Along the Coast

Vietnam has over 2000 miles of coastline. In an earlier post, I showed you the unique beauty of Ha Long Bay, in the north of Vietnam. We also visited other sections of the coast where we found some fine beaches and Vietnam’s famed oyster bay. 

Danang, on the central coast, is one of the cities known for its beaches. If you were paying attention to the news during the years of the Vietnam – I mean American War, you’ve probably heard of Danang. And maybe the name China Beach sounds familiar. American soldiers on R&R (rest and recuperation) during the war gave this nickname to Danang’s My Khe Beach. (They also left behind about 25,000 Amerasian children.) Today, Danang is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Vietnam. 

Although our time in Danang was very brief, it made a big impression on me. I could hardly contain my excitement when I got my first glimpse of the pristine blue ocean waters from the windows of our bus. Being a lifelong resident of the East coast, I still regard the Pacific as somewhat exotic. We were off the bus just long enough to wiggle our bare toes in the sand and to feel the surf swirling around our ankles. 

I didn’t want to leave, but we were on a tight schedule. An guided us on a short walk past some colorful fishing boats and then on to lunch at a local restaurant. 

Our menu included some new items, including green mango salad with beef, crispy fried cauliflower, shrimp simmered in tamarind sauce, and grilled pork wrapped in guava leaves. 

And since it was Valentine’s Day, I took advantage of the restaurant’s special promotion – a glass of Vietnamese Hong Dao pink vodka for $1.50. I’m not a big fan of vodka, but this actually tasted good. 

Not far from Danang, Vietnam’s oyster bay nestles among undulating hills of green velvet that stretch to the coast. 

The road near Lap An Lagoon

The oysters from Lap An Lagoon in Lang Co Bay are reputedly the best in the country. I was surprised to see that they’re raised in recycled rubber tires – not the most attractive sight! There’s also some controversy about the contamination of the water. 

During our brief stopover, I didn’t try any oysters, nor did I buy any pearls from the jewelry stores that line the shore of the lagoon. However, I definitely took advantage of the western-style restroom facilities. 

A common sign in Vietnamese restrooms 

With the summer-like heat and humidity (hard to imagine it was winter back home!), I could hardly wait to get to the beach once we arrived in Nha Trang, a small coastal city over 300 miles south of Danang. My clothes had been sticking to my body for what seemed like days on end. A dip in the Pacific proved to be a great way to cool off. However, I wasn’t expecting to be knocked off my feet by the powerful waves.

Nha Trang is a city of 300,000 people whose main source of income is tourism. One modern high-rise hotel after another lines Nha Trang’s beachfront boulevard. Signs everywhere are in Vietnamese, Chinese, and occasionally, English, as the overwhelming majority of tourists come from China. 

The setting is perfect for a beach resort; lush green mountains tumble down to meet the dazzlingly blue waters of Nha Trang Bay. Palm trees sway over the sands. It could be a tropical paradise except for the roar of cars and motor scooters zooming down the wide seaside boulevard. As expected, there are few traffic lights and crossing from the hotel side of the main road to the beach side is a life-threatening endeavor. 

Nha Trang really comes to life when the sun goes down and colored neon lights transform the hotel-lined main drag into a smaller version of the Las Vegas Strip. Even the pace of the traffic seems to increase. Tourists and locals alike throng the mini-parks along the beach. Children run through plazas, trailing colorful long-tailed kites. 

  

With a friend from my OAT trip, I took a mile-long walk at dusk along the seaside promenade to a popular beachfront restaurant called The Sailing Club. From our table, we looked out at the reflection of the moon in the waters of the bay. I was my first non-Vietnamese meal (quinoa and veggie salad) in several days. Finally, it seemed that we had found a haven of tranquility. However, halfway through our meal, the not so welcome sounds of live retro pop music cut through our conversation. That’s Nha Trang for you. 

Thanks to An, we were able to see more than the touristy side of Nha Trang. One night, he led us away from the glitz of the main boulevard, back through crowded alleyways, to a smoky barbeque restaurant, where we cooked meats and seafood onto table-top charcoal grills. 

Squid on the grill

After two days in Nha Trang, it was time to move on. I cast one final look from my hotel room window. 

One last glimpse of the Pacific

Dawn was breaking over the waters of the Pacific, cars and motor scooters were already streaming down the main road, and temperatures were undoubtedly rising. I was looking forward to our next destination, up in the mountains, far from the coast. 

