On the night of Monday, Oct. 5th, we arrived in Hoi An, an older city in Vietnam which used to house one of the largest and most industrial ports on the coast of Vietnam. Throughout the trip, we have luckily had the most beautiful weather. However, it is clear now just how destructive the typhoon that we have been following closely behind has been. When we arrived at night, our first hour in the hotel was marked by three city-wide blackouts which were attributed to the destruction of a few main power lines that were still down. While our group members huddled together out on our balconies in the dark, we saw the city going about business as usual- We even started our dinner in the restaurant to candle light! Just goes to show you how adaptable the Vietnamese people are to this unpredictable infrastructure.
Tuesday morning, we woke up and took a walking tour of Hoi An. We visited a few historical sites which gave us a better understanding about the significance of Hoi An as a port town in the early 1900s and a cultural mixture of Japanese and Chinese influence. We saw a few Buddhist pagodas and temples as well, and admired the older style of architecture throughout the city that had lasted since the late 1800s. We also took a cooking class in Hoi An which reminded me of how I should never be allowed to handle a stove… We learned from a professional chef how to cook a few specialty Vietnamese dishes, including fresh spring rolls, Vietnamese pancakes, and a few more.
That afternoon, Viet (our tour guide,) took us on a three-mile bike ride to the beach. On the way, we saw more destruction caused by the typhoon: Hotels with no roofs, piles and piles of burning garbage, and disastrously muddy streets. After enjoying the beach for a few hours, we took a more scenic route back to the hotel, which included biking through a rice paddy with a path about two feet wide. Although we struggled navigating the bikes, it was really cool to bike through the paddies and see such a different landscape.
Wednesday morning, our group woke up and headed to the My Son ruins, which was about an hour bus ride from our hotel in Hoi An. After taking an old jeep up the side of a mountain, we hiked in to a group of Cham ruins that dated back thousands of years. These ruins depicted many gods and goddesses, statues and temples from the Cham religion, and was a really great photographic opportunity for our conical hat project. It is always amazing to see how architectural structures like these have lasted throughout centuries, and how archeologists are continuing to find such ruins and restore them in this area.
After heading back to Hoi An from My Son, our group had lunch at a small café called Streets, which was founded by an NGO from Germany called Streets International. The concept of this restaurant follows the basic principle of “if you give a man a fish…” This agency employs kids who have been forced to live on the streets and teaches them basic service skills, including serving and preparing food. Everyone employed by the Streets restaurant has been educated in the skills of the service industry, which opens up doors to great opportunities for these kids who otherwise would have had nothing. The meal was really fantastic, the service was great, and we had a good time learning about how the organization worked.
Thursday, we departed for Hue, and on the way climbed one of the Marble Mountains in Da Nang and visited the Cham Museum. Our climb up the Marble Mountain was definitely grueling (and I’d have to say one of the sweatier things we have done in Vietnam…) but the view from the top was amazing and absolutely worth it. The tallest of the Marble Mountains, the one we climbed was about 300 stone steps carved in to the face of a mountain. At the top, there was a Buddhist temple, and a set of caves that led down in to the mountain where a few altars and shrines were carved out of stone in to the walls. On the way down, we saw a tower where many famous Buddhist relics were kept, and a giant Buddha carved in to the face of the mountain.
Our next stop before lunch was the Cham museum, which housed many famous structures and relics from the Cham culture and religion, including some from the My Son ruins which we had seen the previous day. At the museum, the statue I found the most recognizable was the one of the goddess Lakshmi, who I had researched before. In this specific sculpture, Lakshmi was seen seated in the Lotus position, with two hands to both sides holding a lotus flower. According to the description of the statue, Lakshmi emerged from the ocean when she was created holding the two lotus flowers, representing supreme female energy. It was really interesting to me how the Cham religion managed to weave together deities and teachings from multiple religions. Some status depicted Buddhas and bodhisattvas, others depicted Hindu gods and goddesses, and some showed two different religious figured in the same sculpture. The Cham people are a very large part of Vietnamese history, and understanding their ancient culture is extremely important to understanding contemporary Vietnam.
That night, we arrived in Hue and went to a dinner at the historical home of a princess of the empire. The husband of the descendant of the princess described to us how the garden house, like the greater Imperial palace, was created in the feng shui style. We learned a lot about the construction of the Citadel, and the role and fall of the monarchy in Hue. We also ate a fantastic, traditional dinner prepared by the wife and daughters of our host.
Friday morning (the 9th), we woke up in our hotel in Hue to visit the Citadel, or the old Imperial City of the monarchy of Vietnam. After walking through different parts of the palace, we saw a traditional performance of Vietnamese song and dance in traditional costumes. We were also able to try on period outfits (probably the highlight of the visit), which gave us an idea of how hot it must have been to wear outfits like that every day!
After walking around the Citadel some more, we left to visit the tomb of one of the emperors previous to the last one, who was actually very unpopular with the Vietnamese people. However, looking at the beauty and amazing construction of his tomb, you would think that he was the most well-liked and respected of all the emperors. The tomb itself was like a small palace, with a bunch of small rooms and relics, guarded by statues of respectful guards and elephants and a tall flight of marble steps. I’d like to see what the tombs looked like for the popular emperors…
Saturday afternoon, after some morning free time in Hue, we left for the train station to board an overnight train to Hanoi. The train was probably one of the most ridiculous things I have ever experienced. Because the train only stops for literally a few minutes, we had to form a quick conga line with all of our bags and load them in to our car as quickly as we could, all the while resisting being pushed on to the train by the conductor and his crew. Our guide, Viet, told us that as long as our bodies were not on the train before our luggage, we would not leave any bags behind. We thought that this was a funny statement until we arrived at the station and actually realized that the conductors were trying to push us on to the train without all of our baggage. After fighting to stay on the platform as the last of the bags were loaded on to the train, I was finally lifted up by the straps of my backpack and put in to the car by one of the train employees. Thankfully, all of the bags were loaded on to the train just then and we began pulling away without even shutting the door. Such is Vietnam.
The overnight train itself was definitely an experience too. We were packed in to small rooms with two bunk bed sleepers and a small table in the middle, having to maneuver around all of our luggage and find a comfortable place to sleep. However, I soon fell asleep from the exhausting and excitement of boarding the train, only to be woken up at 4:30 am to find that we had arrived. That Sunday morning in Hanoi seems like such a blur that I really can’t even describe my first impressions of the city. After lugging my bags up four flights of stairs, we unpacked our luggage and settled in to the new room.
Later on in the morning, we took a cab out to explore the area, but soon realized that we were really starting from scratch all over again in terms of getting to know an area. It is definitely going to take some time, but we will get to feel comfortable in Hanoi just like we did in Saigon. It’s just hard to think that we are going to have to start with a blank slate. Tomorrow we have orientation to the city, however, which will help us find our way around in the dorm area, and help us locate ourselves in terms of the greater city.
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