Hoi An Old Town (1)

For tourists to Danang - the 2 important tourist sites to visit are the town of Hue and the Old Town of Hoi An.

 

Hue is located some 100km to the north of Danang and the slow drive across mountainous road will take about 2 hours to reach there from Danang. The non-golfing accompanying persons of this group made a day trip to Hue when we guys played golf at Danang Golf Club. Pakdokter's partner was quite impressed by the tour - she described it as a visit to a 'mini Forbidden City' of Beijing. Hue was once the imperial capital of the Champa kingdom which was later conquered by the Chinese and later the Japanese.

 

Pakdokter and the golfing guys did not have time for this visit ( nor for any other visit). So to make up for it, pakdokter and partner hired a taxi for 3 hours in the evening to visit the Old Town of Hoi An which is about a 30 minutes drive away to the south of Danang. We were advised to go there at night to benefit viewing the town with its lantern lit up. ( the non-golfing ladies were to make a visit to Hoi An the next day for a half-a-day tour).

 

Hoi An Old Town is reminiscent of the old town of Dali in Yunnan, China. Conservation and restoration works have been superbly done as deserved the "Unesco World Heritage Site"  award bestoed upon the town. Many of the old buildings remained as dwellings but just as many have been converted into cafes, restaurants, guest-houses and curio shops. Pakdokter would reccomend an at least 2-day-1-night stay in this town to properly soak up the soul of the place. The guest-houses in the town should be a good experience.