Champa Ruins: A Look at Vietnam's Distant Past

Before this trip, I was seriously ignorant with regard to Vietnam’s long and complex history. I was familiar, of course, with the Vietnam War (which the Vietnamese refer to as the American War), at least from the U.S. perspective. I also knew that all of Indochina had been a French colony at one time. I even knew that the Chinese had ruled Vietnam for several centuries, although I wasn’t sure exactly when. But I’d certainly never heard of the Champa kingdom until we set out early one morning from Hoi An to see the ruins of this once powerful kingdom. 

While our motorcoach traveled through the beautiful countryside, An gave us a brief history of the Cham, whose kingdom first appeared around present day Danang on the central coast in the 2^ndcentury. Through warfare, the Champa kingdom expanded greatly during the 4^th-7^thcenturies and gained control of a large area from the city of Hue in the north, to Nha Trang in the south, and west to Laos. 

Nearing the site of the Champa ruins

Trade brought the Cham into contact with India and led to their adoption of Hinduism as the official religion and the use of Sanskrit as a sacred language. Indian art also exerted a strong influence on the art of the Champa kingdom. While most of the Cham, including the rulers, practiced Hinduism, later Muslim immigrants from Malaysia brought Islam to the kingdom. 

In the late 4^thcentury, the Cham king began construction of a large religious sanctuary at My Son, located in a lush green valley near Cat’s Tooth Mountain (see photo above). The My Son Sanctuary remained the chief religious center of the Champa  Kingdom until the 13^thcentury. At one time, it contained at least 68 red brick temples dedicated to Shiva, the patron divinity of the Cham rulers. 

Piracy was an important source of revenue for the Champa kingdom. As a result of their frequent attacks on passing ships, the Cham were constantly fighting with the Vietnamese to north and the Khmers to the southwest. After about three hundred years of warfare, the Cham lost most of their land and were absorbed by Vietnam in the 17^thcentury. 

The remains of My Son were found by the French in late 19^thcentury. During the American War, the Viet Cong used the sanctuary as a base. Consequently, it was heavily damaged by American bombing. Only twenty Cham structures are still standing. Today, My Son has UNESCO World Heritage status, and the governments of India and Vietnam are engaged in a cooperative effort to restore the site. 

We arrived early on the day of our visit in order to get ahead of the crowds who flock to My Son. On our short hike through the jungle, we noted white egrets skimming over gurgling streams, and the area seemed quite peaceful. However, An called our attention to bomb craters and signs cautioning us to stay out of areas with unexploded land mines. 

What’s especially remarkable about the Cham temples and towers is that these structures were built without the use of mortar to hold the bricks in place. The ruins make a striking sight, with their deep red in stark contrast to the vivid greens of the surrounding foliage and the cerulean expanse of the sky. I could only imagine how splendid the Cham towers must have looked in their original state, when their summits were covered with a layer of gold. 

Our Vietnamese tour leader, An

We strolled through the site, admiring the carvings and the numerous lingas and yonis, the physical representation of Shiva and his consort.  

While the Cham kingdom ceased to exist over 300 years ago, the Cham people, both Hindu and Muslim, remain a significant ethnic minority in Vietnam. Today, they number about 140,000 people, concentrated in the area around My Son, as well as in the southern coastal city of Phan Rang and near the border with Laos. 

During our visit to the My Son Sanctuary, we saw performances of Cham music and dance, and saw Cham weavers creating colorful and distinctively designed textiles. 

Now that I’m back home, I often use the hand-woven shoulder bag I bought. Its intricate pattern reminds me of the diversity of Vietnam, both past and present. 

Finding Happiness in Hoi An

It’s time to introduce you to one of my favorite places in Vietnam. Just thinking about Hoi An makes me smile. 

Hoi An is located on Vietnam’s central coast, on the Thu Bon River. For centuries, it served as a major Southeast Asian commercial port, welcoming traders from China and India. By the mid-16^thcentury, ships also began arriving from Japan and Europe, helping turn Hoi An into a thriving cosmopolitan city. However, the Thu Bon River began to clog with silt in the late 18^thcentury and the city’s importance declined. The Chinese and Japanese influence can still be seen today in the architecture of Hoi An’s quaint Old Quarter, a World Heritage Site. 

The Old Quarter’s narrow streets are lined with shops, galleries, and restaurants. Visitors from around the world come to see the picturesque communal assembly halls, pagodas, temples and market stalls. Colorful lanterns, displayed in doorways and strung across the streets, give the Old Quarter an especially festive air. 

