CULTURE RICH AND POSTCARD PERFECT, A REGAL COUNTRY GETS NEW LIFE

REDISCOVERING VIETNAMF ran Lebowitz once said, “You’re

only as good as your last hair-cut .” I f that’s the case, my

l i fe’s br ight , sh in ing moment came cour tesy of a man named Vinh on the f ront porch of his house on Han Thuyen Street in Hue, Vietnam, and it cost just $2.50. I’ve had plent y of bad haircuts in cities where language barriers weren’t an issue and my practitioner had more than scis-sors and a st raight razor at his disposal. Still, when Vinh dug into my nearly shoulder-length

hair without so much as wetting it, I was full of excitement instead of fear. Why? Because this expe-rience felt authentic.

My job has sent me to many of the world’s most far-f lung hot spots, and I’ve been presented with plenty of local customs and r ituals, indigenous delicacies, and site-specif ic spa treatments that too often feel like they were ginned up for wide-eyed honey-mooners. Even exotic destinations like Thailand, Tahiti and Bali be-gin to lose their luster. Phrases

l ike “ t ime-honored t radit ion” start to sound meaningless. But throughout my few days in central Vietnam, whether I was at a his-toric landmark or contemporary crafts fair or roadside pho stand, not a moment felt par t icularly forced or hackneyed.

I was happy to f ind out that Vietnam doesn’t subscribe to the “why on Earth would you leave WKH�JURXQGV�RI�WKH�UHVRUW"´�ÀDYRU�

“WHEN WE ARE NOT SURE, WE ARE ALIVE.” —GRAHAM GREENE

Previous page: The Quang Trieu (Cantonese) Assembly Hall, originally built as a place for merchants to gather, is now a must-visit attraction for visitors to Hoi An. Left: Marble-statue shops are prevalent in Da Nang, located on Vietnam’s central coast, south of the imperial city of Hue. Below: A home in Hoi An doubles as a porcelain showcase.

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WRITTEN BY BILL KEITH PHOTOGRAPHED BY DOUGLAS FRIEDMAN

Right: Buddhist monks wor-ship in the citadel in Hue,

the former imperial capital city of Vietnam previously re-

stricted to the ruling family. Opposite page: A look at a

pagoda inside the grounds of the once-forbidden city,

which is now undergoing an extensive renovation.

of vacationing. And eschewing the more obvious excursions to Ha-noi in the north and Saigon in the south in favor of the central cit-ies of Da Nang, Hoi An and Hue not only diminishes your chances of running into an ex-boss on the beach or getting stuck behind a school group in an ancient grotto, it also means you’re getting the best of both regions—without all of the congestion. “Travelers pass through Hanoi and Saigon, but vacationers come to central Viet-nam,” says Phan Trong Minh, the general manager of La Résidence Hôtel and Spa in Hue. “We have the dynamism of Saigon in Da Nang, the profound heritage of Ha-noi in Hue and Hoi An, plus all the incredible leisure opportunities.”

Ah yes, the leisure. While it’s true I passed serious time in pago-das, mingled with merchants and hiked along the Ho Chi Minh trail,

I also clocked many hours spa-hopping in lagoon-side treatment rooms and sunbath-ing along untouched beaches. Once home to “China Beach,” the well-known camp for American GIs during the Vietnam War, the road f rom Da Nang to Hue is no strang-er to R & R. Also, in the past year, luxury brands Aman and Banyan Tree have opened their first Vietnam-ese proper ties to great success, at tracting a sophisticated guest who wants a singular experience.

“The people we’re getting now aren’t really here for a taste of Vietnam; they’re here to indulge in the central coast,” says Antho-ny Gill, general manager of the Nam Hai resort in Hoi An, the ne

plus ultra of luxury proper ties, which opened in 2006 and won a Travel + Leisure Design Award for Best Resort and a Condé Nast Traveller Best Overseas Spa Hotel distinction. “They’re here to log hours on the beach and the golf course, and then when they’re primed, they head out for a day’s adventure among Hue’s renowned palaces and tombs or out to see

what the ancient Cham people worked up in stone at My Son, t ravel up into the Highlands or explore the world-renowned cave system at Phong Nha-Ke Bang Na-tional Park.”

