After breakfast in our hotel lobby (a mix of breakfast favorites to suit worldwide palates – cereal, tomatoes, noodles), we made our way to attempt to meet a guide to show us around town. Because I’d made the reservation so late (midnight), I wasn’t confident our guide would be there, and I was right. So we went with Plan B, which was to just meander around the Old Town. I was very relieved to find the crowds much smaller today than yesterday!

When you go into Old Town, they sell you a ticket which gets you in to multiple historic sites. We meandered through the winding, lantern-strung streets, through mossy alleyways, and among aged yellow shops before we found our first stop: Tan Ky Ancient House. This was the home and shop of a merchant in the 18th century; the 5th generation still lives upstairs. As a merchant’s home, it is built with it’s back-end facing the river and the front end facing the street where folks could buy their wares. In the kitchen area they have markers of how high the flood waters have gotten over the years (yes, it floods in the house, but they have developed a system wherein the inner walls can be raised by pulley to keep them dry).

From there, we stopped at the Fukian Assembly Hall. The assembly halls were cultural hubs for the many Chinese and Japanese immigrants who made their home here. This one in particular was for the Chinese immigrants who came from the Fukian province and served as a temple, meeting place, and more in the multicultural city of Hoi An. Hanging in the middle of the hall were what at first glance appeared to be a bunch of Christmas trees but are, in actuality, incense. The idea is that people can write down their wish or prayer and the incense will burn for a month.

We continued to meander around town, stopping in at a performance of traditional music and craft shops. We were on our way to a museum in town when a woman talked us into coming to see her tailoring shop, run by her and a dozen or so family members. Now, Hoi An is known worldwide for its tailoring. While we weren’t expecting to get anything, neither of us could pass up this unique opportunity to have something (or things) specially made for us at a steep discount from what you’d pay in the states. We looked through catalogues of different styles of dresses, coats, and pants, chose pieces we liked, and then were able to chose the fabrics as well. They told us to come back in six hours for a fitting.

So, we continued meandering around the Old Town (they’ve got a pretty smooth operation here – bring ’em in for tailoring and occupy ’em with pretty streets and lots of shopping while they wait). We tried a Vietnamese Doughnut, visited the Japanese covered bridge (actually built by Chinese and Vietnamese folks), and had another Bahn Mi before stopping for a drink by the river.

We happened to arrive at the same time as a couple from New Zealand and the server mistakenly sat us together but we were all okay with that and proceeded to chat with them for a good long while. They, too, are both getting married soon and she is between jobs like me. Unlike us, however, they have spent the last 6 months traveling around the world! A couple of “buckets” of alcohol later, we were all on our way for fittings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After our fitting, we sat by the river for a while, enjoying the juxtaposition of bustling crowds and beautiful lanterns in the sky and on the water, before making our way to dinner. We’d been wanting to try some of the local specialties – White Rose and Cau Lau (a dish only made in Hoi An, with noodles from a secret recipe) – and found a place in an alley that was uniquely empty and had both of those items on a tasting menu. In addition to White Rose and Cau Lau, we were also treated to a crispy wanton with a spicy seafood chutney and a dessert of coconut tapioca pudding with banana.

Now we are back at our hotel trying to tie up any lose ends before a busy morning picking up our tailored items and catching a taxi to the airport.