Hi, Sweet Friends, 

I just spent 9 days in Vietnam.  I made a choice to get a guided tour rather than traveling on my own.  It was a great decision.  I saw so much more than I would have thought possible with highly informed guides.  Please enjoy my stories.  I enjoyed learning them.  I flew into HO Chi Minh (Saigon), but I chose not to explore South Vietnam.  I came to my adulthood during those years and did not want to relive the ugliness of that war.   In a very good and bad way, the American Vietnam War was a persistent companion throughout the trip.  Instead I went to Hoi An.

For about three centuries, Hoi An was a major trading center.  Its inhabitants were Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese.  When the silt from the river built up enough that the ships could not get in to bring goods, the town lost its importance.  Over time the population drifted away to find work.  In the 1980’s, the UNESCO declared Hoi An as a cultural heritage because many of the buildings were untouched over many centuries.   They gave money to make improvements and restore the town.  Today, Hoi An is for tourists.  It is noted for its tailor shops. 

Shrine on the Japanese Bridge

Many different groups occupied the town over the years, the architecture is a mix of French colonial, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese.  The Japanese influence on the buildings is not obvious to me.  They left one bridge built to connect the Chinese and Japanese communities.This bridge was begun in the year of the money and finished in the year of the dog; therefore there are dog and monkey statues at the ends of the bridge to commemorate that connection.   The guide told me that Japanese believed that a dragon slept under south Asia that extended between Japan and India.  They believed that when the dragon moved that Japan or India suffered with earthquakes.  This bridge is part of the feng shui that contains the dragon. 

Trap door to lift valuables every year
when the river flooded.

Living room of Vietnamese merchant home.

Every house had an altar to their ancestors.  They varied only in the
richness of the decorations

Chinese merchant home ancestor altar had its own room.  It faced the family l
iving space to focus on the children who came after.

Streets are unchanged from the 1800's.

Wh

This house had been a hotbed of intellectuals before the war.
The oldest generation was a Viet Cong fighter.
This is a monument to him and his work.

 

Hoi An floods every year during the rainy season.  The houses that sit near the water know that they have to move all their valuables to the second floor.  One house had a trap door to lift the furniture through.  The walls of the houses are made of ironwood to resist rotting. 

I visited two homes of merchants in the town.  Because the merchants were taxed on the frontage of the property, buildings are only 10 ft. wide, but go back quite far.   Typically, the business would be in the first room and the family would live behind.  In the Chinese house, there were 8 generations of family living together.   Each house had a shrine for their ancestors with gifts of food and flowers constantly tended.  In the wealthier Chinese house, the shrine had its own room.