Julia's Travels: Hoi An

The several days I spent in Hoi An were an interesting experience for me. I'm not going to lie, Vietnam has been a challenging place to travel. I've had some fantastic experiences, and some trying ones, but in Hoi An it felt like some divine force was really attempting to test my patience.

The city of Hoi An was virtually untouched by any conflict in Vietnam's recent history, so the town, a UNESCO world heritage site, is full of gorgeous, old Chinese-style buildings and ambling riverside streets. This pleasant ambiance makes the town a magnet for foreign tourists, but where there are tourists, there are aggressive hotel-owners and touts trying to sell stuff to the visitors. The more tourists, the more aggressive the selling (and on my personal opinion, the more jaded the local people become). Needless to say, Hoi An has an interesting vibe to it.

Pretty much any time I tried to buy something, I had to haggle for way too long to get a fair price, and on several occasions my interactions with shop-owners disintegrated into a bit of a squabble. Usually these incidents ended with the shop owner telling me that because I'm a foreigner, I must have lots of money and should pay more. I actually had one little woman at a cobbler-shop make a fist like she was going to pop me in the nose when I refused to pay extra for her to fix my shoes after we had previously agreed on a price. She never actually took a swing at me, but I was pretty astounded.

This is also where the butt-tapping started to get to me. Ever since I arrived in Vietnam, women (but no men, thank goodness) have been giving me little butt-pats. Usually, this is a signal for me to move aside, or they are just trying to get my attention. Normally, I try to relax and remember that it's not considered an offensive move here, but in Hoi An, it got to be a bit much and I started walking around town with one eye looking out for my backside.

The last straw was the hotel. On my last morning at the hotel, I awoke at 7:30 am to some the-world-is-ending-grab-your-stuff-and-head-for-the-hills crashing noises. I ran to the door and flung it open only to find a construction worker removing the tiles in front of my room with a sledge hammer. Apparently, the hotel was re-doing the floor and sledge hammer usage is the tile removal strategy of choice here in Vietnam. I am not usually cranky in the morning (and when I am the problem can normally be remedied with a cup of coffee) but this was insane, and I was not pleased. I had some words with the hotel staff and checked out.

Ok, so I want to keep this blog as an honest window into my experience traveling, and sometimes that means writing about the negative stuff...but Hoi An was, by no means, all bad. There were some very positive parts as well. 1) I met lots of great travelers, including a very cool group of Belgian backpackers, and ran into my friends Phil, Dave and Becky who I had met in Hue. 2) I had some clothes tailor made, the most exciting of which was a replica of my favorite skirt of all time (the original was definitely on its last legs and ready to retire). 3) I rented a "Martin" brand bicycle and enjoyed some very scenic rides around town and to the beach (which was a bit too windy to swim, but still very beautiful).

So, that's my experience in Hoi An in a nutshell.

-Julia