Several wooden houses, built in the traditional style, are open to visitors. We stopped inside the Old House of Quan Thang, which dates back to the late 17^thcentury. This house was built by a Chinese merchant from Fukien. Eight generations later, his descendants still live in the house. The cool, dark interior, with its high ceilings, offered a respite from the intense heat of the tropical sun. Family portraits were displayed on walls, and an ancestor shrine occupied a prominent place in the main living area. We admired the intricately carved ironwood panels and doors, a small courtyard, and the spacious kitchen area. The women of the household greeted us as they sat making white rose dumplings, a Hoi An specialty, which they sell to local restaurants. 

One of the Old Quarter’s most well known attractions is the Japanese Covered Bridge, a wooden structure that spans a small stream. It was originally built in the former Japanese quarter in the early 17^thcentury. Since then, it has been restored several times by the Vietnamese and Chinese residents of Hoi An and has become a symbol of the cultural exchange between these three different groups of people who called Hoi An home. 

Several assembly halls attest to the diversity of Hoi An’s population. We toured the Assembly Hall of the Cantonese Chinese Congregation and admired the beautiful architecture, art work, and gardens of this large complex. 

And then there were the shops. Hoi An is simply a shopper’s paradise. I wasn’t intending to make any major purchases on this trip, but I made sure that there was a little room in my suitcase for a few little indulgences. First, I practiced my bargaining skills in the crowded Old Quarter marketplace and came away with a bag of Vietnamese cinnamon and a set of bamboo placemats. 

While some members of our group headed to tailor shops to order custom-made clothes, Barbara and I spent our free time flitting from one store to another, dazzled by the tempting offerings. I resisted the urge to buy a lantern (not enough room in my suitcase) but I found a beautiful pair of silver earrings at a Fair Trade shop, and somehow ended up with a new summer wardrobe of lightweight silk and silk blend clothing at very reasonable prices. I also bought a colorful kite for Sylvie. It felt so good to be supporting the local economy! 

Of course, even with all the tourists in the Old Quarter, you can always find a quiet spot for a moment's reflection, as this woman did.

   

No hotels are permitted in the historic area, but the hotel where we stayed was conveniently located about a kilometer away from the Old Quarter. The 5-minute taxi ride cost about a dollar. I welcomed the serenity and relative luxury of the Hoi An Silk Village Resort and Spa. Paths through the landscaped tropical gardens led to spacious terraced guest rooms. Towering palm trees shaded the infinity pool. You could dine or sip cocktails in open air pavilions with whirling ceiling fans. 

  

In addition, the property houses a “silk village,” where we learned about all stages of silk production. We watched artisans weaving silk, learned about the burn test* (to determine if a fabric is genuine silk), and browsed through the large selection for exquisite silk products offered in the on-site shop. The scarves were so beautiful (and so easy to pack!) that I ended up purchasing several. 

*[To do the burn test, touch a lit match next to a thread or piece of silk. Silk will burn slowly, with no smoke, and should smell like burned hair. It should also be self-extinguishing and leave behind a dark bead that can easily be crushed into a gritty, fine powder. Fabrics such as rayon, cotton or acrylic will not burn in this fashion.] 

Another highlight of Hoi An was the food. I tried the famous white rose dumplings when Barbara and I stopped into one of the numerous coffee shops in the Old Quarter. 

A couple of hours later, we snacked on some local specialties at Streets Restaurant Café, which we just happened to notice during our wanderings in the Old Quarter. The banh xeo (filled savory pancake) and cao lau (noodles, pork and herbs) were delicious. 

We were also very pleased to discover that the restaurant is part of a non-profit organization that provides vocational training in culinary arts and the hospitality industry to young people who are homeless, orphaned or trafficked. You can see more about their work at the website for Streets International. 

Another enjoyable restaurant meal was the lunch our group had at the Market Restaurant, a sprawling establishment where diners can watch a great variety of food being prepared before ordering from stations placed around the perimeter of the dining room. From banh mi(sandwiches on French bread) to dumplings to “Weird Wonderful Food” (stewed offal and spicy frog roti!), there was something for everyone. Thank goodness An had pre-selected a menu for us that was wonderful without being weird. 

At the hotel, we enjoyed an interactive cooking lesson and dinner where the menu included, among other dishes, fish cooked in banana leaves. I think it’s something I’ll attempt to recreate at home. 

I’ll leave you now with a look at Hoi An at dusk and at night. While the Old Quarter is certainly lovely during daylight hours, it truly becomes a magical wonderland once darkness falls and the colorful silk lanterns are illuminated. Just looking at the photos again fills me with happiness.