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 | Hoi An Warnings or Dangers | Tips 1 - 8 of 8 |  |
Popular Warnings or Dangers | Miscellaneous Warnings or Dangers Tips | All Tips (8)  | |  |  | Be VERY careful in the Markets | Tip Rating:    |  |  | |  |
The Market Place (this is a mess of open air tables and stalls and baskets on the ground in the middle of Hoi An) is always crowded and colourful. For sure. But we were warned by several of the locals not to go there at all. They said it was not safe and one said that she lives in Hoi An and she doesn't go there.
To back this up, while we were there another Australian in our hotel had a nasty experience. She was walking alone in the Market when a motorbike came along and snatched at her bag held over her shoulder. She went down, they didn't get that bag but they did get the other one in her hand - with her cameras, jewellery, cash and cards. She broke her collar bone and chipped her knee.
To make it worse, the local police, who have been charged with cleaning up this problem, would not believe her (she took a local shopkeeper as a translator and the police started to yell at the local "why are you helping her, she's lying.." which was a bit awkward as the translator had to live there). The police would not provide her with a report for her insurance company. They kept saying it wouldn't be anyone from Hoi An.
Eventually she was evacuated by her insurance company.
Another couple had their wallets stolen by pickpockets in the Market - we were in Hoi An four days.
So be alert and aware, if you go into the markets...there are probably no bargains there for tourists, but it is interesting.
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Hoi An is, for good reason, a tourist magnet. Since Vietnam has a landmass roughly equal to New Zealand, but with 16 times the population, locals tend to converge on tourism hotspots.
There's only 75,000 inhabitants of Hoi An, but the volume of tourists has created a high tout density in town. Since there is so much competition among the motorbike drivers, silk shop advertisers, market vendors, lighter hawkers, sunglass sellers, tour leaders, restaurant promoters, marijuana dealers, prostitute peddlers, and any other kind of enterprising local I missed, the touts tend to be more aggressive than in other parts of Vietnam. At times, walking around Hoi An feels like using a computer that's been infected with pop-up ads.
A single "no" sometimes doesn't work as it does in most other Vietnamese towns and cities. Be persistent in your refusal, but don't raise your voice or get angry as that does little to deter the touts. You can even have a little fun with it: if someone asks you where you're from, tell 'em, "My mother" and they'll usually laugh and try to hassle someone else. Leave a Comment
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One thing that is more annoying than a warning or a danger is the constant tide of little children comming up to you asking for money or trying to sell you things, from what I noticed more oftern that not they are working for someone else, an example was another tourist gave a little girl some money who in turn gave it to a man watching on. Leave a Comment
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riding a motorbike anywhere in vietnam is dangerous i think. but we got talking to one guy who had just fell off his. the story goes that 50 meters down the road a dog ran out in fron of him and he fell off, gashing and grazing his elbow really bad. its even harder in hoi an with the roads been so narrow and tight. Leave a Comment
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