City of Lights

The morning light revealed Hoi An to be an architectural gem – the Vietnam of picture books, containing streets lined with 18th and 19th century wood shop houses and laced with colorful silk lanterns. I confess: I thought much of Vietnam looked like Hoi An (from those same picture books or maybe from tourism ads), but in reality Hoi An is unique (from what I have seen so far), and in 1999 was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Cars are banned from much of the center (but apparently motorbikes are still allowed, since they swarm like flies, as elsewhere). Hoi An (formerly known as Faifo) was an important trading port and brought European as well as Chinese and Japanese merchants to its shores and into its population. There are many Chinese “assembly halls” that were used by the large Chinese population for meetings, worship and schools, and these have been preserved (as have many of the shop houses). Needless to say, there is a tremendous Chinese influence in the town. Of course, all of this quaintness has attracted the notice of tourists, and there are plenty (including a lot of Vietnamese tourists, it seems). I wouldn’t mind so much except that the local merchants do pester any foreign looking person incessantly, with the cry of “Hey! You buy something?!” Sometimes it is just “Hey!” Or “Hey you!” Or sometimes, more gracious: “Madame, you buy something?” I have also been offered a $1 manicure from numerous ladies who try to drag me off, wondering how I can resist such an offer. There have been more cries of “Motobike??” than I can count, but none overly persistent, unlike the guy at the bus station in Quy Nhon who kept yelling at me and waiving money in my face to show how little it would cost to ride with him, despite my repeated replies of NO (in Vietnamese nonetheless). Oh, if they just knew how I despise the legions of motorbikes and their shrill horns! Ironically, there is a new model of motorbike out named “Elizabeth”!! (Thao, the girl on the bus, told me).