It's our ninth and last night in the Ancient House Village Resort and Spa on the outskirts of the charming City of Hoi An. Our days here have developed a comfortable routine - a leisurely breakfast followed by sunbathing or sightseeing, a light lunch and in the evening a stroll around town and supper. The resort is three kilometres from the town centre, but the management lays on a regular minibus to whisk us to and fro.
The town is dismissed by some reviewers as very touristy and unlike the "real" Vietnam, whatever that is. But usually places are popular with tourists for a reason and Hoi An is a very beautiful place, close to the beaches of the South China Sea and bisected by a wide river. The old town centre is a collection of ancient two-story wooden shop-houses blackened by decades of varnish or lacquer, with small temples dotted here and there.
In the evening the place is full of tourists from all over the world of all shapes, sizes and races, walking and browsing, sweating and smiling, stressed and angry, happy and relaxed. Most of the locals are out to make a buck or two, but are laid back rather than desperate. We've wandered around the place for most of the last nine evenings and still haven't run out of things to look at.
Usually at 9.15pm we catch the early minibus back to the resort and go to bed early, ready for another punishing day.
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