The Nam Hai

Hoi An

Vietnam stretches over 1,700 kilometers of Indochina along the China Sea. Its long S shaped silhouette is, for the more imaginative, in the form of a dragon. Vietnam is an idyllic image of Asia with its terraced rice field landscapes in lush, green mountains, inundated plains, surging rocks and tropical forests. Under Chinese domination until the first millennium A.D, the country enjoyed a long period of independence that ended in the 19^th century with French colonization. Invaded by the Japanese during World War II, then retaken by the French, it was split into two parts in 1954 after the French defeat and the proclamation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam by Ho Chi Minh.

Reunified in 1975, the country was rebuilt, modernized and opened up to the outside world. Its history and civilization, its diverse foreign influences and the different ethnic groups that make up the country give Vietnam a rich cultural heritage. This wealth can be found Hoi An, the only city to have escaped the ravages of war. Once a flourishing 16^th and 17^th century port, the city is a veritable museum of Vietnamese art and architecture of that era. Its lively streets, houses with colored facades characteristic of the 17^th century, tailors’ stalls, its market of a thousand flavors and its cafés and restaurants make it a very privileged tourist destination.

Vietnamese design

Not far from the city of Hoi An, on a long beach bordered by the China Sea, the villas of The Nam Hai are stretched throughout a huge lush garden scattered with small pools and basins. These luxurious and modern villas were built in a very pure style and are a design interpretation of Vietnamese architecture. Created by Reda Amalou, a French architect, they form a U surrounded by the common areas. The chic and sober rooms have high ceilings and different levels. In each room, there’s a platform in the center for the bed, surrounded by a steam mosquito net, a raised bathtub and a sofa. A few steps below, there’s a spacious living room opening onto the villa’s private garden and an outdoor shower with a rain shower head. The villas are isolated from one another by low walls, offering each guest a panoramic view of the sea and the Cham Islands. Most of the villas only have one bedroom and a swimming pool. Those however with private pools have up to five bedrooms. In the midst of these villas, five swimming pools on different levels flow all the way to the sea.

There are also two restaurants and a bar which are modern, chic and traditional at the same time. The marble for the floors come from a nearby quarry, and the tables are in lacquered eggshell white in the purest Vietnamese tradition.

An ultra trendy spa proposes treatments in two elegant pavilions surrounded by lotus pools, and a bit further away, there’s a villa reserved for sports activities. And for those who shun all physical activity, there’s the immense beach, bordered by coconut palms and covered in immaculate sand.

In Hoi An, some houses have a very special kind of roof. The placement of the tiles alternates between convex and concave in a “yin yang” style to protect the inhabitants from evil spirits. We find this symbol on the doors of the houses.