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From Hue to Hoi An

After I caught the hotel maid rummaging through my purse, I was more than ready to leave Hue, bound for Hoi An.

Hoi An is a place that has been on my “must visit” list for more than 5 years. What I knew about it was that it is renowned for it’s skilled tailors. I started to get nervous after reading various accounts about Hoi An being “too touristy”. But then again, many travelers are quite snobby and nothing is ever “unspoiled” enough for some. Tiresome, tiresome people.

Anyway, the excitement for the kids was that we left Hue by train to Danang!

Like many toddler boys, Deeds is a big “choo-choo” fan.

He was very eager to see the choo-choo. Luckily he also loves drinking tea of all kinds- black, green, hot, or iced, and there was a small “tea shop” inside of the Hue train station where we passed the time with a free tea tasting.

We waited eagerly for the train. When we first went out on the platform (before the train arrived) people were just kind of milling around.

I was totally unprepared for the absolute CRUSH that occurred when we were actually trying to board the train.

It seemed that this group of ladies who weren’t even riding the train were camped out to hand bag over bag of items to someone already on board from a previous stop.

Some kind of train worker person lifted Deeds and Jojo onto the train, but Nick and I had to use some body-check and body-blocking maneuvers to swim through the over-eager passengers.

I didn’t really understand the rush: for me I just didn’t want to get separated from my children, who were being victimized by unwanted touches from dozens of Vietnamese women of all ages.

The train ride was without incident. Our “hard seat” seats were actually upholstered, and we were comfortable.

The train carried us down the coast of Central Vietnam, and we saw some stunning ocean views off of the rocky coast.

The foliage was also lush and amazing. The sky was cloudy and it was raining a bit, causing lovely fog to rise out of the jungle.

When we made it to Danang, the hotel from Hoi An had sent someone to pick us up, and we went by car for a 30 minute ride.

We checked in to the hotel and set off in search of food!

Hoi An has several culinary specialities. One is a noodle dish called Cao lau, a dish of thick rice noodles topped with meat (or tofu), deep-fried crunchy croutons, and prepared in water that comes from a special well in Hoi An. The necessity of the water from one specific well is probably the reason Cao lau isn’t enjoyed all over the world. But it sure is tasty.

Deeds eating cao lau:

Another dish originating in Hoi An is a kind of boiled shrimp dumpling, poetically referred to as “White Rose”. Sounds like a country song waiting to be written.

With our meal taken care of, we aimlessly walked around the city, eventually stopping in one of the tailors to place an order.

The next morning we went to a shoe shop that makes custom shoes.

Deeds didn’t order any shoes but he found a pair of nice ballet flats that he was quite fond of.

The shop owner was kind enough to let Deeds wear those shoes around town for a few hours! What a sweetie!

Hoi An is my favorite part of Vietnam so far. It has interesting things to see but is also a good place to relax! Just what I was looking for!

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