a gem

I'm in Hoian. This was the stop on my trip I wasn't sure about. I knew I wanted to see Halong Bay and I knew I wanted to see some of the Vietnam War stuff around Saigon. I read about a couple of different cities to visit, and decided on Hoian. And that decision gets two thumbs up because Hoian is an absolute treasure. It's full of tourists, but even with the hoards of people, its history and charm are not lost.

Hoian is on the coast, and while the beach is two miles up the road, the entire city has a beach feel and an ocean smell. 

 There is a lot of Chinese and Japanese influence in the buildings. I don't know much about Japanese architecture, as my time in Japan is limited to an overnight layover at a hotel near the Tokyo airport. But the Chinese influence was very obvious. Hoian is cool because unlike a lot of other cities in Vietnam, it was more or less untouched (thanks to cooperation from both sides) during the Vietnam War, or the American War as they call it here. So the center of the city is full of historic buildings

I need to read up on the significance of them and how it started, but Hoian is filled with lanterns

Kind of a repeat of the earlier photo, but c'mon now. This city is beautiful

One of Hoian's main attraction are the old homes. You pay about $6 for an admission ticket that gets you into the old part of the city. Then with that ticket you are given access to 5 of Hoian's old buildings, which include several private homes that are still lived in by the original families. It was a tad strange to think that these people are still living there and there are hundreds of tourists marching through their houses every day, but I never turn down the opportunity to look in someone else's house, so I liked it so much I bought two tickets so that I could go into ten old buildings

The two greatest words in the human language are "food tour" and this one did not disappoint. We started with this bahn mi

 At night there are giant illuminated statues (lanterns? no clue). I don't know the significance but they are pretty 

Tomorrow morning I am headed up to Hanoi, and Thursday I am going to Halong Bay. I read that as of Sunday, they no longer allow kayaking around the Bay, which is the biggest bummer of my year. But I am still excited.