It was a groggy morning getting out at 6 am in Hoi An and even with a map, I managed to walk 4 km out of the city. You get to a point where you don't trust the motorbike taxis telling where you need to go, since most of the time they tell you its 10km instead of 2km so you agree to their fare.. so being stubborn I (and a poor guy who was following me since i had a map) continued to walk down a small highway.. until the cars were even pulling over to tell us to turn around and we realized we were surrounded by rice fields as far as the eye could see. Beautiful ...but obviously, the wrong direction. When we actually got into town after hitching a ride back... I saw what all the fuss was about. Hoi An was beautiful, especially the old town. It did feel more like you were in Europe, maybe Italy or France, but definitely not Asia... except for the fact you could get 20 cent draft beers at riverfront restaurants. The entire town is filled with bakeries, bistros and tailor shops (apparently the best and cheapest place in the world to get suits made...some people fly to Hoi An just for that..). Once again, because it was so beautiful, it was ruining it at the same time. Walking through old town during the day felt like you were in an amusement park, full of tour groups and vendors... There were lots of historic sites within the town, old teak houses, the Japanese bridge and my favourite, the Chinese assembly hall. Tra Que village was an adorable fishing and garden village which was a nice retreat from the busy streets and on the way to An Bahn beach just 5km away ( cover pic). The food here was an experience for me on its own. I had my first Vietnamese spring roll, Cao Lao ( a local specialty soup noodle thing with corn chips), and Banh Xeo (Vietnamese rice pancake), and for once in a long time, tofu was everywhere! I also made a day trip out to Marble Mountain, a network of limestone caves and pagodas that were used for shelter and worshiping during the war. Definitely an impressive place with great viewpoints overlooking China beach and Danang. China beach was also great, stretched out and deserted...just that pesky deadly undertow was something to watch out for.