to go and find our partner from the day before and take our boat ride. We arrive exactly at 11am, but don't see anyone... We feel that she has stood us up when someone supposedly from her family approaches us and lets us know that she must have been away, strange given the enthusiasm she showed the day before, but it is clear that she is not around...

At first reluctant, because they obviously offered to take us there instead, but at a different price than the one we had agreed on the day before. Surprised by such a low price, they ended up accepting anyway, the price being the one agreed on the day before, we were then ok, after all what does it matter who is giving us the ride.

The walk was pleasant, if only for the silence since it was done in a rowing boat, and this, in addition to a glimpse of the activity that reigns on the river, offered a different view of the old quarter along the quays, up to the bridge that we crossed to go to the peninsula from where we left.

After our hour on the boat, back at the starting point, we chat with the family in question, in particular one of the people speaks English quite well. Finally convinced of their good welcome and kindness, we promised to come back after they invited us (not necessarily a boat ride, but even if only invited to the house)

Visit to the small streets of Hoi An and traditional show

It is still early after this river walk, leaving us time to eat, to do our visits not used via our tickets. So we went to the old house of Tân Ky, only one floor is visitable, because the floor is still inhabited…

We were given a tour in French after being asked my nationality (too bad for Jitima…) The house has been home to the same family for generations, a family that has hosted a number of political celebrities, including the famous Taksin (the very one for whom the “reds” are camping in town right now…) and one of the princesses of Thailand (not to mention other personalities from Southeast Asia).

Then came the visit to the craft workshop while waiting for the show which was going to take place around 15:15 p.m. (there is also a session at 10:15 a.m. in the morning), interesting show, only 30 min, with in particular a sort of bingo game where the winners received a small lantern as a souvenir (no, we did not win...)

hoi an crafts - vietnam

As we had not used the part of the ticket authorized to visit the bridge, we could therefore also visit the Quan Công temple. In the late afternoon on our way back to our hotel, we had almost arrived when we forgot to change money again… Right next to the temple we had just visited… (where we had bought our famous tickets) a trek that we had to do again.

The opportunity to see a lady refuse to let me take a photo of her neighbor! A granny that I was still able to take a photo of, but not the way I wanted because her neighbor was asking for money! Grrr!! To be polite…

We had dinner next to our hotel, and our last day here was ending, tomorrow departure for Hue, the imperial city.