Hoi An, Vietnam Part 3

Boats on the canal.

Hoi An

Our last day in Hoi An,

We visited the old quarter. It is very interesting and beautiful. A major port during the 17th to 19th centuries for the Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese - it has lovely architecture. The old quarter has buildings, temples and bridges to visit. We dragged to wilted kidlets around a very hot and humid community learning all sorts history.

Japanese Covered Bridge Dog Statue

The Japanese Bridge was built 1563 is a shrine to the enormous monster Cu, who had its body in Vietnam, head in India and tail in Japan. When it moved, terrible disasters such as floods and earthquakes struck Vietnam. The bridge killed the monster but they build a temple to pay for its soul. One end of the bridge has two dog statues and the other end two monkeys. It is said that the bridge was started in the year of the dog and ended in the year of the monkey.

To end our stay, we had to pay. The hotels in Hoi An are pricier and with extra tours etc. we had made arrangements to pay using our Visa instead of cash - which would require numerous withdrawals of 1 000 000s of dongs at a $5.00 surcharge each withdrawal.... so... Krista and I arrived to pay and were loaded onto scooters and shuttled to a tailor shop, owned by the hotel. The visa machine didn't work. Without much explanation, we ferried off to another shop. There was not discussion there..... we just waited. After a bit, we were told to get back on the scooters and we arrived back at the first tailor shop..... then we paid, the vietnamese way. Fun. We met up with Ray and Paul and the kids and had our last meal together. Fun.

Sharon on the Visa payment plan....

Here comes Krista to pay her bill.

Great fun. S