on the dragon city

i am sitting here by the pool at the start of our last day in vietnam. 

yesterday was by far the best day of the trip. after breakfast, we were picked up and supposed to go to cooking class. on the way (5 minutes) we had  change of heart. the reason was the weather. we didnt see the sun for over a week and had unusual amounts of rain, and now was a glorious summer's day. spend it sitting inside seems sinful. we cancelled the class and walked around the beautiful old quarter of Hoi an. we each went our separate ways since this area is a market area and we have our own pace and interests. I focused more on the relics and pagodas. 

at the point of splitting, our tour guide much depressed by our rapid changes, tried to tell us where to go, but i was anxious to get going, almost missing a huge pagoda right behind me. inside of these temples, there are colorful paintings of wartime and animals, lots and lots of dragons and small water pools. there buildings are not as grand as their Europeans counterparts, but there is greater attention to detail.

i pass by the Japanese covered bridge and visit a house from 234 years ago and get the tour from one of the residents, the find a communal place. it is a temple of sorts, for meetings really but there is no one else but me, despite a city filled with tourists. it is real peaceful and quiet inside only when i leave i get a request for a ticket.we got 5 tickets each and this quarter has about 10-15 of these old houses, communal places and pagodas. i walk the entire quarter, pass the borders of the new town with its many pubs and dance bar and take many photos of dragons, so many of them, this town was made for me. i return to the old town passing another beautifully decorated bridge and watch the large nets lowered to the water, then pulled back by a fisherman with a wheel sort of lever and finds nothing in the net. but i think this was a tourist demo, lots of cameras behind it while i survey it from the nearby bridge. i walk the market with its many souvenir shops and the "looka looka here" calls of vendors. the streets are filled with lanterns and occasionally a bird cage would replace one of the lanterns, pretty and sad. i finally found a piece worth getting for my self and i explore another pagoda inside, this one is Chinese in origin but the styles are similar, water , dragon animals, serenity.

this is one of my favorite aspects of trips, the discovery. walking with the guide can fill me with history, but a feeling of a place i get only by exploring.

after 2+ hours of wandering we met up for lunch, fish and chips for me then returned to the hotel. this  hot day we should not waste. we split again and Mom and I take bikes and go cycle in the villages. we ride the suburbs that are a mixture of old and new, new villa next to old houses. most houses have something or other growing, these people are what eco supporters try to do, they are self sustaining, instead of green lawns they have crops growing, the roads narrow quickly as we reach more village type dwelling, but also in each house something grows. these houses are by the lagoons and many have fishing boats in their back yards and we see some of them casting of nets or growing shrimp. we pass by several houses that doubles as a mini market and get water. they all invite us inside for whatever merchandise they sell, and we kindly decline. the ride continues through the village with rice fields, water buffaloes and the continuous combination of old and new. we leave the village and cross the bridge and reach the beach.

most of the beach area are sacs on top sacs, this is a flood area and most of the beach is not for swimming, since behind the sacs are long pointy bamboo spikes to hold the sacks in place. there are some areas where swimming is allowed. we leave the beach and continue along the coastal road that has no coastal view , then turn back towards town and tour another village area, before return to the main areas of mopad mayhem. we slowly did 19k in 3 hours of regular city bike.

we got back and the room is locked with no key in the front desk, i lug myself to get the front desk to ask house keeping to open the door and take a shower.

later we walked back to the old quarter that looks amazing at night as well. since we skipped the cooking class, the restaurant offered a set menu dinner instead, very nice of them. we looked at the menu and figured we will have to get more food as well, this seemed experimental food. but it all changes soon. i try some shrimp spring roll and white rose (shrimp in rice paper looking thing in fish sauce, then there is chicken in peanut sauce,  good rice and other dishes i care less for, seafood in a mango and papaya salad, eggplant dish and other things.

we didn't need to get more food after all,.. stuffed, we walked the quarter a bit more then walked the 1.5 k back to the hotel. a glorious day.

now it is breakfast time, last day in Nam awaits..