Pt 4: of 5 weeks in Vietnam - Hoi An

mushy

Hoi An is the tailoring capitol of Vietnam! Every shop will make something for you, be it clothes, shoes, bag, bed linen... it goes on.
Its also one of the oldest towns in Vietnam and apart from getting flooded every few years has some of the oldest building in Vietnam as well.
Its mainly a bike town as well since cars are not allowed on most of the roads through the town centre.
Everyone says walk around, get a feel for the tailors before picking one...Nope! this is my girlfriend at the shop next to our hotel, already getting measured up!


One of the larger streets around town


Nestled between a tailor and a wood worker's shop is a 12th Century pagoda


A fancy window inside the pagoda.


No trip to Hoi An isn't complete without visiting the markets, plus to visit the temples you should be dressed appropriately, so no bare shoulders!

Bartering for a t-shirt to cover up!



They might be down on street traffic, but there is no problem bringing your scooter through a busy market place.




The waterfront near the markets


And back to the tailors :scratch 18 hours after being measured up, Flick has a whole new suit and she's one happy camper


Another highlight of Hoi An is a trip to the temples of My Son.
The bus drops you at the entrance and from there you jump on old army jeeps for a trip through the jungle to the temples.








From the temples it was a boat ride down the river and back to Hoi An


Local fishing boats


I just loved the 'facilities'


Last one from the boat


At night the town lights up with lantern shops you never really notice during the day...:rofl




The following day, while my girlfriend went off on a cooking course I did some panning shots of what you can carry on a scooter.

You can go solo


Or triple


Or carry stuff over your shoulder


Or maybe get the missus to hold the 'trailer' for you!


And a parting shot from our favourite family tailoring business 'Diem Diem'


Thanks for looking, hopefully it inspires a few to travel to this amazing part of the world.

Tee Why

What an interesting trip. That guy sure is brave riding a scooter one handed with that long pole.

cj99si

Yeah the pole guy takes the cake, Nice panning!

mushy

There were quite a few guys carrying building materials of various shapes and sizes.
Thanks for the comments

summerz

Great shots, Thanks for the tour.

isaacarus

i definitely know what you mean when you talk about the crazy stuff that some people carry on their scooters.

in bali about 3 years ago and we saw a man carrying a huge bundle of brush/fine sticks probably about 2m long by 1m thick sideways on his scooter, of course it would happen to be on a tiny road wouldnt it

back in the main centre of kuta we frequently saw scooters with more than 2 people, at one point we saw one with a man driving, a woman behind holding a baby, and a baby between dads legs sitting on the shopping they had put into the footrest area:O
Its absolutely crazy and rather hard to get used too, but they never seem to crash ;D
its also rather different having no traffic lights or roundabouts, just roads that essentially meet together, yet somehow, literally thousands of scooters, some cars and occasionally some big trucks too traverse them every minute without any incident, mind you there is a LOT of tooting, but again... no crashes

dadwtwins

what a great series, thank you for sharing these cool shots

loved the moped panning shots

mushy

isaacarus wrote:

i definitely know what you mean when you talk about the crazy stuff that some people carry on their scooters.

in bali about 3 years ago and we saw a man carrying a huge bundle of brush/fine sticks probably about 2m long by 1m thick sideways on his scooter, of course it would happen to be on a tiny road wouldnt it

back in the main centre of kuta we frequently saw scooters with more than 2 people, at one point we saw one with a man driving, a woman behind holding a baby, and a baby between dads legs sitting on the shopping they had put into the footrest area:O
Its absolutely crazy and rather hard to get used too, but they never seem to crash ;D
its also rather different having no traffic lights or roundabouts, just roads that essentially meet together, yet somehow, literally thousands of scooters, some cars and occasionally some big trucks too traverse them every minute without any incident, mind you there is a LOT of tooting, but again... no crashes

Thanks both for your comments.
I think the most we saw on this trip was 4 on a scooter, but my last trip to Thailand they were up to 5 on regular occassions.

RocketMan

These shots really take me back to my days living in thailand in the mid 60's, esp. the water and street scenes and the wonderful markets. The similarity between the countries is striking. Thanks for bringing back such wonderful memories! I really need to get back there some day.

RM

Darren Troy C

Really great...thanks for sharing!