Hôi An

Thursday 9th April

Fishing nets over the river

A day in Hôi An. We cycled into town via the coast, a much better route than travelling along the extremely busy main road. Once in town we were in the middle of the market, noisy, smelly with an amazing array of every kind of food, more of that later.

Detail from door panel

The plan was to visit the ancient parts of the town which consists of twenty two sites, one ticket allows a visit to five of these which is probably enough for all but the most dedicated history buffs.

Monkey

First up was the Japanese Covered Bridge, built in the early seventeenth Century this is one of the iconic buildings of Hôi An.

Japanese Covered Bridge

It's free to cross so we didn't use up one of our tickets here. At one side of the bridge are stone Monkeys and on the other, are stone Dogs, these symbolise when the building was started and finished.

Dogs Head

Tucked in a quiet backstreet was the Nguyên Túòng Family Chapel, a small building with not a lot to see, but a famous family in Vietnam as there were three brothers who were all famous writers.

Nguyên Túòng Family Chapel

The Museum of Trade Ceramics was next up, quite a nice building with a load of pottery from mostly the sixteenth to eighteenth Century, no pictures here as it was not very photogenic.

Phùc Kìên

Phúc Kiên Assembly hall was next, after lunch, this was built in 1757 and was more like a temple.

Roof of Phùc Kìên

We retraced our steps to Tân Ký Old House, it's old but so were many of the shops we visited en route!

Dragons Head

Finally we found Quan Công Temple, this was built in 1653, was similar to Phúc Kiên Assembly Hall but also contained some more pottery and bits of ships.

Roof of Quan Công Temple

The whole day was more interesting than it sounds and we finished it off with a very nice curry at Ganesh restaurant (but also the most expensive meal we've bought so far in Vietnam).

Pots, not old at all!

Tomorrow it's a four thirty morning start as we visit My Son for dawn.