Dragons in Central Vietnam

Remember when I said it was an eight hour bus ride to Hoi An? it was actually more like 24. The bus we bought a ticket for was a "sleeper bus," meaning the seats could fold back all the way and convert into a bed. Unfortunately, they were about the size of coffins and there was no place to put my rather large backpack. So I had to put my backpack under my feet and try to sleep that way. The guy next to me was snoring like a buzz saw, but that at least meant I was awake to see my first decent sunrise since Angkor Wat.



This leg of the trip lasted 12 hours and ended in Hue, a city which has seen its share of battles during Vietnam's history. We had about six hours to kill there before our next bus would take us to Hoi An.



The sun sets promptly at 6 pm here, so it was already dark when the bus dumped us right in the middle of town. Hoi An turned out to be a cute, albeit touristy town with a lot of shops -- most notably the clothing stores that offer lots of tailor-made clothes at low prices and dozens of art galleries.

One gallery in particular caught my eye because the oil paintings had such vibrant colors. They were all painted by this guy: Nguyen Tan Hiep.



I have never bought art before, but my hallway back home is looking pretty bare these days. Plus, I really liked these two paintings and they were pretty cheap.





After leaving the shop to think about it for a while, I came back and bought both. It was my first time ever acquiring artwork.



We spent this morning hanging out at the beach.

Every minute or so another person would walk by and try to sell us trinkets of some kind. The sales pitches on the beach were endless. The lucky ones to actually sell me a necklace were Mimi and Trang. The pile of crap jewelry that Trang carries around every day weighs more than my Betacam.



When it got dark, we went into town to get some dinner and hang out. Sitting at the restaurant, we slowly became aware of pounding drums in the distance, and the sound was getting closer. Suddenly a little boy in a mask runs into the place and he is followed by two more boys under a dragon suit.



Mask boy collected money from the restaurant patrons and the staff and then ceremoniously fed it to the dragon, which shook its booty to the drums really well, I must say. And all before dessert.



The little troupe took off to the shop next door with their entourage of friends and parents right behind. A few minutes later another band of drums and dragons came into the restaurant and went through the same routine. At first I thought it might be a tourist scam, but a lot of people nearby were clearly the kids' parents. The local staff at the shops were all smiling and giving money as well.



Turns out we are nearing the climax of the month-long Tet Thung Thu, or Full Moon Festival. It's amazing how little locals are able to tell me about it, but the nearest I can figure, it is a cross between Halloween and Mardi Gras.



As we biked through the small town, we heard drums beating everywhere. The smaller boys (and I haven't figured out why girls don't participate) were going into each shop, just as if they were trick or treating. The teenagers would actually stop traffic at intersections and put on more elaborate displays like this one: