Hoi An and bad choices

“To satisfice is to settle for something that is good enough and not worry about the possibility that there might be something better.” ― Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less

One of the niggling annoyances of this trip (other than having to update the blog all the time), is that we are constantly having to plan ahead for the next place we are going to stay. We normally have a good idea of where we want to go, but finding the right accommodation within our budget is a long and labourious task. Unlike when I was younger and backpacking, with 3 young children in tow, we don't really want to just turn up at a place and see what we can find. It has been pretty much permanently over 30 degrees wherever we have been for the last 10 weeks (Halong Bay standing out as an unpleasant exception to this) and neither the kids nor we have any desire to trek around a new town looking for somewhere to stay. We are too mollycoddled and precious to want to go through that experience. So instead we rely on the vast array of websites at our disposal. Each with its unique method of making you feel that unless you book the place in the next minute, 15 other people will have taken every nice place out there and you will need to pay $500 per night just to get a bamboo roof over your head. But coupled with that (and I am aware that this makes panicking about missing out illogical), you are bombarded with such a staggering selection of options that hours can be lost trying to finesse the perfect venue: moments from the beach, typical architecture for the local area, but still furnished with the essential mod-cons that we need, and well within our budget. What makes it yet more difficult is that you don't know the area. All of the places look the same. Prices vary massively with no discernible correlation to quality and you have no one to ask other than reading the reviews of a random selection of society, of whose residential preferences you have no knowledge. Suffice to say, a balls up was due and the place where we had chosen to spend our longest time to date was inevitably the place where this plate of balls was served.

On paper it had everything we wanted, pool, aircon, 3 bedrooms, self-catering, and on arrival it looked mighty impressive. But it was miles from anywhere, had no remote connection to Vietnam and was sterile and soulless. To make matters worse, there was only one restaurant within 5 km and it had massively inflated its prices and although the place had a kitchen, there was no shops within 5 km either, other than a couple of little shops that sold eggs, washing powder, sweetened milk and flour. Here was our only bit of fortune as it was pancake day 1 week into our stay. Well you can imagine which one of us got in a complete huff about the whole thing and which one of us pulled herself together and worked out how to make the best of a bad situation. Luckily the fairer of the two adult Wards dominated and so we had quite a pleasant 12 days in the Hoi An region, beaching, visiting the amazing city and exploring the local caves. But it really did put a strain on the whole family as we knew this was not the sort of accommodation we wanted and, as a consequence, was not the experience we were looking to get from this trip.

Hoi An itself is an awesome city; beautiful architecture echoing both its French Colonial past and its historical position as a major trading port connecting the East with the West. It's bloody hot though. We tried to limit our visits to late afternoon and early evening and although Eliza found the place quite unbearable, the rest of us enjoyed ambling through the streets and eating excellent food. Alfie braved a backstreet barber and got an awesome haircut, replete with his first ever experience with hair clippers. All the while a man sitting next to him was having his ears cleaned by the other barber who used dentistry-like tools to scrape mounds upon mounds of unsavoury excretions which were then carefully wiped on the arm of the customer for his apparent adoration.

On one of our trips into Hoi An, the kids spotted a huge sign for Vinpearl Land, the local theme park. After much cajoling, we finally relented. We actually had a wonderful day. The park comprised a waterslide section, a funfair and a zoo that you witnessed from a boat. And we were about the only people in the whole place. It was about 18 months old so everything was spanking new. The kids were in heaven. It was a well deserved break for them as we had used the opportunity of our soulless accommodation to ramp up school a little to catch up for the times where we had been somewhat remiss on the education front. I am not sure the park is entirely eco-friendly or would be allowed in many countries, but it boasts both white lions and white tigers (equal to about 1% of the global population), as well as a waterslide that does a loop the loop and fast rollercoasters for really small kids.

At the other end of the evolutionary scale we travelled a short distance from our villa and visited the Marble Mountains. These mountains are situated only about 10 km outside of Danang but are really impressive. Obviously they are decorated with the thick layer of rubbish that the rest of Vietnam is, but once you are through that a large array of accessible and interesting caves can be found. The kids laboured round it as it was quite hot, but Alfie is becoming quite the adventurer and really fancies himself as a bit of an explorer. He led the way as we clambered through marble and limestone and poked our heads through the tops of caves. The highlight came at the end (which we almost missed as the kids were getting pretty ratty after 3 hours caving in 32 degrees), when we reached a ginormous cave called Am Phu which is the recreation of Buddhist hell. It was adorned with pretty scary edifices acting out various forms of torture on the poor sinners within. Alfie and Eliza loved the gore and blood, but poor Olivia got a little scared.

The rest of our time was spent chilling out on various beaches in the area. We found a great little beach club that served incredible seafood with Cafe del Mar beats playing out in the background. We took a terrifyingly fast speedboat trip to Cham Island where we snorkelled and the kids played with various Vietnamese people who are all mesmerised by their fair hair and soft skin. Sunsets were often spent on An Bang beach just north of Hoi An, where the kids would play in the surf and yet again get ambushed by Vietnamese. We took this time to really chill and repair some of the bonds that the lousy accommodation had caused to sever.

It is the first time either of us have been to Vietnam. For me, I have found the country a little disappointing. I had high hopes of our time here - indeed I think it was one of the sections of the trip I was looking forward to most. You cannot imagine how polluted the coastal areas are. This is a country developing at a staggering pace, but is currently in a state of flux. Places like Danang and Hoi An are literally like building sites. An Bang beach, a stunning 20 km beach stretching from Danang to Hoi An, has been entirely sold for development by international hoteliers. Every plot. So you have a stunning area that has seen a huge influx of people, but no infrastructure has yet been built up around it. So there is litter everywhere with no commercial or perceived environmental incentive for the local people to do anything about it yet. Where you get to areas that have been fully developed, the litter situation is better, but the natural beauty of the place has been lost as there seems to be little control on the type of building being built. It is a real shame. I hope that as it develops the area is improved, but fear, despite the speed of change, we are many years from that occurring.