What’s happening in central Vietnam isn’t comparable to any-thing else. As Gill puts it: “If what you’re after is access to the ocean, then comparisons to Phuket are

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But for me, Hue was the under-stated showstopper. The political, cultural and religious center of the country from 1802 to 1945, i t ’s home to the Nguyen dynasty’s Forbidden City. Now you can spend all day getting lost among the square citadel’s st r ik-ing gates, temples and palaces—but then you’d never make it to Emper-or Tu Duc’s tomb, set inside a pine forest dot-ted with pagodas, pavil-ions and ponds just five miles outside the city. It was there I caught sight of monks performing their daily rituals (be-fore working in a quick game of soccer).

Hiring a local guide here—or anywhere in this par t of the coun-t r y—is a wor thwhi le expend it u re, and the o n e r eg r e t I h ave i s not a r ranging a meal at what’s called a fam-i l y r e s t a u r a n t . Fo r about $40 per person, a private chef will not on ly p re pa re a fea s t fo r you r g roup, he’l l a l so ex-plain how and why he’s prepared it and, more likely than not, give

apt. But we’re more than a beach, the way Bali is more than a beach. There’s tremendous cultural depth here that resonates as deeply as 1,500 years. It’s this combination of culturally profound and fantas-t ically fun—I think we’re on to something new here on the central coast, something the rest of the world is just waking up to now.”

A journey typically begins in Da Nang, thanks to daily direct f lights from Seoul and f lights four times a week from Singapore and Hong Kong. Singapore Airlines and Ca-thay Pacific offer fantastic service from the U.S. through Changi air-

port, where you can grab a short f light on SilkAir, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines. Besides be-ing the area’s commercial capital, Da Nang is also home to the Marble Mountains, a cluster of f ive hills that have provided the raw material for many of Vietnam’s celebrated stone carvings. While you may not need a life-size Jesus or a five-foot-tall Buddha statue, a trip to the 500-year-old stonecutters’ village is worth a visit for sheer spectacle, as is the 156-step climb atop one of the peaks, which takes you into Huyen Khong, a jaw-dropping grot-to that has served as both a place

of worship and a hospital for the Vietcong during the American War.

Just 18 miles down the beach f rom Da Nang l ies the ancient city of Hoi An, a merchant capi-tal whose charm is as palpable as the 16th-century-style carvings adorning hundreds of two- and three-story, Chinese-inf luenced structures that now do triple duty as residences, museums and com-mercial spaces. The city is also home turf for Saigon-born, Texas-trained celebrity chef Duc Tran, whose cuisine at MangoRooms will force you to reconsider the phrase Asian fusion.

Above: A marble sculpture on the central coast near Da Nang. Much of the marble and limestone mining in the nearby mountains has been stopped, but it continues elsewhere in the country.

Left: The Huyen Khong grotto, located in the Marble Moun-tains, is illuminated through the ceiling by sunlight. Top: The governor’s residence of Hue was renovated to become the bou-tique hotel La Résidence. Above: Along China Beach lies the Nam Hai resort, where guests dip into personal infinity pools.

Left: A view of the countryside at the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, where numerous grottoes and caves, including the largest one in the world, helped secure its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003.

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“WALK AS IF YOU ARE KISSING THE EARTH WITH YOUR FEET.” —ZEN MASTER THICH NHAT HANH

you pointers on where to spend the rest of your evening.

“People from the center of Viet-nam are relat ively new to inter-national tourism,” says La Rési-dence’s Phan Trong Minh. “It’s all fresh to us, so we lack the jad-edness that naturally comes from long exposure to inter nat ional peoples. There is an earnestness to the people who work at my ho-tel. We feel this incredible respon-sibility to tell this city’s story to people who visit, and we know we only have a short time to make a deep impression.”

And speaking of deep impres-sions, did I mention I’ve got a guy who gives a mean haircut and face massage for just $2.50? There were no lotus petals st rewn about his porch and he didn’t offer me locally sourced lemongrass tea, but he did call me 007 when I left. And judg-ing by the line of local guys who had gathered behind me to get the same treatment, I’d say I got the authenticity I was looking for.

Left: Outside of Hue, in the demilitarized zone of Vietnam, a reunification monument stands on the edge of the Ben Hai River, which once marked the border between north and south Vietnam. Above: The Marble Mountains, located in Da Nang, are named for the five elements: metal, water, wood, fire, and earth.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT VIETNAM’S HIDDEN TREASURES ONLINE AT DUJOUR.COM