Today was a rest day and we did lots of resting and reading, partly because Bernie had picked up a mild stomach bug and partly because we did not get that excited about Hoi An. we spent several hours wandering its old streets and did a little shopping, but did not do much else.  

Hoi An is a trading city where there has been Chinese and Japanese communities for hundreds of years, with old wooden merchant’s houses scattered through the old town. These are lovely to look at from the outside but that is about the best views of these buildings.

Others have raved about Hoi An and we can see why as the network of tiny streets of the old town is on the river frontage and is car free (but not motorbike free). But it felt a touch too perfect and too clean to be genuine to us.  It is set up for tourists with numerous gift shops, tailors and restaurants, and there are groups of visitors everywhere.  Hoi An is famous for clothes and it would be a great place to refresh one’s work wardrobe – but not if everything has to be carried on the back of a bike (as well as the fact that we are trying to give up work).  I can just say that we reacted with mild irritation at being in a place where tourists seemed to outnumber locals and overall it felt like a Disneyfication of old Vietnam.