Hoi An, custom stuff made to order

Here I am in Hoi An, sitting back and relaxing. A mere 3 hours away by bus from Hue, I'd heard stuff from other backpackers that Hoi An had a lot to offer. And rightly so; designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Hoi An should offer tons of stuff to do, yes? At least, more than Hue which was a waste of time. I didn't bother to read up all that much on Hoi An before arriving; I've found that my Lonely Planet Guidebook is really not reliable, and I preferred to go and ask around instead. So it was another sleeper bus ride, and I arrived in Hoi An before noon.

I went hunting for a budget hotel; of course I had people pestering me all the way for a ride, or a place to stay, and even though I did need help I said no out of principle. I found a place easy enough on my own, it was a bit seedy-looking but adequate. I spent the rest of the day walking around the streets, looking around to see what's up in Hoi An.

Here's the street my place is at, directly opposite a more well-known(and more expensive) hotel. You get a sense of old-school architecture from all the buildings here.

One of the entrances to the Old Town, closed off to motorists. Most of the attractions are to be found here.

Lots of shops, restaurants, cafes to be found all over.

Hoi An is also known for its custom shopping experience. Besides the usual trinkets you find all over the place, there are lots of leather specialty shops with leather shoes, bags, jackets, whatever, and you can go to any number of shops and have suits or silk clothing professionally taylored to you. Good stuff too, it all looks very sharp.

I picked up a leather duffel bag for myself; it's big, I hope it won't be too much trouble carrying it around Asia.

At night, lanterns are lit and hung throughtout the streets and it looks like a lantern festival every night.

One of the many attractions in Hoi An, the Assembly Hall of the Fujian Chinese Congregation.

Individually each attraction is really small, you could see them and leave in 10 minutes, but if you want to see all of them it would take days(something like 30 attractions in total).

Photo off the side.

From the Museum of Trading Ceramics, with pottery dating back 200 years or so.

The Hoi An central market. One thing I hate about markets, you get people badgering you every minute to come buy something from their stall, but you got to put up with it to pick out some good stuff.

Like this. This was lunch, and it cost me 1$. 1$! That's the best deal I've seen anywhere.

Tan Ky House I think this was? I visited too many sites to keep track.

Prayer shrine in the center.

Pardon the blurryness, my camera kinda sucks.

The lanterms make for a nice romantic effect.

View of the strip along the river.

Nice to see a street not tottaly filled with motorcycles!

I like it here in Hoi An; it's got some nice charm to it. But I think it's time to move on, I've already spent a few days here and got myself a nice leather bag, I'm done. But where to go? I'll figure that out later. Maybe Mui Ne, with its famous beaches and such?