In 2020 we were up north, Halong Bay, for just a few days, and it was in February (still coldish), and except for the really cool karst (limestone ) islands off the coast, I didn’t care for it that much, and felt a bit odd there. Earlier this year, we landed in Ho Chi Minh city, and was there for a week, then hit a few smaller towns as we headed south, eventually getting to the island of Phu Quoc, where we stayed for a month.

Hoi An has a population of about 150,000, but except for the Old Town area, we haven’t seen many crowds. And the downtown is very charming! We are just a few miles from the beach, and the waterways inland feed countless people with seafood and shellfish. Walking through the markets there are distinct areas of specializations: the fruit and veggie markets; the chicken and meat markets, and the fish and seafood markets. And the merchants look just like you have seen on countless movies and shows, with the many (primarily) woman siting or kneeling on the ground, cutting their veggies or shellfish, or you name it, and walking by elicits lots of

No one is pushy, and everyone is truly kind and friendly.

We haven’t explored that much since the weather is pretty hot, but we have a nice room for the month with river and coconut trees views, and even though we’re 15 minutes from town, having a scooter makes it doable. Like most of Asia that we’ve visited so far (since November), the country’s transportation is driven by bikes, both manual and motor, and even though it’s not as hairy driving here as it was in Bali, it is still intimidating at times.

This area between here and Da Nang seems to be a popular target for expats, and we have met several from various nomad travel sites on Facebook, many who have been coming here for years, and lots of Australians, with a few Americans, too. We’ve been in Asia for seven months now, and initially we though this would be a one year stop, but that may be much longer