Hoi An.

After leaving Cat Ba town ( holy crap, that was months ago, wasn't it? ) our intent was to head down the Vietnam coast about half way to Hue. There is little on the coast between Halong Bay and Hue for tourists to see or do, so we gritted our teeth and travelled 21 hours by bus, boat, bus, bus, sleeper (not) bus to Hue. When we go to Hue, we discovered that the beach in Hue is 17 km from where the hotels are and it was raining and cool in Hue. We had a conference and voted "screw that", and added train and van, along with 4 hrs to our trip, and kept going to Hoi An. 

Hoi An is one of Vietnam's most prosperous towns based largely on it's tourist trade. Once a major port, Hoi An's fortunes turned when the Thu Bon River silted up in the 19h century, preventing ocean going vessels from using the port. For most of the 20th century Hoi An's allure diminished until the current boom in tourism. Most of the warehouses, merchant's homes and temples survived Hoi An's economic down turn and the old town area of Hoi An today retains the narrow alleyways and hundreds of years old wood facades on most buildings. The tourist boom has resulted in the rapid construction of resort hotels and associated infrastructure between old town on the river and the seaside (about 4 km). Hoi An, however, is on the Thu Bon delta and the many large islands in the river off Hoi An maintain an ages old agrarian way of life. (First time for either Kim or I seeing a field being tilled using a water buffalo.)

Our first full day in Hoi An was overcast, so after a sleep-in for Kim and breakfast, we rented bikes and took the ferry to Cam Kim island, just off Hoi An. Quite a large island,  it is entirely given over to agriculture, largely rice. Only small areas of high ground are developed for housing and the roadways connecting these areas are 4' wide concrete paths. Again, the folks we met there are very friendly. Our intent was to ride for a couple of hours, have lunch, ride a while longer and head back to the ferry. Instead, we got horribly lost spent way too much time and effort getting found, and headed back to the ferry and lunch in town. Our valentine fun was a cooking course where we prepared a six course Vietnamese meal and ate it, along with (finally) some nice wine.

Day two we again rented bikes and spent the afternoon lying on the beach. Not that warm and the water was cold, but nice.

As I write we are on our way to Quy Nhon by train.