Hoi An

Hoi An is probably my most favorite city in Vietnam. I believe the entire city is registered with Unesco as a world heritage site (which basically means it is to be preserved and protected and big hulking buildings are not allowed to build there.) More importantly (well i guess depending on your perspective) it is a town filled with artists and tailors.

So the first thing I did in Hoi An was get measured and order a bunch of new clothes. I walked into the tailor shop armed with design ideas for new pants and a dress, then worked with someone in choosing the best fabric and revamping the styles so that they would better suit me. It was so much fun...there were shelves and shelves of fabrics to choose from and all of them went from the floor to the ceiling...It was amazing!!! After surviving my first set of measuring, my mom (who also went crazy and ordered even more stuff then me!!) and I began our day of sightseeing in the ancient section of town.

The town of Hoi An has a neat little legend that surrounds it...Long ago the people of Vietnam believed that there was a huge dragon that lived in their country...it was so big that its head was in India and its tail in Japan....whenever the dragon got mad it would swing its tail in Japan (and cause an earthquake)...luckily the middle of the dragon was located in Hoi An, as that area never suffered any geological disasters...because of this the town is considered to be "the town built on a dragons' back"...and there are dragons everywhere!! It's actually very beautiful and quaint...with narrow streets filled with old storefronts (the whole town actually looks like a movie set.)

After checking out a couple of the sights (we went to an old potter tradesman's house and saw a "typical" Hoi An house) doing a bit of shopping (the town is also famous for its silk lanterns...which look so cool at night) and stopping every few hours for drinks and people watching.

All and all our time in Hoi An was lovely (we stayed 2 days, and managed to do pretty much the same thing both days) plus we discovered my new favorite Vietnamese food (move over Pho...) Cau lao...oh my god it is awesome!!! (and another Hoi An specialty) Fat noodles, croutons (wierd I know) fried rice paper, mint, parsley, chili sauce, vinegar and soy sauce (and probably a bunch of other things i can't exactly identify)...my mom and I ate this so many times in Hoi An, I am surprised we didn't roll out of there as giant Cau lao balls...but it was only about .50 a plate, so how could we not??