Cambo_Viet Day11

Day 11: Hoi An

We have a whole day on our own to explore the town of Hoi An. It was a busy port town from the 16th to 18th century and many Chinese and Japanese people settled here for trade. They established many temples and community meeting houses.

View from the hotel as we enjoy fresh rambutan from the breakfast buffet. Fun with food!

The Japanese covered bridge is one of the many sights in Hoi An. It was built in the 1590's to connect the Japanese quarter with the Chinese quarter in the community. A pair of dog statues guard one end of the bridge, while a pair of monkeys guard the other. It is rumoured perhaps the construction of the bridge began in the year of the monkey and finished in the year of the dog.

Our handy Sight Seeing ticket that will allow us entrance into various historic buildings.

The Tan Ky house is one of the best preserved houses and is an example of a wealthy merchant house built two centuries ago. There are many intricate details like the scalloped ceiling and chinese poetry in the columns written in pearl inlays.

Outside some temples, there are long lines of people waiting to get their fortunes.

We have a delicious lunch at Morning Glory. Every dish was tasty and even though we were getting full, we wanted to order more just to taste another dish.

Top Right: Cau Lau Noodles with marinated pork and below it, Wonton Soup with Crap Meat. The Cau Lau noodles are homemade rice noodles and simply delicious. I'd travel back for this dish.

Below: White Rose Dumplings (Banh Bao Banh Vat) - rice flour dumplings with ground shrimp. Stuffed Squid with Pork (Muc Nhoi Tom Thit). The Squid is stuffed with shrimp & pork mince, wood-ear mushrooms and mung bean vermicelli.

Everything was so good. We wanted to try more dishes, but damn our full stomachs! Definitely worth checking out Morning Glory if you're ever in Hoi An and they also offer a cooking class!

At the Quang Trieu (Cantonese) Assembly Hall, built in 1885 by merchants from Guangdong province in China, we puzzle over a painting depicting 3 men. Were there foreign travellers in ancient China? Who is this mysterious dark-skinned man?

After some inquiries via Facebook, we discover it's Zhang Fei, Liu Bei and Guan Gong from a scene of The Romance of 3 Kingdoms, a classic historical novel of Chinese literature. They were real-life figures who's military exploits brought about the beginning of the unification of China. Zhang Fei was a general with a farming background, which may explain his darker colouring (too much sun!) Anyways, he was a total badass as shown in John Woo's Red Cliff.