Tag: Hoi An

Senior Sisters, Hoi An Old Town, Vietnam

I was mining old images of Vietnam recently – working on a “best of” gallery – and came across this photo from a 2018 visit to Hoi An. The two women, who I am guessing are sisters, have a certain appeal in a cantankerous kind of way, and the vibrant, lush colors are so typical of Hoi An. Beyond a minor exposure adjustment, the raw image took virtually no post-processing. Pretty much ready to go out of the box.

Hoi An Landscape (2), Vietnam

A sunny, bright Hoi An morning seen from my second floor balcony. This photo was taken at the end of May, and in the month that passed since the previous photo was taken, summer arrived and a rice harvest took place. The days are getting longer, and the sun was a half an hour above the horizon at 6:15 am. It was already late for a morning stroll — by 7:00 or 7:30 at the latest, the temperature would hit 90 degrees on its way to a high of around 100 degrees by late morning.

Hoi An Landscape, Vietnam

The view at 6:00 in the morning from the second floor balcony of my home in Hoi An. After four years living in increasingly congested Da Nang with its million plus people, I moved at the end of March to much smaller, quieter, and more scenic Hoi An, some twenty kilometers down the road from Da Nang. This photo was taken at the end of April, about a month after I arrived in my new locale.

Thu Bồn River, Hoi An, Vietnam

Thu Bồn River, Hoi An, Vietnam

Hoi An, about 20 km south of Danang, has become a major tourist attraction for its UNESCO World Heritage site Ancient City and its beautiful beaches. Curious, I took a public bus from Danang to take a look. I had intended to make it a day trip, though I actually stayed for no more than a couple of hours. The part of Hoi An I found myself in was mobbed with tourists and everything I saw there, from the shops selling tee shirts, (allegedly) local handicrafts, and artwork to the cafes and restaurants, to the ubiquitous men with motorbikes pitching rides, was designed to part tourists from their money. Yes, the architecture was interesting and the old town was certainly quaint, maybe authentically so, but the atmosphere proclaimed very loudly, “Tourist trap.” If I had given myself a couple of days to explore, I suspect I could have found parts of Hoi An that were worth visiting. But that is not how I had organized my trip and, as it was, I quickly became fed up with the crowds and the feeling that the whole place was about money. I took a couple of dozen photos, one of which is posted here, walked back to the bus station, and two hours after arriving took another public bus back to Danang. At least I can say I have been to Hoi An.