On my drive back from Hội An to Da Nang Airport, I was wondering what I would take away with me. Hoi An is a small island town close to the 3rd largest city in Vietnam - Da Nang. The more interior you move in Hội An, the more real the living gets. People live a hard life, but slow. Compared with my fast paced life (it's been fast paced for more than a decade now with bits and bobs of slow sprinkles), the life in Hội An was very appealing and made me think, what is life. I think the best way for me to capture the slow life is through the homes - the slightly older homes which seem to have had no change in decades. I have a habit of walking around in the inner lanes, because away from the eyes of tourists, a mask gets taken off.
While we stayed in Hội An, it rained almost the whole time. This made it appear that life was slower than it actually was.
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| The aerial view of an inner section of Hoi An island. Houses here all have sloped tiled roofs, similar to Kerala I would think, in order to manage the harsh monsoons. Cyling here is a very nice experience. Families sitting together, kids playing, the older folks gathered in one house and chatting away, occassionally saying hello to me. |
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| The bougainvillea rendered this little home outrageously beautiful. I seriously wondered if the folks there had a serious plant nursery situation going on. |
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| Bougainvillea #2 |
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| Where men abandon, hens conquer. |
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| This seemed to be the most common type of house that I saw. I found this beauty on one of the innermost lanes, a quiet paradise. Most houses here are small, with huge front yards that house flowering plants, fruit trees, herbs, other plants I knew not. |
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| The house had a wide door, unlike what I'm used to seeing in parts of India or even the rest of South East Asia. A small porch beyond which a huge front yard. |
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| A quintissential slow life, if there was a product to symbolise slow life, it would be a hammock, in my opinion. |
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| Another home, I like how the front part of most houses is dedicated to worshipping. In 9/10 homes, I found one or two scooties (Honda presence strong) - and cars had no space in their homes. |
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| She seemed so engrossed, I counted moments before huge rain drops shattered that moment. |
I felt uneasy on the plane back, such a different pace in Hội An. It disoriented me, to know that in less than 24 hours, I'd be back home, going to work. Hội An is definitely one of those tiny places on the world map that seems stuck in time.
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