We began today with a tour of Hoi An. While we have already been in Hoi An for two days, today we got our first real look at the rich culture and heritage of Hoi An. We visited a Chinese “culture/community” temple and learnt about how the many different styles of Asian architecture can be woven together to create coherent and beautiful buildings. After that we walked to the old centre of Hoi An, which is marked by a well. We continued our tour of Hoi An and visited a bridge that was designed and built by the Japanese while they occupied the area several hundred years ago. Later we visited the oldest house in Hoi An and while there, learnt about the Zodiac signs and animals for the different years that our group was born in. We then were given free time to buy lunch and to do some last minute shopping. Many of us had to return to the tailor to try on the finished garments that were made.
During the afternoon, we returned to the hotel and played pool and had a swim. We then went back into town and caught a boat ride around the rivers that surround Hoi An. Unfortunately, we missed the sun set which is suppose to look amazing but we still took some great photos of the town at dusk.
We then cooked out own dinner at “Morning Glory Street Food and Cooking School”, which we ate, along with other dishes that professionals had cooked for us.
After dinner, we roamed the street market of Hoi An, where we discovered a trick that the local vendors use to get the best price for their merchandise. The trick involves the use of different coloured plastic bags to show how much to charge an individual. Plastic bags are given to the person that has purchased some merchandise to put their item in. The colour of the bag is dependant on how hard a person haggles. A white bag means that the person bought at or near the starting price of the object. A pink bag means the person haggled about 20% off the price. A blue bag means that the person haggled down to around half the original price, while a black bag was used if the person got the price down to under 50% of the original price. They do this communally to let other stall owners know how high to set the starting price and how easy it is to make a sale. The way we countered this method is by putting coloured bags into white bags, deceiving the stall owners into thinking that we wouldn’t haggle very aggressively.
Overall, our last day in Hoi An has been a very enjoyable experience.
-Tom T & Tom N
