M&C: Hue & Hoi An

Map's back!

Hue and Hoi An are renowned as the culinary and cultural heart of Vietnam. For us, that mostly means eating lots of meals and wandering around looking at stuff. Interestingly, they are also south of the historical North-South border, and our immediate impression was that people seemed much warmer and friendlier towards us and that the tourist infrastructure is also much more developed. By and large, exchanges with vendors, restaurant staff, etc. have been feeling a little less pushy, cold, and purely transactional than in the north.

We arrived in Hue bleary-eyed and sleepy at about 9:30AM, took a short taxi ride to our hotel, and promptly fell asleep. Chandler roused himself after about 45 minutes and got a leisurely lunch and did some work in a coffee shop for a couple hours. Michelle got up in the meantime, and we did some trip planning that afternoon before finally setting out to check out the city together. We wandered around a little, getting a quick meal consisting of some local specialties, nem lui and banh khoai. From there, we meandered through the tourist area and met up for a drink with one of the people who had been on our tour to Cat Ba Island and Lan Ha Bay.

The next day, we walked across the river to the old city that was the Vietnamese imperial capital for most of the 18th and 19th centuries. This area is surrounded by two layers of moats, with the old city walls still standing, circumscribing hundreds of palaces, temples, old living quarters, elaborate gates, gardens, and other structures. We walked around for a little while, but it was extremely hot (heat index around 100F), and Michelle decided to sit in the shade and draw for a little bit while Chandler walked around for another hour or so. The most impressive thing about the imperial city was simply its scale, and it was fun to imagine the thousands of courtiers, attendants, and other functionaries that must have lived there during its heyday.

After popping into a cafe with AC to cool off, we took a taxi to the other side of town where Chandler had read about a restaurant he wanted to try, Com Hen Hoa Dong. The place was on Con Hen island, which sits in the middle of the Perfume River and is only accessible by a single bridge that's only wide enough for motorbikes and bicycles, so the taxi dropped us off on the mainland side and we walked over. The island had an incredibly peaceful, charming vibe that we hadn't yet seen in Vietnam. People smiled like they were happy to see us (or at least amused by our presence), and there were lots of kids out playing in the streets which were busting with bikes and scooters but no cars at all.

We easily found the restaurant and ordered a com hen and a bun hen (local baby clams with rice and noodles, respectively). This was one of the best meals we've eaten on the trip. The clams were so tiny and the fishy taste was mixed so perfectly with all the other flavors that even Michelle loved it. We ordered another bun hen each and also got two of the specialty desserts: che bap, a kind of gelatinous sweet corn-and-coconut pudding, which was also delicious. After eating, we walked around the island a little more, just taking in the scenes of daily life as well as a beautiful sunset over the Perfume River.

The next morning, we took a bus about three hours south to Hoi An. Equal to Hue as a culinary destination, Hoi An also has the added benefit of being absolutely adorable to walk around, kind of like a Vietnamese San Miguel de Allende. Besides food, Hoi An is also very famous for the quality and quantity of its tailors. The woman who runs the guesthouse we stayed at recommended her sister's tailoring business, Faifoo, if we were interested in having any clothes made. After getting some lunch (two of the local specialties, mi quang and cau lau), we wandered over to Faifoo and chatted to the sister in question. She was very knowledgeable and not at all pushy and helped us understand the process as well as the various options. Plus, the price was right, so we just decided to go for it. Chandler got a suit, two long-sleeve button-ups, and a short-sleeve button-up and Michelle got two dresses. We chose the fabrics, colors, and cuts, having to be helped through every decision because we don't really know anything about this kind of thing. They took our measurements and told us to come back the next day.

That night, we had bought tickets to a production called "AO Show" that was billed as "Vietnamese Bamboo Circus." The show took place at a really beautiful little theater that was a very short walk from our guesthouse. We had fairly high expectations, but were still absolutely blown away by the performance. It amounted to a series of vignettes, each of which told a little story that incorporated various combinations of acrobatics, circus skills, modern dance, performance art, physical comedy, pastiche of cultural mores, live music, and a brilliant use of props. The settings ranged from rural villages to modern cities, and each little story was convincingly told, technically amazing, and really heartfelt. Overall, it was one of the best live performances either of us have been to, and we both had a blast. After the show, Chandler chowed down on some charcoal-grilled squid and octopus that had been caught that day.

The next morning, we got another slow start before grabbing a quick breakfast of cau lau and settling down in an absolutely adorable coffee shop called Faifo (confusingly just one letter different from the tailor). We did a bunch of work and admired the beautiful view out over the quaint, shingled rooftops. For lunch, Chandler had yet another seafood extravaganza. This time, a giant steaming hot pot with various kinds of seafood cooked in an aromatic and savory lemongrass-garlic-ginger broth.

We went back to the tailor and tried on our new clothes, getting some recommendations for small adjustments, before setting out again to wander around, take some photos of this incredibly photogenic place, pop into some small shops, and enjoy a beverage on a small balcony overlooking the street.

We had most of the next day to kill too before an evening flight south to the Mekong Delta, and it passed in much the same way as the previous day: coffee shops and seafood meals, capped off with a delicious fresh-caught grilled lobster that Michelle enjoyed right along with Chandler. All in all, a pretty relaxing, delightfully food-filled, and logistically productive time in central Vietnam.

Next up: The Mekong Delta