Hoi An the Atlantis of tomorrow

The train to Da Nang was a different experience to before, we shared our sleeping cabin with a small family and toward the end of the carriage a group of Vietnamese men were all drinking, celebrating their journey home for Tet no doubt.. Arriving mid-afternoon we got a fairly priced taxi into Hoi An - including a brief stop outside the tailoring shop of the drivers wife - and got settled into our room. We headed into the old town Minh An soon after and taking a stroll through the market got an idea of the wares available and the selling tactics employed. A not too bad lunch was washed down with the first of many very cheap beers, and followed by a walk round the main street of town, crossing the Japanese bridge and checking out more shops just over the river on the An Hoi islet. That evening we visited White Lotus for dinner, a training restaurant intended on providing staff with skills and languages - I tried out the local dish White Rose which was pretty damn good.. Prawn in a tortellini style rice pasta with tomato and maybe dry onion..
Next day we set off into town, eventual aim being to meet up with Jody and Dave who had been travelling round about a month ahead of us though entering Vietnam at opposite ends we set to cross paths here. A bit more shopping and cheap beer, no sign.. Organising to meet near our hotel we waited at different bridges, then just as we were giving up to go and have dinner I spotted them in a cafe so we ate there and just so happened they'd met the owner hailing from Whitstable, his partner and her brother from Faversham, then just as it seemed funny to have so many Brits a group of 6 more from the same areas turned up, having known the others from school. So that was certainly a fun lil night, ending late in a bar playing pool.
We met again next day and took a boat trip on the river just round one of the small islands, even paddling ourselves a bit, we then spent a few hours lolling around town, eating, drinking - and the same the next day, with the addition of a Slovakian we'd met in Hue. The next day was travelling time again, down to Saigon / Ho Chi Minh city by train so we booked that all up and left the guys to get our bags sorted.
Hoi An was a really pretty little place to visit, the Old Town only allows bikes and mopeds entry, even then that can be limited during full moons - nothing to do with werewolves and the like - overall making it a much calmer atmosphere. The mustard yellow buildings all have a certain worn, untendered but pretty look, the wooden beams carved to allow wooden plank shop-shutters to be slotted in at closing time. Since the area floods every year there is a bit of a damp problem in places but unless you realised you may not notice - though the markings on some restaurant walls would more than likely give it away. The water comes up into the streets and well into the first floor, atleast a good 2 or so metres above river bank level.. Glad we weren't subject to it. Since Tet, the lunar new year was on its way there were plenty of premises sporting extra decoration, the town is normally lit with bamboo lanterns of all shapes and sizes making a really pretty setting on the river front and in the backstreets. People had incense and stacks of red-gold paper 'votives' burning for luck and good spirits, plus rice and some coloured pellets thrown into the street while kumquat trees and yellow flowered plants and bushes were sold in numbers along main streets and corners. At this time you throw out all your old clothes and buy anew, which would appeal to some people I know i'm sure of it..!
So time to leave, we had some more food and set off for the train - our longest journey yet.