Hoi An

This is a short video of Hoi An on "Dem Pho Co",or night of the old time, also refered to as the Full Moon Festival. These are paper candles floating in the river. I'll get some more longer videos up later as the internet line right now is slow.(School has just let out and all the kids are on line playing video games!)





On the 14th day of the lunar month locals flock into the city to celebrate its heritage. For those of you who may not know this already, it was the first port town in all of Vietnam and the different cultures that have traded with Vietnam have left their architechural imprint. Luckily the wars did little damage to the city, as it wasn't very strategically important, and sometime in the early 90's the United Nations gave the town its World Heritage Site status, providing money for restoration and preservation. I took very few photos here for the streets are completely torn up in preparation of submerging all electrical wires. Also, I used to walk around with Duy and it's not really the same this time.

I did sample some of the more high end restaurants in town to find that the food and the service have improved dramatically, which is great for travelers. The service at restaurants that locals frequent, though, have not. Here are a couple pictures of a Binh Dan, losely translated as "common people", restaurant. Notice the low chairs, low tables, tight eating arrangement and trash on the ground. This is to contrast the pictures of the new restaurant trends in Saigon in the earlier post.