Sunday 15 December
I had booked on the Free Hoi
an bicycle tour of Cam Kim island. I peddled off and found what I thought was
the address but with noone there. I hunted around and eventually asked at a
café, where it was pointed out I was in the wrong street. Luckily the group –
three guides and two Germans plus me as punters – were still there. We went off
to the ferry to the Island and had an interesting tour of the boat builders,
wood carvers, mat makers, noodle makers and a family temple. It was very
helpful having these guides who seemed a cut above the regular tour guides. The
Germans were also knowledgeable, one of them being Hong Kong Chinese. We ended
up with a light lunch before heading back
to a brilliant, off the tourist trail, café on the mainland.
After the tour, I peddled back to catch up with the depressing
cricket score before going out again and doing my final sites on the book of 5
admission tickets I’d bought the day before. One place I visited was the Duc An
house which was very interesting as the family were still living there. Their
ancestor - Cao Hong Lanh - was high up
in the Communist party and there were photos of him from the 1950s and 60s
including with Ho Chi Min. Before him, in the 1920s the house had been used as
a meeting place for anti-French intellectuals. 
That evening I went back to
the vegetarian restaurant of the first night and then to the trendy café of the
afternoon. It went dead by 10.00. Hoi An seems to be an early to bed; early to
rise sort of place.
Maybe because they are doing
very well, but there is no pressure from the tailors’ shops at all. They aren’t
leaping out and trying to inveigle one in to be measured up. Overall, Hoi An is
a much more relaxing experience than Hue
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