Hoi An, Lanterns and Tailors

Having survived the sleeper bus, I walked into the Back Home Hotel, just as the excellent receptionist, Hang, was wrangling a host of backpackers through check out and out the door and into a fleet of taxis. Check-in was not going to be possible, but I could leave my backpack and use the downstairs bathroom. I got a map, some recommendations and advice against the local scams and stepped out into the early afternoon heat to search for some coffee and elbow room.

I ate dinner twice at a small place on the edge of the old quarter, picking local specialties both times.

Walking the streets, it seemed that the Cycle Rickshaws were doing a roaring trade, being the preferred transport for Japanese and Korean tourists, perhaps due to the sheer anachronism.

However, I don’t think it’s dignified to be pushed around by someone else’s energy.

To and from airports, the same tourists seem to prefer to be transported by those elongated golf cart things, which seem little better.

That first night I managed to avoid the touts, and taxi driver mafia, but was shocked by the sheer numbers of tailors, and leather goods shops lining the old quarter, but I had no need for any of them.

But at night, the old quarter shines. The lanterns festooning the shopfronts and strung across intersections and alleyways make for an impressive display.

Even more so, on the Thu Ben River, with the lanterns on boats and the prayer candle boats.

Not the easiest to photograph with a phone.

However the mass tourism nature of the place made it not a place easy to relax, and prices for drinks seemed to double within the old quarter, so after a walk through the night market I didn’t linger.

I was here without a lover, and renting a little boat to float down that gentle river, would be incredibly romantic with someone you love, and utterly nonsensical on my own.

Upon this realization I had a strong impulse to run back to my hotel, pack up, pay up and take the first bus out of town. It probably would have been what my more confident alter ego would have done, but it would not have solved anything.

So I stayed and tried to ignore the couples walking hand in hand, along with the bodies sleeping feet away from me in the dorms.