Lantern-City – Hoi An

Due to a bonehead move on my part, we are now spending the afternoon in the Da Nang airport, waiting for our flight to Hanoi. I accidentally booked our tickets for March 14th, rather than Valentine’s Day, February 14th. So let’s make some lemonade, and catch up on our posting.

Hoi An sees over 3 million tourists each year. This is in large part due to the “old city.” I suspect it’s also because there are hundreds of tailors here. It is the number one destination in Vietnam for bespoke clothing, something to which we availed ourselves, (after all, we do need our cruisewear for later in the trip).

The old city is a maze of streets and alleys, and very photogenic. We sat at a restaurant for our last dinner here last night and must have seen at least 50 people take pictures of the lanterns hanging over our heads.

Hoi An is also known for the lantern festival, a monthly celebration of Vietnam landing on the full moon every month. So happens it’s tonight, and we’ve missed it by a day. Here’s what we’re missing:

• Thousands of lanterns are lit throughout the city, including in the streets and on the water 
• People wear traditional Vietnamese clothing and parade through the streets carrying lanterns 
• The streets are filled with singing, dancing, and traditional performances 
• The night ends with a fireworks display 
• People release lanterns on the Thu Bon River to pray for peace 

So we may have missed it, but we have been to the river –

This little girl was selling candles to float in the river. She was diligent about keeping the flames going in all of the vessels.

The most dangerous place in Hoi An may between a lantern and a camera. Streets are festooned with them. We are also coming off of the Tet New Year’s festival. Many vendors were burning “joss paper” or “votive paper” offerings to their ancestors, symbolizing a way to send them items like money, clothes, and other necessities to use in the afterlife, essentially bidding farewell to them after the celebration and ensuring their well-being in the spiritual realm. Don’t want to spoil it for the ancestors, but a lot of the burning money looked fake.

We had wanted to try the “cyclos” or bicycle taxis since arrival. We took the plunge and hired the ride home our last night.

Hoi An has moved into the top tier of places we’ve visited. An unabashed tourist town, very walkable (in the old town), a beautiful to look at. Even though we took some rest days to deal with colds, it was very enjoyable. Besides, look what was outside our hotel the last day –

Next stop: Ninh Binh