Hoi An

Friday, December 4

Hoi An is a friendly small town that depends greatly on tourists. But the locals are quite laid back in that they are not persistent and nagging you to buy something or come to their shop or restaurant. They ask once and then stop...unusual for Asia....or anywhere I guess. They smile easily and seem to genuinely welcome you to their town. It's very walkable.

The weather since I got to Vietnam has been a welcome break from the oppressive humidity in Indonesia. In fact my guide has been "old" since we started...but temps have been in the high 60's to low 80's. It has been cloudy with periods of light rain. Rain is unusual here at this time of the year. However they had a severe typhoon here 2 months ago that resulted in bad flooding.

Yesterday we looked at a 17th century Chinese Temple in town that was very nice.

Attended a music and dance performance:

Fish in a fountain pool at the Chinese Temple:

Today we drove out of town about 40km to visit a small complex of 9th century Champa Temples. These were severely damaged on 1968 by US bombs.

The Champa had an extensive civilization in southern Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in the 8th to the 13 th centuries.

It was very lush and green in this area, indicating that today's rain must not be too unusual

Tomorrow we will fly another 300 miles down the coast to Nha Trang which is a well developed Resort and Beach Town mostly for the Vietnamese.