Just 30 minutes south of Danang is the beautiful riverside city of Hoi An known as the “lantern city”, they hang everywhere, across streets, on the fronts and backs of houses, in restaurants and bars and hotels and on fishing boats or just floating down the river. Hoi An is also a World Heritage site because of the architecture of some houses that have been preserved in this ancient merchant and trading city made up of Chinese and Japanese and Vietnamese peoples. Remnants of the Cham people are found including nearby ruins of My Son.

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West of Hoi An lies the ruins from the village of the Champa Kings who were in power from the 4th to the 13th century.  The remaining structures are more than 1000 yrs old and reveal a culture with some Indian and Buddhist influences.

The young man on the right plays a double reeded instrument that was passed down from his tribe and he can play a single note for what seems like forever.

We stopped at a vegetable farm and watched and listened to a chef speak about their farming methods.  First of all the land is owned by the communist government (formerly owned by people) and they sell the “right” to farm to these people.  More productive farmers receive more land to farm.  Prices for the crop are set by the government.  It is not sustainable so most farmers have jobs in the cities as this chef does with his cooking classes.  They were raising herbs, (lemongrass, cilantro, basil) and vegetables like lettuce, eggplant, onions, beans, and celery.  They fertilize with seaweed and animal waste. The soil seems to be the perfect mix of sand and loam. They water with sprinklers and by hand daily and their growing season is 12 months. It is labor intensive… all by hand.  Extra money could be made by inaccurate reporting to the government.  Some call this modified communism and it always helps have a party member in the family. Many ingenious ideas… fish in the water trough to eat mosquitoes….green plants that are thinned are immediately rolled under to compost them.

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