Amber in Vietnam
I’ll never forget the breathtaking moment I stepped out of a tailor shop and into a world of wonder; a collision of color and light. The sun had set and the entire town was glowing with the dreamy, rainbow light of a thousand lanterns. The lanterns were strung along the streets, in front of shops, on balconies, shaped like red suns and purple figs, hand painted with cherry blossoms and dripping with tassels.
I gasped in awe and the verse ‘light upon light’ flashed into my mind.
This is my most loved place in Vietnam: a small, magical town on the central coast called Hoi An. Bursting with atmospheric charm and famous for its expert tailors, it’s a place that has summoned me back more than once…
We meandered through little streets, along the river, over the Japanese bridge, taking in the soft colors, the faded walls. Time seems to stand still here, and every street corner was a photograph begging to be taken. The old ladies on the riverbank persuaded us to buy floating candles, and we took turns releasing them into the river, watching the tiny glow of the good luck charms flickering bravely as they bobbed away between the little boats.
We wandered from one tailor shop to the next stroking the fabrics, flipping through the design books and getting measured. J. ordered crisp linen pants and shirts in shades of blue and green and I ordered a white linen dress and a golden silk tunic. The tailors were extremely precise, the clothes stitched in expert fashion.
Our best dinners were eaten at Miss Ly’s- a small restaurant with faded ochre walls, vintage paintings, wooden tables, and a short but incredible menu offering tasty things like white rose dumplings and fish wrapped in banana leaves. Run by a husband and wife team, we caught a glimpse of the infamous Miss Ly cooking barefoot in the kitchen. We ate multiple meals here, ordered the whole menu.
We rode bicycles around Marble Mountain, explored the Hindu ruins nestled in a lush valley at My Son Sanctuary, and saw one of the bluest sunsets I’ve ever seen on the beach at our hotel The Nam Hai. The sand was a silvery gray, the sky streaked with shades of cool blue, the moon rising over the fishermen bringing in the boats under the blue sunset.
I discovered two new dishes that promptly became favorites: banh xeo; a crispy, yellow rice flour crepe loaded with shrimp and vegetables, and bo la lot; minced beef wrapped in betel leaves into juicy, addictive little parcels. As delicious as the food is in Vietnam, I couldn’t get enough of the coffee. Ah, the ‘iced Vietnamese coffee’: a wondrous drink consisting of heavy, chocolatey, aromatic coffee mixed with sticky condensed milk into a sweet, velvety drink chilled with ice cubes…it was breakfast, it was dessert, it was the highlight of every humid afternoon, it was drunk in excess and it was recreated back home with coffee beans from Hoi An Roastery and little cans of condensed milk.
Elsewhere in Vietnam, there was more to explore. In Ho Chi Minh city, I soaked up the buzz and pulsing energy, the skyscrapers, the flood of relentlessly honking mopeds; I danced at rooftop lounges and learnt brutal history lessons at the The War Remnants Museum.
In Hanoi, I enjoyed the elegance and colonial charm of the city; the avenues lined with palm trees, the French-Vietnamese cuisine, the historic bomb shelter under our hotel, and our gallery hopping that culminated in the purchase of two lacquer artworks by the famous Ta Thi Thanh Tam and a painting of a tank on newspaper.
In Ninh Van Bay I did nothing but read The Sympathizer, yoga, write, and eat my newfound favorite dishes at An Lam Retreat’s globe-shaped restaurant positioned half in the jungle and half on the sea.
But the place that appears and reappears in my dreams is Hoi An; by night, by the light of a thousand lanterns. A town where crumbling walls are poetic, where time stands still, and where light and color collide…
Amber's Recommendations
AMBER STAYED AT:
The Nam Hai (Four Seasons) in Hoi An - tranquil, seaside villas, stunning property and flawless service
Sofitel Legend Metropole in Hanoi – elegant, colonial-style hotel with much history and gravitas
Hotel Des Artes MGallery Collection in Ho Chi Minh City - chic boutique hotel with great art and a trendy rooftop lounge
An Lam Retreats, Ninh Van Bay- barefoot, luxury, jungle resort accessible only by boat*
*Click here to read my full hotel story on An Lam Retreats
AMBER ATE AT:
Miss Ly Café in Hoi An - if you’re lucky you might catch a glimpse of the infamous Miss Ly cooking barefoot in the kitchen and the food is to die for
Nu Eatery in Hoi An - tiny, charming restaurant with tiled floors and Vietnamese food with a twist
Mai Fish in Hoi An - lively café on the river, food bursting with flavor
Quan An Ngon in Hanoi – street food in a casual, bustling garden setting
AMBER PLAYED AT:
My Son Sanctuary - Hindu temples and ruins nestled in a lush green valley and bordered by misty mountains, a UNESCO world heritage site
The War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City –filled with photography, tanks, planes, helicopters, pop art and other exhibits related to shedding light on the horrific impact of the Vietnam War
AMBER SHOPPED AT:
Sadec District in Ho Chi Minh - boutique for contemporary and unique homeware inspired by the Mekong river
Yaly Couture in Hoi An - choose your fabric and designs and have bespoke clothing stitched for you within a day
Hoi An Roastery in Hoi An – bags of beans from across the county, roasted on site
AMBER READ:
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
AMBER LOVED:
The magical lanterns and crumbling, colorful walls of Hoi An, and the velvety Vietnamese coffee.
Reading in Vietnam:
I started reading The Sympathizer a few days before I boarded my flight for Ho Chi Minh City, after hearing a podcast on ‘Between the Covers’ featuring the author Viet Thanh Nguyen. Born in Vietnam, he fled to America with his family after the fall of Saigon. Starting his life in the US in a refugee camp, he’s now a professor at the University of Southern California and Pulitzer Prize winning novelist. I was intrigued and promptly obtained a copy. Every day of wandering in Vietnam ended with me gripping the 500-page book in the wooden bathtub, the fluffy bed, or curled up on the balcony with a cup of ginger tea reading voraciously.
The Sympathizer is a highly entertaining espionage novel; witty, and full of dark humor. Written as a confession, it begins with the fall of Saigon and follows the journey of a Vietnamese army captain (secretly a communist sleeper agent) who ends up in America with the mission of sending intelligence back to his Viet Cong comrades. The captain is the narrator and he is highly intellectual, personally conflicted, sharp as a razor, relentless in his wit, imagination, and ability to infuse his storytelling with pop culture references, identity politics, and nostalgia.
The book takes an unexpected yet interesting detour when the captain becomes a consultant on the set of a Hollywood film being produced about the Vietnam war. This raises questions about the ways in which history is captured, distorted, and reproduced for mass audiences in order to promote a certain narrative with certain heroes and certain villains that serve a certain political agenda.
Loyalty, friendship, ideology, and identity are some of the themes that emerge from the pages of this fast-paced thriller and nothing is simply black or white. Capitalism versus communism, America versus Vietnam, North versus South, truth versus propaganda…The Sympathizer makes you question what people are really fighting for, and the fine line between right and wrong, loyalty and betrayal, friends and enemies.
