Hoi An mighty

Excuse the terrible pun in the title. Hoi An is a small town in central Vietnam, just south of Danang (where US Marines first landed in what is known as the American War in these parts). This part of Vietnam (Danang and Hoi An, at least) seems much more affluent than the north, and Hoi An in particular must get a lot of tourist dollar. The Old Town is lovingly restored to look architecturally a bit like what it might have looked like hundreds of years ago. Hoi An's been a trading centre for a long time - excavations have found Roman and Persian bits and bobs here, presumably having been traded all along the Spice Road or whatever it would have been called back then. Nowadays the main trading that takes place is tourists buying tailor-made clothing for cheap prices. I contemplated getting a shirt or two made but decided against it as the fabric was insufficiently flamboyant for my needs. I've got enough charity shop dead men's shirts that I don't need any more tasteful vertical stripes at present. Mind you, I could do with more shirts on this trip - I idiotically packed a pale blue number that will not see much active service as it immediately turns dark blue in contact with sweat. Reminiscent of those global hypercolour t-shirts that were inexplicably popular for a bit in the late 80s or early 90s. The shirt is thus unusable unless I want to look even more of a big sweaty white man than I currently do (I don't want to).

Anyway, back to Hoi An. During the day it's a sun-baked sweathole with a few westerners strolling around in the blazing heat, strolling from shade to shade and trying to ignore the constant call of tailors and tat merchants from shops all around. During the evening, though, it's lovely, with paper lanterns lit all along the river (the small islet the other side of which is called, confusingly, An Hoi), and beer available at riverside for 4,000 dong a glass, or approximately 12p. The local food's nice, too, particularly if you get it from a riverside hut with plastic chairs (also nice from a tourist trap place with proper air conditioning). Despite all of this pleasantness, however, the reality is that there's bugger all to do here if you don't want to be measured for a suit, and so we're off on a night bus tonight, heading for beach town Nha Trang. In this heat the beach should be just the ticket.