MAY 2023 · ESCAPE

Hoi-an nights, Vietnam

Hoi An Ancient Town, Vietnam

The Thu Bon River at night is a mirror for thousands of lanterns. The ornate boats moored along the waterfront are decorated with red and orange lanterns that reflect in the dark water. People release paper lanterns from the bank and they drift outward. The glowing yellow lanterns suspended from trees above the waterfront seating areas cast an even light.

Ornate boats decorated with red and orange lanterns reflected in dark river water — The Thu Bon waterfront at night

— Night market

The night market runs parallel to all this. A vendor cart under a streetlamp at the edge of the lantern-lit town. A food vendor at a night stall with baskets, the lantern glow blurred behind. A street vendor preparing drinks under hanging lanterns. The commerce doesn't stop when the decorative illumination begins.

The lanterns are the spectacle and the backdrop simultaneously.
Hoi An Ancient Town — May 2023

Street vendor on bicycle with cargo parked under storefront at night — Commerce running alongside the spectacle

— Street logistics

On the wider streets: a scooter passing a colonial building, the motion blurred at a slow shutter. Two people on a motorbike riding through at speed. A bicycle with cargo parked under a storefront at night, the rider gone. These are the same logistics as the daytime hours, the same city operating.

Food vendor at night stall with baskets and glowing lanterns blurred behind — Night stall, lantern glow behind

Street vendor preparing drinks under hanging lanterns in night market — Preparing drinks beneath the lanterns

— Off the main drag

Red and orange lanterns are strung across a wooden roof structure somewhere off the main street. In one of the alleys, an artist works at Vietnamese calligraphy by lantern light, the display of artwork visible around him.

Artist painting Vietnamese calligraphy with lantern display and artwork visible — Calligraphy by lantern light

— Still moving

The town at night is denser visually than during the day — everything more saturated, the distances collapsed by the light sources, the yellow buildings holding the glow. But the vendor stalls are still operating, the bicycles still moving, the food still being prepared. The lanterns are the spectacle and the backdrop simultaneously.