Hoi An - December 12th

Today is another day off from the bikes.  Instead our guide gives us a walking tour of the town of Hoi An.  This is a nice change, but it isn’t really practical as his voice is not the loudest so all 18 of us can’t really hear him.  However from the looks of it the pricing system involved in the tickets to get into the town and its buildings is so complex that we do need a guide.

The town is an old trading town from 100s of years ago so there are a lot of external influences, mostly Japanese and Chinese, but with all the major European powers having stuck their noses in at some time.  We get to see some temples and old houses, a few workshops and museums, and the famous old Japanese bridge in the centre of town.  Each of these sites doubles as an opportunity to sell junk to tourists, and the amount being bought by our tour group slows us down.  And if that was not enough the tour finishes with a trip through the local market.  Although the nice restaurant where we eat the local speciality cao lau is a good finish.

After lunch we are free to do our own thing, so 7 of us head off to the ruins of My Son, which are located about 50km away.  These are described as a mini-Angkor, but this is hardly fair, these are nowhere near as extensive.  They have also been really badly damaged by the war so these are far more ruined.  Still as an alternative type of site (and our second UNESCO site today, the town was also one) it was a good trip.  The funny thing was as we were driving to My Son part of me kept thinking we should be cycling.

In the evening we go shopping.  This is a major shopping town, and as our trip is coming to an end we take the opportunity to get all the various presents we need.  After that we go to another of the restaurants we have found on TripAdvisor that are both good and which support local kids.  This one has been doing Jamie’s Kitchen for years, training street kids in catering, and they do a good job as our set menu of local delicacies is amazing.