Hoi an is half way between the two cities of Hanoi and Saigon, so many tourists use it as a stop-off point, as we did.
It is picturesque town situated on the red river, with the main attraction being that there a few examples of traditional Vietnamese architechture left. Unfortunately most were destroyed by wars and the colonialists over the years. It is sad that these are the only examples left because they are underwhelming to say the least. Most of the town is a tourist market. We went to a performance of traditional vietnamese music and dance. The music was really good but some of the dance seemed to be a bit altered for western taste (ie a bit of belly dancing plus the conga).
On the train south, I read a book about Ho Chi Minh (the guy not the city). He really was amazing, and his life story reveals a huge amount of suffering in Vietnam in recent history. Vietnam was invaded 5 times in 150 years, by the Chinese, French, Japanese and Americans. Each invasion resulted in thousands if not millions of cruel, violent deaths. For example, in 1940, while the holocaust was happening in Europe, French colonialists were carrying out a similar attack on Vietnamese people on a smaller scale. Ho Chi Minh himself lived through all these periods of colonial rule, and fought for 50 years for a revolution in Vietnam. He was a master of disguise, he changed his named several times and lived in Paris, London, China and Japan, waiting for the right time to return to Vietnam and win back power for the people. That time was 1945 , when the worlds attention was on world war two. He is still a national hero, and rightly so. People I have spoken to here say, great guy, shame about his successor.
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