Hoi An - Vietnam at its finest

So far everything has been pretty manic, shooting from one city to another, and several sleeper trains on the way. So for the first time we've stopped for a few days, and where better than in Hoi An. It's a lovely, quiet-ish town of 90,000 people (apparently), and although it's clearly grown over the last few years as tourism has started to take off in Vietnam it's still a really great and friendly town. It'll be a real shame to go tomorrow but we're heading further south, to the beaches of Nha Trang and maybe Mu Nie before we heading to HCMC (Saigon) and then into Cambodia.
We've been here a few days but before here we got the night trian back from Sapa to Hanoi and then flew to Hue. Sapa was great but the weather just didn't play ball. We'd loved to have climbed Fansipan (higgest mountain in Vietnam, about 2,800m I think) but we were even dissuaded from doing a two day trek due to the rain. First time anyone in Vietnam has not tried to sell us something! Lucky we didn't stay really - apparently the first monsoon rains of the season have just hit! We only had a few hours in Hanoi before the 1 hour flight to Hue. We're doing several long (overnight) trains and buses but it was so cheap to fly we thought what the hell. Not very eco-friendly but there you go! Hue was OK, nice enough city and pretty relaxed but beyond an old citadel not much to recommend it. One regret is not seeing much evidence of the Vietnam War, which we could have done from there, but we didn't fancy 12 hours in a coach in this heat, occasionally looking at the old hill or remains of a fort.
So we got the bus down to Hoi An and it's been great - cheap but decent hotel, great people, lovely food... Rachel has done loads of shopping as this is THE place to get tailor-made clothes - she's got dresses, coats, bags, shoes, and I got a pair of sandals! We've been to the beach today - we went the other day too but as soon as we did there was a proper torrential downpour! We've also done a cookery course and generally relaxed, eaten well and taken it all in. So we're off tomorrow on the night bus, but I would definitely recommend a visit to anyone!

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