As nearer ports can't accommodate ships this size, Celebrity Solstice put in to the Chân Mây Seaport, involving a two hour bus journey to Hội An. The ship didn't offer an excursion to Huế, that I would have preferred, based on our previous visits.
Yet, this road trip was interesting in itself. Though the 6.28 km Hải Vân Tunnel, the longest tunnel in Southeast Asia (Sydney has several longer ones but they are much newer); the Dragon Bridge over the River Hàn in Da Nang,; Da Nang city; followed by large number of failed resorts (abandoned; half finished; deserted). Evidence of a building bubble well-and-truly burst.
During the Vietnam War, Da Nang was often in our news in Australia. According to Wikipedia, during the War, the United States Air Force base at Da Nang reached an average of 2,595 aircraft traffic operations daily, more than any other airport and airbase in the world at that time. Yet, in March 1975, Da Nang fell to the communist north Vietnamese forces. The onetime base has become the Da Nang International Airport. Vietnam issued two special postage stamps to commemorate this event, within its "total liberation" stamp set issued 14 December 1976.
Today Da Nang is a busy, modern city. Note the Ford dealership. There is also a more up-marked BMW dealership in the same strip.
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Back in 2010 Da Nang struck me differently - on that occasion we didn't get to drive past the beaches.
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We had flown in to Da Nang but wanted to catch the train out to Huế. The train was over an hour late so we had the opportunity of wandering around a non-tourist working town, at least near the station. Shop touts were totally absent and most impressive was the amount of economic activity and the variety of hardware, equipment and materials on sale, as well as the apparent quality of the buildings (like a NSW country town) and wellbeing of the populous. The (narrow gauge) train journey is spectacular; and the air conditioned soft seat (equals first class) cars were predominantly occupied by locals with local food offered for sale during the trip (better than NSWG railways). The train follows the rugged coast past beaches, around headlands and across escarpments hung with creepers covered in flowers. Once or twice it slows to cross a rusted or damaged bridge. Almost every bridge in Vietnam, except the spectacular new iconic ones, is shored up with temporary pylons or extra steel. Occasionally the train runs through a town and here people have extended their back yards to include the railway easement so that people have to move off the track into their houses as the train approaches. |
Mais quel dommage, Hội An has changed in the past 13 years; and not for the better. It's no longer a sleepy little tailoring town. Now there are just too many tourists. Our busload didn't help that.
The tailor who has our measurements is still here but maybe my measurements have changed(?) and I don't need another bespoke business suit these days.
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This is what I said in 2010:
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Vietnam is a shopper’s paradise. While not like China for electrical and photographic goods, one of the drivers of the apparently booming economy is clothing manufacture. Seconds, rip-offs and the occasional genuine designer brand original fill the markets. A discerning and careful buyer can acquire an entire wardrobe including having patterns from European and US fashion magazines tailored to order. Central to this tailoring industry is the riverside town of Hoi An. Unlike Hanoi that had been cold, Hoi An was blisteringly hot but the Ha An Hotel was like a tropical island, complete with hammocks and beach umbrellas. Here we went for a trip along the river in a local boat with an excellent driver (me) past fisher folk, duck farms, cattle grazing, coconut groves and sand barges. I used a hotel bike for a look around the town but except for the local market, and that soon palls, it’s a bit dull; unless you are excited by recently built Buddhist shrines and pagodas and the bizarre Vietnamese version of that religion. There are a couple of small threadbare museums and some of the French colonial architecture is interesting, including the tailor’s where we spent a lot of time. The evenings cooled a bit and it was pleasant to sit in the hotel garden with a glass of wine, or to rest in one of the nearby restaurant/cafes along the river. On the road in to Hoi An, there are some Hindu/Buddhist ruins similar to those in Cambodia (but on a much smaller scale) and a very long beach with a casino, lined with future tourist resorts under construction; adjacent to the Greg Norman Golf Course! Looks terrible, and if you think Hoi An is boring; not even a tailor in sight... |