Something magical happens in the tropics after the sun goes down. The inky evening takes the edge off of reality and the lights of the shops radiate warmth. The sounds in the air are filled with people laughing and glasses clinking. In the case of Hoi An, there is also the added delight of the colorful flower lanterns that shimmer in the Hoai River. Each lantern has a single lit candle representing a wish made by the individual who released it.
Our last night in Hoi An we attended a beautiful performance about the history of Hoi An Ancient town, called Hoi An Memories. The choreography and scenery alone are worth the price of admission. There is also an entire theme park built up around the show that you have to walk through to get to the show called Hoi An Memories Land that felt a little reminiscent of Las Vegas without the casinos.
Hoi An’s Ancient town is an incredibly well-preserved small-scale trading port that was active in the late 15th to 19th centuries. It was considered the best trading port in Southeast Asia by the Chinese and Japanese in the 18th century, and later became an exclusive trade route between Europe, China, Japan, and India. Because of its history and preservation, Ancient town itself is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.
For something completely different, our tour guide Laura, took us to the incredibly touristy basket boat ride through the water coconut grove. Our boat guide steered us through the coconut grove among approximately 183 identical boats with tourists and guides and into a lagoon filled with more boats, tourists, speakers, karaoke, a coffee stand, and a bar. It was a unique, and bizarre experience.
We also had the opportunity to tour a local organic farm and take a Vietnamese cooking class. We learned local Vietnamese farming techniques and had a fantastic cooking class where we made banana flower salad, Vietnamese pancakes, and steamed fish in clay pots.
Our final guided destination was Ba Na Hill Station, founded in 1919 by French colonists as a tourist destination for French tourists. Ba Na Hill is a resort in the Truong Son Mountains complete with an underground amusement park, beautiful flower and sculpture gardens, and the famous Golden Bridge.
Would we live here? No, but it’s probably the most likely place we’ve stayed at in Southeast Asia where we would consider it. Would we visit again? Definitely.
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