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We had a good bus journey to Hoi An on what they call a tourist bus as the local buses don't run here. Hoi An was once a busy trading town due to ships passing through but a nearby river silted up in the late 19th century and now it is a popular place for tourists as so much of the old town is still as it was a over 100 years ago.
We arrived late afternoon so we booked in at a guesthouse and went for some food and beer next to the river. The buildings are very pretty and the people were very welcoming. The roads through the oldest part of town are blocked to motorbikes and cars so it was very nice to be able to walk the streets without worrying about traffic! We had a lovely meal on a rooftop restaurant - tuna and red snapper cooked in banana leaf, the fish was so fresh, we both really enjoyed it.
The next day we hired bikes and went 3k to a beach called An Bang, the sea is so clear here and the beach was gorgeous. We saw some round boats made from bamboo and enjoyed watching a fisherman come to shore in one, we've not seen boats like that before! We hadn't had a "beer hoi" day for a while so we found a nice place in town and got merry watching the olympics - 6 medals in one day, think they called it "super saturday"???!!!
On the following morning we treated ourselves to what the guidebook promised would be the best breakfast in the country - certainly hit the spot and not bad for 2.50. We then went on a walking tour of the old town where there are houses built by chinese merchants that are over 200 hundred years old, they are still lived in by relatives of the people that built them and for a small fee you can walk around. It was a lot like walking through Shakespeares house in Stratford, similar building etc. There's a "japanese covered bridge" first constructed in 1519 with a little worship room inside and we went to 2 assembly halls - see pics. The rest of the day was spent chilling as Gem got a little burnt on the beach the day before so needed to let the sunburn settle!
On our last day in Hoi An we booked a half day trip to a place called My Son, the site of Vietnam's most extensive Cham ruins. It was quite a walk to the top and we wondered how the people that built it managed to find the location let alone cart all the stone through the jungle. It is set amongst streams and Cat Tooth's mountain is in the background, if it hadn't been bombed so much it would have been absolutely breathtaking but it was still a wonder to see. Only certain areas are open to the public as they are conserving some of the old temples but we hope the pictures look good as it was very pretty.
Just before we were due to get the bus to My Son the owner of our guesthouse explained that she thought we were leaving that day and she had no more room left so we decided to book our first night bus to our next destination, Nah Trang. We spent the afternoon after My Son taking some last pictures of beautiful Hoi An and our bus arrived at 6.30pm....
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