National Day -- thank you, Rishad, for texting a reminder. Blame it on the rough night we had at the Saigon Comfort Hotel. If it were not bad enough that the walls were made of paper, someone decided to carry out house repairs at 3.30 in the morning. I kid you not -- there was HAMMERING, which went on for the better part of an hour. I think it came from next door. Eventually I fell back asleep and dreamt that a post in tripadvisor.com warned of this very thing happening. "Someone was hammering next door in the middle of the night,"warned a hotel guest in October last year. "Don't stay here." In my dream I concluded the hotel must be haunted but I do resolve never to stay here again. J and I grabbed a quick toastie and coffee at the cafe next door (in the middle of our sandwich we realised that this place must have been the source of the banging but it was too late to unorder...), threw our things together and flagged down a taxi to the airport. It wasn't early but the late night shenanigans put paid to our plans of visiting Ben Thanh market. Next time, IF I ever come back to HCMC. The roads seem even more insane this morning than yesterday. At least it's drizzling....

Our flight to Danang left at 12.30. A car from Thanh Xuan Hotel was waiting for us. We drove past lovely beaches (China and Non Nuoc) and the very unimpressive Marble Mountains; it was blazing hot and we were starving. Arriving at our hotel in Hoi An, we checked in, had a minor spat with them about the price (they had quoted me USD22 and were trying to charge us $25 instead -- two out of two!!!) by which time we were bad tempered with each other. It didn't help that we got lost finding our way to the Old Town, and walked 15 mins longer than necessary on unhappy stomachs but we managed to find Restaurant 96 at last on the riverside. It was atmospheric enough and the cao lau and fried wantons were tasty enough to make us feel better. Texted Mo and Mariko, who found us eventually. Mo refused to eat or drink anything made in the place out of fear of getting sick but she did pick at Mariko's wantons. The black and white house cat was very friendly, and made itself very free with my lap. She was a doll.

At 5 it got less hot and we decided to wander around the Old Town briefly before dinner. The centuries-old shophouses are beautiful, and I love how everything is grey stone or painted in ochre but it felt that 90 per cent of the shops were tourist shops. We are ruining everything, though J pointed out that Hoi An's old town may not exist if it were not for the tourists. Posed for pictures like good ones, then it got dark and we waited for the Weitz-Waltons to arrive from their beach hotel. They did, looking lovely and familiar, with the Bond sisters and we had dinner on the roof of the Cargo Club. Fried camembert, mango salad, and grilled chicken on lime leaf, with two bottles of wine. All good and it cost the princely sum of USD10 per head. Udo paid.

They headedback to their hotel (the shuttle bus left early) while J and I had crepes for dessert with the 2Ms in the garden of Tam Tam Cafe. It's all charming -- I wonder what this town was like in the old days. J and I walked back to our hotel and drank in the quiet dark streets, lit only with lanterns and lights from the houses, with all the honking stopped.