This ancient yet graceful town is delightful. Once a major port, it boasts the grand architecture and beguiling riverside setting that befits its heritage, with little-to-none of the 21st century curses of traffic and pollution. It's bursting with gourmet Vietnamese restaurants -- although we'd more than recommend Bale Well, a very reasonably priced local place (down a little alley near the famous well) that serves only one dish of barbecued pork skewers and fried spring rolls, which you then combine with fresh greens to create your own fresh spring rolls -- hip cafe's and bars, quirky boutiques and expert tailors. This all amounts to Hoi An being ultra touristy, and yet, not enough to overwhelm the city's natural charms.

The warren-like lanes of the old town are best explored after dark; although you can only tour the inside of the temples and pagodas during the unbelievable heat of the day, at night the streets are closed to motorbikes, and the lanes and riverside become a fairyland of Chinese and floating lanterns.

One cafe did stand out for us though. Quite litterally, with it's more fluorescent lanterns, of pinks, blues and yellows -- rather than the more traditional and muted (yet rich) golds, reds, and greens. It was a new pick'n mix ice cream parlour. The name says it all really: you take your little tub and help yourself the 50 different flavours and countless toppings.

Shopping

The tailor scene in Hoi An is out of control. The estimate number of tailors working here is in the hundreds. The rule of thumb seems to be that while you should bargain and be comfortable with the price, you get what you pay for. But still, it is hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. We managed to get a recommendation for a place called Ba Re (from an Aussie tour guide we got chatting to over lunch) which worked out to be a reasonably priced shop, run by a really lovely women who produced some decent quality stuff. I had a couple of Ao dai made (the local Vietnamese dress) -- although not quite sure when I am going to wear them -- and David got some shirts and some amazing boots made especially for LRP... typical!!

Cham Islands

A breathtaking cluster of granite islands, around 15km directly offshore from Hoi An -- you might as well pay for a speed boat to take you there, as the 'local' boat has become a complete tourist scam -- the serene scene of Cham Islands are blissfully undeveloped.

...Well, blissful until you find yourself walking round the coast, in the blistering heat, for 6km -- rather than the promised 2km -- tring to find the promised beach ...which was helfulling not signposted. The beach (finally found) that should be home to Cham restaurant -- provider of food, drink, a tent and a warm fire for the night -- but we found the restaurant was helpfully closed. So, no water (we drank it on the 6km walk); no food apart from the peanut butter sandwiches we brought for our lunch, five cheesy crackers and some mints; no fire, or matches to start a fire; and no way off the island until the morning...what were we to do?

Survive. Lol. We saved our lunch for dinner (when we'd be the hungriest); we trekked back up the hill, following the waterfall which David would not let me drink (do you know how hard it is to refrain from drinking beautifully cold -- yet possibly deadly -- water as you splash it over your face to cool down?) in search of a local who would sell us something to drink...we finally found some, but didn't buy quite enough so ended up having to ration it come nightfall; and finally found a man the other end of the beach who rented us a tent...but sadly he disappeared before we could ask him to make us a fire.

On the upside, it was a beautifully deserted beach; save for the few fisherwomen off the coast in their little round straw boat. Incredibly romantic really.