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destination feature
Seven Things To See And Do
1Get a new wardrobe. Hoi
An is central Vietnam’s
tailoring mecca. There are
countless shops, especially
along Le Loi Street. It’s best
to show the tailor a picture
of the outfit you want made
or bring the clothing that
you’d like a copy of. The
tailoring is fast (within a
few hours) but the quality
may not always be great so
plan to have a few fittings.
To buy your own cloth, visit Hoi An Cloth Market (1 Tran Phu Street) and bargain hard. There are skilled cobblers on Tran Phu Street (near the market) who make custom shoes at affordable rates.
2Shop! The abundance of shopping in this small town is amazing. As Hoi An is also a silk mecca, this is the place to buy quality silk. Tuoingoc (103 Tran Phu Street) sells tra- ditional silk and lanterns. For hand-carved statues made of rock, bone, dentine and wood, check out Le Ngoc Diep (91 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street). For traditional-style Vietnamese furniture and artistic handicrafts, visit Kim Bong Traditional Carpentry along Tran Phu Street which also has art galleries, pottery and carved-wood vendors. Along the river, there are many places selling blue and white ceramics.
3Visit Central Market early in the morning and see the lo- cals in action. Watch all manner of poultry being sold (alive) and tied to the handles of motorbikes. At the nearby dock, fishermen unload their catch while everyone gathers round 4to buy it.
Learn to make lanterns from a craftsman. Contact Hoi An
Travel (10 Tran Hung Dao Street) for a half-day or full-day 5session. Colourful lanterns are a big part of Hoi An culture.
Feast on seafood. Hoi An’s seafood is reputed to be among the best available and best value in Vietnam. Hoi An Hai San (64 Bach Dang Street) is a popular seafood restaurant. If you’re not a seafood fan, Hoi An has plenty of eateries serving a wide variety of food. If you have a big appetite for Vietnamese food, visit Café Des Amis (52 Bach Dang Street) for big portions. Kick back at Tam Tam Café (100 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street), Hoi An’s most famous café and the only place in town that opens late (till 1am). Travellers bond here over cocktails and a game of pool, darts or scrabble.
6Rent a bicycle and ride around the narrow streets of the old city. Wander among historic buildings and temples, and stop by the restaurants on Trai Phu Street for a cup of tea and 7Chinese-style pastries.
Kick back and relax on the white sand beaches of Cua Dai, about 5km east of Hoi An. Cua Dai beach has cheap res- taurants and bars plus more salubrious venues within the
recently developed resorts and hotels. The beach is crowd- ed with hawkers but the sand, surf and setting, with views of nearby Cham Is- land are worth the trip. A taxi from the town centre to Cua Dai should cost you no more than US$4.
1 EnDLEss VACATIon
First-Timer’s Guide To Hué
Situated on Vietnam’s central coast, between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Hué is a charming city with splendid historical sights. Graham Simmons soaks in the sights.
Hué, a gracious metropolis of over 1 million people1 in central Vietnam and the former Imperial capital of the country, is one of the world’s finest treasures. Situ- ated 688km from Hanoi and 1,038km from Ho Chi Minh City, Hué makes a perfect stopover for those travelling from north to south through Vietnam. A perfect stop, that is, if you can handle the atrocious weather – Hué has been known to register over 3m of rainfall in one single month.
It is the colours of Hué – that startle and amaze visi- tors. This gracious city takes its “passion for purple” from the colours of the Purple Forbidden City, the inner sanctum of the landmark Hué Citadel. The streets, full of people in purple plastic raincoats, are offset by hous- es painted in subtle shades ranging from light purple through to mauve.
The construction of the Hué Citadel took place be- tween 1805 and 1832, after Emperor Gia Long (founder of the Nguyen Dynasty) moved the Vietnamese capital from Hanoi to Hué at the start of the 19th century. Emperor Gia Long was the first to unite the whole of Vietnam. In 1885, the French seized the city, but the Nguyen Dynasty con- tinued as nominal rulers until the abdication of Emperor Bao Dai in 1945.
During the Vietnam-US War in the 1960s and early 70s, much of Hué was sadly destroyed. After the reuni- fication of the country in 1975, the Herculean task of rebuilding Hué began. Reconstruction efforts received a huge boost in 1993, when UNESCO listed Hué as a World Heritage Site. Since then, Hué has become a “must-see” place for any visitor to Vietnam.